[cfox29]

I have 12 boraras brigittae (chili rasboras) that are having trouble competing for food against neon tetras and green rasboras. They are getting to the hikari micropellets but they have to "chew it" for a while, spitting it out and sucking it back in. Often, when they spit it out, another fish will come by and swipe it.

So, I am looking for something even smaller that they can efficiently consume that is also nutritious.

 

[Aqualady]

I like Hikari micro pellets as well as NLS micro pellets....they are tiny

 

[gbhil]

I just moved about 20 half-grown chilis into a 40 breeder with an established school of Ember tetras. They get plenty to eat when using frozen baby brine shrimp, and also find a good meal while pecking around the plants and hardscape.

If your tank is well-established, they will find plenty to eat until they learn to compete for food.

 

[Raymond S.]

I keep Least Killi fish in one of my tanks and when I see babies in there I mash a piece of freeze dried brine shrimp onto the top of the water. I see them hit it and for the most part it is too small for the other fish to worry over.
The can it came in is one of the smaller ones and it just says Wardley's Brine Shrimp on it. It looks like small chunks smaller than pea size in the can and powders when you mash it.

 

[Kat12]

I feed a mix of powder growth food, microKrill and decaped brine shrimp eggs

 

[Dr Fishbait]

Ken's Golden Pearls. Comes in many sizes.

 

[kcoscia]

New life spectrum small fish formula is really small

Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk

 

[cfox29]

Thanks for all of the ideas

 

[n25philly]

You can also try calcium montmorillonite clay. Very small, my threadfin rainbows who also need tiny food gobble some up whenever I add it to my tank, and it adds minerals to the water making things healthier for all inhabitants, even the ones that don't eat any. You want to be careful when adding though as it can briefly raise the ph a little. In small doses though not enough to hurt anything.

 

[mach_six]

Sounds like flakes would be the better choice to feed. Otherwise try soaking the pellets first then feed it.

 

[someoldguy]

Crumbled up Tetramin flakes , Cyclopeeze , live/frozen BBS , Micro Pellets . My thread fin rainbows and Neoheterandria elegans eat all the above.

 

[mistergreen]

grindal worms and mircoworms should work too.

 

[Art by Stef*]

I second microworms and powdered egg yolk for newborn fry.

-Stef*

 

[Oceangirl]

I feed decapped Brine shrimp, Love it. The larger fish won't mess with it. Microworms are great too!!

 

[GBRguy]

I like the new life spectrom as well. They are really tiny pellets that can get gobbled up in one bite.

 

[Ras]

grind a mix of foods into powder, i use wardleys shrimp pellets, omega one supercolor tetra flakes and omega one supercolor chiclid pellets and like 10% algae wafers. grind it all up into a powder but not too fine that they wont see it, just enough to make it mixable and able for them to eat in one bite. if they are not eating from the surface with other fish put some of the powder food in a turkey baster and shoot it in their direction
a fish really only needs like 1 bite of food a day if even that so as long as you are seeing them eat anything at least once every couple days they will be fine
ive heard they can go for around a week but I've never tested it and probably wont

anyways this is what i did for my embers when the gbr's stole all the food
eventually they will learn the smell of the food and be more ambitious . my embers started to eat like Parana's . the turkey baster method was only temporary for me as the fish learned to associate me with food, I walk up to the tank and they will be ready and looking for food
but I've also been told embers are one of the more brave species of nano fish
so you might want to get more boraras
like most small fish they are VERY shy around anything bigger than them
ime with the exception of embers most nano fish have trouble competing for food with other fish at low numbers because they are so timid and alot of the time unwilling to leave a certain corner of the tank
if you have around 18-20 they would take better care of themselves
just watch to make sure the larger fish arent nipping them
and for live food one thing that always worked for me with , with every fish i hav is chopped up black worms
the nasty **** that comes out when they split is irresistible to fish
just make sure ur chopping them up small enough the fish wont choke.
baby black worms are very small and skinny so that shouldn't be a prob, most lfs sell them for like 1-2$ an OZ which ends up being a large handful. they are easy to cultivate after you have a good colony too

 

[amcoffeegirl]

I smash up the nls pellets to nearly powdered bits fry love it. Also crumbled kens flakes, freeze dried blood worms, mashed shelled peas.