Feeding a community tank

[Bombalurina]

Hi all

In my sorority, I have six female bettas. They are too small yet to eat proper pellets so they are on MarineMaster micro pellets (teeny tiny little things). They share their tank with ten ember tetras. Now, my problem is, I feed the tetras Nutrafin micropellets.
The MM pellets are for carnivores (fish meal as first ingredient). My Nutrafin pellets are for omnivores like my little tetras.
At the moment I am feeding one pinch of each morning and night. It's really hard to work out a precise amount, but my bottom feeders get any food not eaten by the girls so it isn't going to waste. Is this ok, the two different species getting a wierd mix like this? I sometimes replace the Nutrafin with crushed guppy flakes, but since the bettas are the big bosses of the tank, they eat from the surface and the tetras have to wait for the flakes to sink (which they don't).

I'm just worried about all the fish not getting the right diet for them. How do you guys solve this?

[pyro fiend]

personaly id buy floating pellets. and sinking pellets. floating for betta [fed first] then get some sinking or presoaked ones for the others =]

or if the omnivore pellets sink at all when soaked do that just put them in some kinda glass [probly best to use water from the tank so u can just dump it all in] presoak them till they sink or something and feed betta first then the others =]

[tf1265]

I've heard of people separating their fish sometimes to ensure each of them get to eat. I don't think I've heard of it done with groups of fish like you have, but it's an option. You could separate the bettas once or twice a week during feeding time for the other fish so they don't gobble up the food before the tetras can get any. You can also try simply feeding in separate areas of the tank - feed the bettas first on one side, and while they're eating drop food on the other side so the tetras have a chance to swim up and eat before the bettas even realize there's more food on the other side.

Your tank sounds a bit overstocked to me, as well, which could be adding to the problem. There's no room to feed them all! I would put either the tetras or the bettas in their own 10 gallon tank. But, to each his own - I don't know how long you've had this set-up, so it could be working quite well for you and if your maintenance schedule is top-notch then it may be fine.

[Bombalurina]

It is a little overstocked, but all my fish have a tiny bioload, except for the cories. I am sadly not allowed to set up another tank. I also do daily water changes, so the bioload is not a problem, and my tetras and bettas both use all the different levels, so I'm not too worried about crowding, either.

The trouble is my tetras have now figured out that although my girls are about a million times their size, they aren't aggressive, so they barge their way in and eat from the surface as well now. They are all just learning to share. I put in a pinch of each of the microfoods and everyone gets a mix. It doesn't seem to be doing them any harm, so I suppose I'll just have to keep going with it.

I have tried sinking vs floating, but everyone all chases whatever catches their eye.

Thanks for both of your advice(s), though. :)