Live food vs. pellet and flake food?

[lillyandquigly]

Which would be better? I am getting my next betta soon (my last one died at the ripe old age of seven). I plan on spoiling this one absolutely! It's going to live in a NPT, there are going to be lots of cherry shrimp (enough so that it wouldn't matter if one got hunted lol), the tank is 20-30 gallons. So now to spoil it all the more, I am wondering if it would be good to feed live foods?

[Kuronue]

If you have a reliable source of clean uncontaminated live food, go for it! That's good for the bettas natural predatory behaviour as well as nutritionally so long as you have enough variety.

Keeping a good pellet food on hand isn't a bad idea though for emergencies. A good on is nutritionally balanced to make sure your betta gets everything he or she needs. That way in one of your live food cultures falls through, you have a back up until its back up and going.

Maybe both just to be on the safe side

[MattsBettas]

+1^. If you can get live food, use it. You should probably use a good quality pellet alongside, as it has needed nutrients. Sorry for your loss, but seven years is amazing!

[LittleBettaFish]

I think a high-quality pellet as the staple with live and frozen to supplement is an excellent balanced diet for a betta.

However, some of my fish only ever get live/frozen foods as they don't take pellets and they are all doing fine. They spawn and raise their fry on a diet predominately consisting of live blackworms so they can't be too lacking in nutrients.

[Jorjor2]

I do all three. I rotate NLS pellets, Omega One Tropical Flakes, frozen bloodworms and live mosquito larvae

[lillyandquigly]

looks like I have my answerL) thanks guys

[Option]

Originally Posted by lillyandquigly

Which would be better? I am getting my next betta soon (my last one died at the ripe old age of seven).

Not to digress or anything.....but if by seven you mean seven years then that is quite an impressive feat. We should be asking you what you fed that betta!!?

[lillyandquigly]

yep I mean seven years:) I fed her fpellets, honestly, I'm surprised she lived that long, I made a TON of mistakes, and she had a pretty bad life for a while. She was a fighter:)

[Picasso84]

So, question.... (sorry if this is hijacking) if you feed pellets -two types- and want to feed live brine shrimp -maybe as a treat once/twice a week- .... Would the betta still eat the pellets the rest of the week? And is that still a balanced diet?

Wow, seven years... I'm so sorry for your loss... I just lost my ferrets last winter, so I know how you feel :(

R.I.P Cheng




-ML

[lillyandquigly]

thanks:) I think they would still eat the pellets, unless they're really picky