My betta, the bottom feeder

[Crazykat]

Hi,
I'm completely at a loss here. I have cory cats and my betta together in a 10 gallon. The problem is, my betta boy is a pig monster. So, I drop in a sinking wafer for the cats and he finds it and eats it. I've tried feeding them in different areas of the tank, hiding the wafer under plants, and netting my betta for a few minutes while feeding the cats. Unfortunately, the cory cats don't eat right away. It seems to take them at least half an hour to figure out where the food is (I know it's bad to leave food in the tank, but they do eat it and I'm not sure how to get them to eat otherwise). By this time, piggy has found the wafer, eaten it, and is looking extremely self satisfied and plump. I've even tried distracting him at the other end of the tank while I hide the food! No dice. So, anyone have any suggestions for keeping my piggy away for half an hour to an hour while the cory cats figure out where the food is?

[Sherleelee]

My bettas are the same, my suggestions is maybe looking into a plastic divider or floating critter box , so that he can be away from the food till its eaten. the divider is your best bet, there easy to make, just need to do a bit of reserch and the kinds there are ^.^ hope that helped a bit

[scootshoot]

Drop bottom tabs at lights out. Cory's rely on mouth sensor organs as their eye sight is poor and will eventually find it. Most catfish species in general are more active at night...

[Crazykat]

Well, I don't want to divide the tank, since all of the fish like to roam around and other than this feeding issue, the fish are all great together. However, the floating critter box could work. I'll need to think about how to do that. Feeding after lights out would work awesomely well. I'll try it tonight and see what happens. I'll let you know.

[Missy2280]

My betta does the same thing, I drop the food in and he darts after it as it is sinking. He is quite the piggy! I will have to try turning the light off too.

[Crazykat]

Feeding after lights out worked like a charm! Thanks a lot!