Food for Chili Rasbora

How to feed Chili Rasbora / Phoenix Rasbora in Community Tank

Chili Rasbora / Phoenix Rasbora and other small Rasboras like dwarf Rasboras have the following characteristics:

Very small mouths
Quite shy
They are micropredators (require “animal” / high protein food)

How I feed them is actually to take Betta food (Hikari Betta Biogold), and crush them with a mortar and pestle. Betta is also a predator hence their dietary requirements are kind of the same (high protein rather than high vegetable content). Then, together with the Neon Tetra pellets, pour it into the tank. There is bound to be food stuck to the container, which we use tank water to soak it and pour it out.

Repeat until all food is dispensed. Due to the numerous powder food in the water, the Neon Tetras are unable to snatch all the food, and the small Rasboras (Boraras Merah) are able to sneak in a few bites. At the end, all Rasboras are well fed as shown by their round bellies.

If the food is not crushed to powder, the Rasboras would not be able to swallow the food easily, and the end result is that most of the food is eaten by the Tetras. It took me quite a few months to figure the above procedure out (I was and still am quite new to fish keeping).