A pea a week?

[endurance12]

I heard that if you feed your betta fish a pea after a day of not feeding, it is good for it. However, aren't they carnivores?

[Laki]

Yes, they are carnivores.
The pea myth has become one of the great betta myths- you will hear a lot about them. Some feed pea to bettas after severe bloat to help push start their bellies, some people vehemently oppose doing so. But there is no need to feed them a pea once a week. Fasting them for a day once a week is enough to clean their systems :)

[sainthogan]

Some people don't fast their fish. I don't. My female viciously attacks her plants and tears them to shreds if I skip a day of feeding her. My male goes berserk, pacing and looking stressed if I don't feed him for a day. My female doesn't have a problem with constipation, so I don't worry about fasting her. My male does, so instead of fasting him, I just cut back on the amount that I feed him for a day or two - so instead of 3 pellets per feeding, he only gets one. I would say that if your fish doesn't have a problem with constipation, then don't fast him for a day. Just feed him everyday as you normally would.

[tnvol]

Originally Posted by sainthogan

Some people don't fast their fish. I don't. My female viciously attacks her plants and tears them to shreds if I skip a day of feeding her. My male goes berserk, pacing and looking stressed if I don't feed him for a day.

Yeah. My current male doesn't like to go very long without eating and he will eat anything. I don't feed peas either.

[callistra]

I think the pea thing came about because they are good for goldfish, but who knows. They are hard on their digestive tract and should not be fed regularly, if at all.

A fast day a week should be done. My bettas aren't happy about it but it keeps them regular and won't hurt them.

[Oldfishlady]

IMO/E-using deshelled pea pieces on occasion for constipation issues won't cause any problems for a Betta, however, you don't want to use peas as part of their staple diet due to poor nutrition. Since a Betta has a short GI tract the pea passes too fast and can't be absorbed nutritionally.

In my many years of research on this species as well as other species of fish-Very few are true carnivores. More are omnivores and eat both veggie and meat. In the wild, Bettas are seen eating some species of algae. When stomach contents are examined in wild fish-this is the best method to understand what their diet really is. This is the information I look for when I have a wild critter baby that needs to be hand reared-stomach contents of wild adults.

[dramaqueen]

I prefer daphnia for constipation.