Question about betta food

[Chili Padi]

Originally Posted by Lissa3116

So they should be fed 5 pellets a day? I'm so scared of over feeding

watch how they eat and how many their belly can take. different betta's have different appetite. average is twice a day

[AyalaCookiejar]

Oh wow, where to start? :p
I have Aqueon pellets, Omega One and NLS (as well as that TetraBetta crud I haven't touched since I got new food). I use Aqueon rarely but I do use it sometimes to give my blind CT something different. It's very hard for him to find his food and the NLS are just too small for him... I give him Omega One pellets and Aqueon on occasion.
My VT gets NLS and Omega One sometimes, and rarely gets Aqueon. (I've also entered in a drawing for a container of both Attisons and Attisons Pro, lol. Can't have too much variety!)

I feed my VT more pellets because of the size of the NLS. Six a day easily equals 3 of the other kinds (maybe not even).

As for the Omega One controversy... With a member here finding a small bone in their container and the fact that it contains Ethoxyquin, a preservative that's supposedly dangerous... Suspicions have been raised. However, I am not too concerned about this preservative just because there has got to be such a small amount in the food I don't think it even counts.. Don't quote me in it, though. I also feed two other types and I know that neither Aqueon or NLS contains Ethoxyquin.

[finnfinnfriend]

Ugh. My brain is done. I looked everywhere but couldn't find a pellet food quite as good as NLS. Zoomed betta pellets look pretty good though. And Aquaeon looks good to me too...

[BettaPirate]

can you buy NLS at petco or petsmart or do you have to order it?

[AyalaCookiejar]

NLS and Omega One are both better than Aqueon... But Aqueon is not horrible. I had to order my NLS online (but shipping was free since I also ordered heaters and silk plants along with it and my order was more than $50 :p)

I think only Petco sells NLS and some specialty fish stores..

[finnfinnfriend]

I don't think omega one is better than aqueon...There can be as much meat in that whole fish meal as there are in those fresh fish...Then Aqueon has a couple other meat meals in it...

[Sagat]

I'm currently feeding my betta HBH Betta Bites, but it's a bottle from about 15 years ago. In the intervening years, the new forumla has changed:

• -5% protein
• -9% fat
• -3% fiber
• +2% moisture
• pellets doubled in size

Top 3 ingredients changed from fish meal, fish oil, blood meal and ethoxyquin to fish meal, wheat starch, krill meal

I have some NLS Growth coming next week, which I picked primarily because it doesn't have ethoxyquin. I've been feeding my betta the ethoxyquin-laced pellets because of the protein content and he's still healthy and alive (I didn't realize it hat ethoxyquin til sI started typing this post)

IMHO, the ethoxyquin angst comes down to the fact that it's a toxin and people (including myself) are concerned about feeding it to our fish over a long period of time.

[AyalaCookiejar]

Actually Omega One has a higher protein percentage and first listed ingredients. And the ingredients are listed in order of how much is used in the food. So there will always be more of the first ingredient than any other ingredient. I'm not so worried about that Ethoxyquin because its listed last.

[finnfinnfriend]

I just wish Hikari would change their ingredients back so I could have choices -_- I feel like I'm being forced to use NLS lol...

[AyalaCookiejar]

You could always try OFL's homemade recipes :p