Aquarius Eating Troubles

[LadyVictorian]

Hey guys so when I bought Aquarius I got three kinds of food with him, bloodworm, shrimp, and betta pellets. I know shrimp and bloodworms are just treats but Aquarius will not eat the pellets and I think they might be too big for him. Not sure if he is full grown yet or not, he's rather small. Lately I have been feeding him just the bloodworms and shrimp and got the TetraMin tropical flakes, wondering if he can have that until I get smaller pellets. I know everyone says Omega One is good food but will the pellets be small enough for him? What I have right now is Wardley. I also see Omega One had flakes for betta as well. Would it be better to invest in that over flakes?

Thanks

~Aquarius and LV

[Jupiter]

Oh yeah, I remember Wardleys...those were some really big pellets. Even some of my bigger boys had troubles with that.

You can crush the pellet into smaller sizes and soak it in tank water for a bit to soften it up, it should be easier for him to eat that way.

[LadyVictorian]

Thanks I will try to do that right now. Today he has only had two blood worms to eat today and that was in the morning.

[DragonFish]

I would definitely suggest pellets over flakes. Its difficult to dole out correct proportions with flakes and in general they can just be rather messy and cloud your water if you're not EXTREMELY careful.

I feed Omega One pellets and the ones I have are generally quite small, none of my boys have any trouble size-wise with them and my two HMPKs are a bit on the tiny side. Another good food you can try is New Life Spectrum, they make a Betta Formula(which is fairly small)and I think even a Micro/Small fish formula you can try if you'd like.
In the meantime, as Jupiter suggested, you can crush the Wardleys to make it a little easier for him to eat......don't soak them in tank water though, that takes out the nutrients. Instead, soak them in fresh garlic juice if you want to try that.

Are the bloodworms/shrimp you have freeze-dried or frozen?

[LadyVictorian]

Yes the blood worms and shrimp are both freeze dried. They also seem to be very popular with my rats who have raided the shrimp can twice now.

[LadyVictorian]

CRUSHING IT WORKED!!!! He ate it.

[DragonFish]

Oh my! Mischievous little rats. xD

I would suggest replacing the freeze-dried with frozen however...There is a lot of controversy over freeze-dried, but most will tell you it really has very little to no nutritional value and it has a history of causing some bloating issues.

And fantastic! Glad to know he started eating them. :)

[Jupiter]

Yay :D

[LadyVictorian]

So yeah I am just going to crush these ones until I can get Omega One from the store and some frozen worms and shrimp. My rats can have the freeze dried stuff since they clearly enjoy it. Food not wasted and all is good.