Tips needed on how to feed Glowlight Rasbora (Copper Harlequins)

[Karmicnull]

I thought I would tap into the UKAPS hive mind as I can't find anything useful on the interweb.
I am two weeks into being the proud possessor of 10 Glowlight rasbora (Trigonostigma hengeli). And am being confounded by the fact that they appear to be mid-water feeders. They completely ignore any food floating on the surface, and eschew any sinking flakes or pellets that are less than 10cm from ground level*. Furthermore, they are still pretty nervous of the big hulking thing that periodically approaches their home, and flee to the opposite end whenever I rock up with food. There's no point in my putting the food in whilst they're not there, as it will all sink and be ignored. So I have to get ready with my 1/128th teaspoon of food (flakes, pellets, granules, whatever), and hang around by the side of the tank for 5 mins or so, waiting for them to slowly, cautiously come back to my end. Then, verrry sllooowly, I move my hand over the tank. dump a minuscule amount of food in, and let it sink (poking it with my finger to break surface tension if necessary). They will then scarf it down. I repeat this with further minuscule amounts until they start getting bored. I'm doing this two or three times a day, and it's not sustainable.
Don't get me wrong, I love the whole process, but there are occasions when there just isn't time. In my other tank if I'm in a hurry I'll dump a pre-allotted amount of food in. Anything not eaten will end up on the bottom of the tank, and hungry fish will eventually root around grumpily and find it. This tank doesn't even have bottom feeders (apart from shrimp and snails) who will hoover up any leftovers, so I'm being really careful about dropping in small enough volumes that nothing ever reaches the ground.

Any suggestions on how to make this a faster process?

Cheers,
Simon

*It's really quite astonishing. Battlestar Galactica springs to mind:
"Copper 7, this is copper leader. The food is too close to the ground - I repeat - the food is too close to the ground!"
"Copper 7 to Copper leader - acknowledged. I'm pulling up; nom nom run abandoned. Guess I'll have to find a less risky target."

 

[Geoffrey Rea]

If you have shrimp and other species in the tank you could try JBL NovoFect Veggie tabs attached to a petri dish. They dissolve slowly and put out small particles as the shrimp and other fish take a nibble.

It will create a slow release ‘cloud’ of food that everyone can get in on. Particularly useful if you have shy eaters who are fussy about the location of their food. Switch filters off, wet the Petri dish and apply the veggie tab with pressure until it sticks, drop in, walk off and let them get on.

If there’s excess food at the end, slowly lift up the remainder in the dish and dispose. Works well for shy species who like their food mid water in suspension.

 

[mort]

I think this is a problem with them taking time to settle in. I had a large group in the past and they were exactly the same to begin with, ie shy and wouldn't eat how you expect but in time they whacked anything from the surface of the water.
I'd suggest time is going to be your friend but I don't really know a way to improve your situation unless you have an auto feeder which isn't as scary as an aquarist. The other thing is to try foods that wiggle as they tend to be impossible for most fish to ignore. I cultured various small worms and added lots of daphnia and cyclops. If you can get them eating these they tend to see the tank as a great place to be and settle down.

 

[shangman]

If it was me I would treat them a lot with live food a few times a week, so they learn that you are a fantastic and benevolent big shadow who's not to be feared. You could also try those wafers that you can stick to the side of the glass for them to pick at when you're not around, to ease your worry.

 

[Karmicnull]

@hivemind thank you for some excellent suggestions. I had been rather hoping that 'time is your friend' would be part of the answer, but I hadn't at all thought of 'stick it on the side and leave them to it', and I rather think I might combine that with @Geoffrey Rea's JBL NovoFect Veggie recommendation. I have now googled on them and rather suspect I will be forking out more readies pretty soon . And of course I am working on building the Pavlovian association between my approach and food. I think of it as bribery: "I'll give you a nommy snack if you come to my end of the tank!"