Hello all,
I've recently adjusted my tanks living arrangements, I've got 6 golden barbs and 1 bala shark and one cat fish. The other fish are swarming and eating the food before the catfish can get at it. It's a more exspensive flake food that I've bought from a local pet store. Is there a different type of food I should be getting for this new pet of mine?

You should be able to purchase pellets for bottom dwellers. They sink almost immediately..

Yipes.. You bought bala sharks in a 25gal? They get 12 inches and need to be in a school. They are also very delicate to tank levels and water hardiness.

Good luck..

Can you please elaborate on the care needed for these fish. Also I bought the pellets and I've got a very happy fishy now. I'm also keeping a close eye on the goldfish, one of them appears to have a slight muscus membrane on him. I've separated him from the others I'm not sure what it is.

Bottom dwellers such as catfish just require a lot of hiding places. Unfortuantely, if anything is going wrong with your tank, they are the first to get it.

Continue to feed him the pellets about once every couple of days. You don't want to over feed him otherwise he won't clean your tank very well.

For all fish, try feeding them frozen food such as bloodworms and brine shrimp. Its really good for them when they're growing and helps enhance all colors.

Feeder fish are the absolute worse thing to start a tank with. Feeders are all inbred and full of disease. Usually, the real fish fanatics won't even feed the feeders to their fish due to that. Get rid of them now. Don't wait for anything to develop.