how do you feed barbs

gagaliya

gagaliya

GNOME POWER!
Nov 20, 2005
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NJ
www.happyreward.com
hello, all of my barbs (tiger and gold) hang at the bottom half of the tank and refuse to come to the top no matter what. All of my food floats on the water surface, so nothing gets eaten. I tried sinking wafers, but those food are so huge and often times get stuck in my dense plants when the barbs all trying to suck on them. Is there:

1) mico sized pellets that will sink instead of float on top

or

2) a way to get the barbs to come to the water surface to feed

thanks
 
How many barbs of each kind do you have? How big of a tank do you have? and Last, what are your water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)?

I have tiger barbs and they attack anything that comes into the tank to eat, including my fingers. I can't test my water without them trying to eat the test tube and my hand! :) You are not seeing normal tiger barb behavior at all. They are usually mid to top dwellers and thrive in a school of at least 5, but more is better (I have 9) if you have a large enough tank.
 
My neons won't come to the top for food, but they still eat. Flaked food will start to sink after about 30s to a minute of being in your tank.
 
I agree... My barbs would push everyone else out of the way to get to the food. They were food hogs and I had to make sure the other fish got enough food. Check you water...
 
joylynn said:
How many barbs of each kind do you have? How big of a tank do you have? and Last, what are your water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)?

I have tiger barbs and they attack anything that comes into the tank to eat, including my fingers. I can't test my water without them trying to eat the test tube and my hand! :) You are not seeing normal tiger barb behavior at all. They are usually mid to top dwellers and thrive in a school of at least 5, but more is better (I have 9) if you have a large enough tank.
Click to expand...

my tank is 50 gallon (36x15x20), i have 10 tiger barb 10 gold barb. The gold barbs hang strictly at the bottom of the tank, tiger wanders between bottom and mid. No issue with water params as the tank is fully planted and i do weekly change. 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 10-20 nitrate ph 6.8-7.0 (night-day) kh 5

both barbs school beautifully with their own kind. And no signs of stress (i go the fish 2 days ago). but they just refuse to come to the top of the tank! even when really hungry(i can tell because if i manually sink some food they go nuts trying to eat it).
 
That is strange because I have an all barb tank and they remind me of goldfish at feeding time. My tigers usually fight with the Rosies for the food and the gold barbs also come racing to the top. What you can do is feed them once a day at a certain time and set up some sort of routine (like turning off the filter or something like that) that the fish will recognize as feeding time. Your barbs are probably still a bit shy.
 
rrkss said:
The dwelling at the bottom is normal behavior. All of my barbs populate the bottom and middle of the tank. The only time I see them at the top is during feeding time.
Click to expand...

just need a way for them to come to top during feeding time. hmm i do have the eheim autofeeder(one of the few that actually works good) i can setup for consistency. But the problem right now is they just dont come to top so all the food just floats there, should i just keep doing that and let the food float around until they decide to become smart and go up?
 
I can get my bottom feeders to eat flakes by putting a pinch of them in my hand, and releasing the flakes near the bottom. That way, the flakes get waterlogged and start sinking or drifting around (a few make it back to the top) immediately. They also "dance" with the flow, so it's almost as enticing as live food.

Another suggestion is to use frozen food. Thaw it first by adding some water from the tank. Most of that stuff will fall to the bottom as soon as you put it in the tank. My guys can't resist frozen brine shrimp and glassworms. (I don't have your species of barbs, but I have a penchant for bottom feeders in general.)
 
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