food for teeny tiny tinkerbell?

[sunkissedinCA]

i got tinkerbell a few days ago, and she's only ate once. i'm hoping its just because shes getting used to her new home. since she's still so young and she's super tiny, most of the pellets i have for the rest of my bettas look like they're too big for her. i went through and hand picked out the tiniest pellets i could find and have been trying to feed them to her but so far she's only taken 1. my questions are:

1. how old do bettas have to be to start eating pellets? and
2. should i look for another type of food for her?

[sharon]

Im new to bettas myself but I might try crushing a pellet and trying that,or trying a little live food, another thing Iv read(don't know if its true) is that they can miss the presence of other fish, esp if they are used to being housed next to them ,and and a idea is to place a mirror against the tank from time to time(not often because constant flaring isn't good for them) PS lovely Molly!!!

[dr2b]

I ran into this problem recently. Storm was younger than we thought. He refused to eat...and if he did he spit a lot of the pellet out. I should have gotten micro pellets at the time - but I never even thought about the pellets being to big for my little guy. I feel bad because I wonder if I had gotten the micro pellets if he'd still be with us.

[Vikki81207]

Yeah you can get the hikari baby pellets

[ElmoFish]

For my tiny girl I alternate pellets with flakes, as she has a lot of trouble chewing the pellets.. she also gets blood worms on treat day, and she really loves them.. she does manage to eat the pellets tho, it just takes her a long time, she has to spit them out 7 or 8 times before they're soft enough to swallow. You can try presoaking the pellets in tank water too, to make them softer..

[dramaqueen]

I fed Blue Bonnet micro pellets for a few weeks because she kept spitting out the bio gold. They are VERY tiny and I'd recommend them for anyone with tiny fish. Its basically tropical fish food but would be fine until tiny fish get big enough for regular food.

[doggyhog]

I would use Aqueon Betta pellets, that are really small. OR just crush the other ones!

[marian]

You can try feeding frozne bloodworms or brine shrimp.Just disolve a tiny piece in some tank water before feeding her...I'd say no more than 3-5 perday.(remember her tummy is only as big as her eye)
Try presoaking her pellets before feeding also.I hope she starts eating good soon

[sunkissedinCA]

awesome thanks so much for the replies everyone. wow her tummy is as big as her eye?! sheesh thats really small lol. but yeah i'm going to try the ideas you guys suggested. thanks again!

[MrVampire181]

What I feed my bettas as part of their regualr diet now that they can all eat are live baby brine shrimp. You can hatch them easily and they're perfect for even the smallest betta (and I even mean new born bettas too). Plus they enhance growth.