Loaches Online Forum

I was wondering what are good things to feed to my kuhlies that my Yoyo and zebra can eat as well. The botias never eat right away when I feed, but the kuhlies always attack the loach pellets and algae wafers as soon as they can sniff them out. The problem is that they are too hard for them to eat right away but they are attacking it like they are starving. What should I do.

I have tried about three brands of shrimp pellets and my favorite is Aquariun (in the blue bag) because they take so long to get soft, but aren't too hard.

Wardleys in the orange lid get soft very fast. And the Omega One orange and black with a black lid, are very hard.

My fish like them all, but the Aquarian is the happy medium between too hard and too soft. I feed my fast eaters first so they don't snag the Kuhlie food. My Kuhlies also sift flake from the sand.

I like the ingredients in the Omega One pellets.
If you want them softer you would have to pre-soak them.

I feed such a wide range of food that in any one meal some fish make pigs of themselves, while others miss out. Next meal might be the other way around.

Feed at different times of the day can help, too.

I am afraid the other answer is to separate the fish that cannot compete to a different tank. (This is one reason I have so many tanks: One species of Loach in any one tank- about half the tanks have Loaches)

Kuhlies are in tanks without other bottom feeders, so when I drop pellets in there is no competition, and the Kuhlies can work on the pellets at their leisure.

I make a special food blend for my kuhli's and other small fish. I grind up pellets, wafers, and flake until it's almost a powder, then I put it in a spare fish food container where it should last for a few months.

A few times a day I throw just a small bit of this food into the tanks, and it takes the small fish and critters several hours to clean it all up.

Think I will try that...thnx for the idea, chefkeith

That sounds good! What type of veggies do they like to eat?