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Hi All -- I'm a definite newbie to the wonderful world of Catfish and I'm afraid that I've made a newbie blunder: I have an established and well-planted 40gal tank with 4 dwarf gourami, 3 German Blue Rams, 1 S. Eupterus (approx 6.5"), and 1 P. Costatus who I had originally "saved" from P*tco on 05-18-07, where he was a tiny 1.25" and as thin and sickly looking as possible and hiding in a cichlid tank. The Costatus took to my tank immediately and set about growing and eating to reach his (unsure of actual gender) current slightly pot-bellied 4". The problem is that he is such a fast little guy and he is swooping up and "stashing away" all of the pellets that I'm dropping for both him and my Eupterus. There's no aggression between my two cats and this behavior hasn't noticeably affected my Eupterus, but I'm worried that he (gender unknown) isn't getting enough to eat. I believe that my Eupterus does get at least 1-pellet per night, when he is fast enough, but is this sufficient for his needs? What else can I feed that my Costatus might possibly leave for my Eupterus? I'm feeding them both Hikari Sinking Carnivore Pellets (4-5 per night and my Eupterus used to get 2-3 per night when he was on his own). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated (I do not have the space nor the desire to separate the Costatus, unless that's the last resort).

Hi there & welcome to PC,
Your problem is easily solved: feed during the day and night. I bet your Syno will eat during the day and the Platydoras will stay hidden. It is possible that it'll take the Syno some time to find out what's happening, so don't expect success after just one day.
Might this not work, then your Syno should learn something else: that it should be quicker at nights.
If it needs more food it has to "work" for it.

Welcome to planet catfish

it might also be worth feeding a floating food at night - the syno should soon learn to invert & feed off the surface as this is something prevalent in his family but not that common for platydoras. freeze dried daphnia or tubifex or a floating foodstick of your preferred type would be good to try.

If your syno is still looking healthy he/she is probably finding food somewhere -they are resourceful after all with the will to survive (& therefore eating being very strong)

Thank you Marc and Richard! Due to midterms, I haven't been able to post a reply until now, but I've used both of your suggestions . My Syno did quickly pick up on the day/night feeding (at night, he just isn't fast enough to beat out my Platy at getting to the pellets) and is also learning to grab the free floating Hikari food Sticks that I just tried out last night (my gourami just sort of "poke" at the sticks and leave them alone). I think my floating hornwort throws my Syno off a little, but I did see him gobble up 2 of the 4 sticks I floated last night.

Thanks so much for the welcome and for the great advice!