She is very active and bright and definitely eats like a pig.
I feed each betta (I have six..two passed on) about 2 pellets twice a day and i fast all of them once a week for a whole day. The other 5 are normal (one is actually pretty skinny).
Still she doesn't seem to lose weight. When I brought her home she was larger but not fat and ever since shes been pretty fat lol.
One of the ones that passed had what I think was dropsy...that one was freakishly large and leaned on the gravel unable to swim...so I don't think Fatty has dropsy too..especially since she has been fat for a long time now(the other barely made it a week)...I read about feeding them pea skins...should I try this?
Peas aren't good for Bettas because they can't process is it. I would try fasting her or You can buy frozen daphnia it helps with their digestive system. Im actually going to get some Daphnia my self for my fatty Benz
Peas don't do anything for a betta- no nutritional value, etc.. and especially does nothing for a fish with dropsy.
As far as feeding, 2 pellets is a low amount- depending upon the brand/size of them. Since fish can not get "fat" like us or mammals, she may just be a more robust female. My Aanya is very large, but she eats high quality pellets/live/homemade foods.. she's a healthy size.
What food are you feeding? I would always look to the food first when you question the fish's size- whether it be small, or a bloated look.
From the sounds of it- your other fish showed symptoms of SBD, and this current fish has been large for months.. sounds like it's a food quality issue. Omega One Betta Buffet, or the New Life Spectrum are my top two picks when it comes to pellet/flake food.
I feed them new life spectrum...the pellets are pretty small...sometimes i grab a tiny amount with 2 fingers and drop it in the tank. Each girl will roughly eat 2 pellets...the more aggressive eaters (aka the fat one lol) will maybe eat 3...
I use my best judgement to feed them a total of 4-5 of these pellets a day + fasting on Saturdays..is that a proper feeding schedule?
EDIT: I picked up new life spectrum at Petco not really knowing which food was best...I guess I made a good choice?
Your feeding schedule sounds good. New Life Spectrum is an excellent brand of food. Most of my Bettas get 5 pellets daily and that keeps their stomachs softly round. Then of course they have a fast day, which for mine is on Sunday.
Edit to add- switching some "pellet days" out with frozen bloodworms (for example) is also good for variety.
Well her stomach is definitely noticeable but even her whole body is more full than the other ones..I'm thinking she is just a big girl cause other than that she's very active and zooms across the tank all the time.
I have a very aggressive eater on my hands too, I have to cup her when I feed so that the other fish even have a chance to eat because she will nip and bite the food away from my other girls.
She's quite round, the female in the first picture... but she honestly doesn't look that overweight to me, especially for a female. If it was Dropsy related you would see symptoms. The female in the second picture doesn't look skinny to me either. Some Bettas put on weight easily, others you cannot keep it on them. Just like people! ;-)
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