kuhli feeding frenzy

I haven't made a new feeding station for the kuhlis yet, instead went back to other strategies. If I am feeding flakes crush a small pinch into fine particles sprinkled on surface for the barbs, once they are all focused on that I submerge my hand with a second small pinch opposite end of the tank and release it lower in the water, so a good amount can reach the substrate where the kuhlis scurry for it, before too many barbs notice. If I drop in an algae wafer half, that takes several hours for the fishes and kuhlis to pick it apart, none of them can hog it. They also get fed crushed snails once a week now, the kuhlis always manage to get their share of that too. So the only food they are really excluded from reaching are the flies (occasional treats) and freeze-dried bloodworms, which float and get gobbled up fast.

And then there's the shrimp pellets. These sink, but after a few nibbles are off, one of the bigger barbs can grab and run away with it even though its still way too big to be swallowed. I've gone back to feeding these under the rock when I want to target the kuhlis. (They remember this- once when I put a shrimp pellet in the kuhli feeding station, several of them smelled the food and scrambled over to look under the rock). I still find it hilarious to watch them all trying to shove their bodies in there

and see their faces crammed together

four kuhlis under the rock!

The striped ones are getting their share, and I think all these changes in feeding practices to make sure they get more than just leftovers, is helping them. The barbels no longer look too short, they aren't hiding all day, out and about climbing on things just as much as their bigger cousins the black loaches. It could be just that they have got used to the new tank and are bolder now, but they are also no longer alarmingly thin and move with more purpose, so I think the extra feeding has improved their health and they're feeling better too.

Cramming in with just as much energy

No matter how hard they try, the cherry barbs just can't fit.

But when the kuhlis get so enthusiastic shoving around that they push the food out into the open, it's up for grabs, and by this time soft enough that a barb can easily gulp down what's left in one bite.

Oh well. By that time it seems the kuhlis have had plenty, and there are still fragments under the rock, they keep going back for a long time picking around under there.

Picture overload! but it's so entertaining to watch this, I can't help taking photos to catch some of the action.