Feeding the fish

Question
Hi Karen,
I leave in India and am just setting up a home aquarium. So far (in the last 15 days) I have kept 2 kissing gouramis and 2 tiger barbs in the tank (75 lit capacity). I have two main questions:
1. Whenever I put food in the tank, tiger barbs come and eat all the food not leaving anything for gouramis. How do I make sure that gouramis do not starve and barbs do not overeat?
2. I just found one of the tiger barbs dead - lying at the bottom of the tank. Could this be because of overeating?
I am currently feeding them Tokyu fish food approx 15-16 grains twice a day.
Please do advise.
Regards,
Girish

Answer
Dear Girish,
I'll answer your questions in the order you listed them for simplicity-

1.) The best way to insure both timid and bold species in an aquarium get their fair share. Place some food on the surface, some in the water so it sinks, and place some on each end of your aquarium to insure the gouramis have a chance at getting a meal. With this method it usually works out well.

2.) I'm sorry to hear about the tiger barb. It's hard to know what could have gone wrong without enough details. I would high recommend you to check your water quality as soon as possible. Ammonia and nitrite should be-0 and nitrate- less than 20. I don't think it would be the result of overeating...But likely either poor water quality, or maybe just a weak barb.
A small water change wouldn't be a bad thing to do just in case.

I really hope this helps! Feel free to write again if you have anymore concerns...

Best wishes,
Karen~