Tiger barbs.. Gulp! Advice and comments appreciated

[BAINBRIDGE]

Update:

Tiger barbs went in yesterday, obviously very early days but all quiet so far. They're not hiding, but swimming around in the middle with occasional excursions to the periphery.

I need to suss out a feeding routine to ensure that the bottom dwellers don't miss out. Yesterday during lights on I put in half a cube of Cyclops to occupy the tigers, which worked up until I put in a pinch of bug bites. The tigers promptly abandoned the cyclops, chased the bugbites to the bottom and cleared out the easy pickings! They then moved back up to mid level to resume eating cyclops, leaving the bottom dwellers to clear the remaining bugbites from crevices.

Today I put in a pinch of flake and the tigers zoomed around devouring it, with barely any reaching the bottom. After lights out (in a minute) I'll put a pinch of bug bites in, in the hope that the tigers eyes won't pick out the food, enabling the Corys to snaffle around and find it.

I hope this works!

[black ghost]

They’ll smell it…

[plankton]

Turkey baster to get food straight to the bottom. Mind you, they'll probably still rush to it, little greedies that they are.

[BAINBRIDGE]

When I went down after lights out to add some sinking bug bites, the tigers had split up and were nearly motionless. I think they were dozing off. This morning at lights on the tigers were definitely asleep, and all the food was gone, but I don't know how much the bottom dwellers managed to eat.

[Staffylover]

Couple of suggestions that work for me from keeping various barbs and other active fish,
With bug bites I put some in at one side, straight away once they are distracted I put some in at the other end but these I throw at the water with a bit of force which means they sink straight away rather than floating at the surface, also you can crumble bug bites up for a more even spread.
You could try a sinking tablet, I like Hikari sinking wafers, the barbs will pick these up and argue over them but they can't be eaten all at once and bits will break off which the cory will find, also while the barbs are chasing around after 1 that has a wafer there will be other wafers that make it to the bottom, this depends how many Cory you have as it's easy to over feed, if your Cory do not look thin they are likely getting enough.
I always feed just before lights out but I'm not sure it really makes that much difference; none of my fish seem to struggle in the dark.

[BAINBRIDGE]

@Staffylover

Thanks for sharing your experience. Great idea about distracting them, if I can get a decent amount to the bottom at lights out before the barbs notice I think the Corys have a good chance of getting a decent meal. I'll certainly keep an eye on their size too and get some of those wafers.

[black ghost]

It would be better really to try to get the Corys fed during the day, since they prefer to sleep at night.

[John Linklater]

Have a similar problem with zebra danio and serpae tetra. Both busy eaters while the cory’s were struggling to get food. You could try a few different foods and see which the barbs like best then add 2 different foods at the same time.

[BAINBRIDGE]

@John Linklater

Good idea, I could do an experiment with food samples to try and get a combination, plus I could then feed the corys during lights on.

[BAINBRIDGE]

Update:

The tigers are doing well, everyone looks healthy and no damaged fins on the Corys.

Apart from the tigers regularly nipping each other and presumably maintaining their pecking order, I did see two males have a proper fight. They started sidling up to each other but then turned inward, locked jaws and had a tug of war. It looked quite vicious but luckily no injuries.

So the aggression of the tigers appears to be spread among the tigers themselves, which was the plan. The Corys are behaving normally and are snaffling around as usual.

Fingers crossed things stay fairly peaceful