Seaweed for Betta ok?

[Calmwaters]

At the Petsmart they have dried seaweed (I think it is Seaweed) that it says you can give to fish to eat would that be ok to give to my Betta? If not what else besides flakes can I give her?

[Jupiter]

I don't think so, bettas aren't really able to digest vegetable matter well. You can give frozen, live, or freeze-dried food such as brine shrimp and blood worms.

Edit: Forgot to mention...they should only be used as treats. Once or twice a week at most.

[Calmwaters]

Ok so most of the time flakes, I have dried blood worms as a treat right now. She really liked those yesterday. LOL

[Kim]

Are you feeding betta flakes? The only kind of flakes that I use are bettamin flakes. Topical fish flakes won't cut it because they have too much vegetable matter. Some foods you can use are:

Hikari Betta Bio-Gold pellets
frozen brine shrimp, daphnia, and bloodworms

[kelly528]

Here is my menu:
-Hikari Betta Pellets
-Generic Betta Pellets from a Canadian big box pet store
-Sinking Granules that I feed my tropical fish
-Frozen Bloodworms
-Frozen brine shrimp
-Frozen pea (his favorite but only as a treat.)
-A few baby pond snails
-The aphids that live on top of his floating plants.

I'll probably give him the occasional newborn endler when they overrun my 10g.

I find that once you have a couple of tanks with different species of fish you can just start mixing and matching their food for variety. Also, even choosing different brands of the same food will offer them good variety. I heard of someone on another forum feeding his guys 'betta mix', which was just a mixture of 6 types of betta pellets! Honestly, I feed my guy just about any carnivore-based food that won't bloat him. Stay away from garden bugs though, as they may have pesticides on them.

[Calmwaters]

I have been giveing them tropical flakes and about 2-3 times a week giveing freeze dried bloodworms. But now that I know I should be giving flakes exspecially for Bettas I will go get some when I get off work in 50 min. How long are the frozen foods good for? I could get some of that while I am there. I think I would have to dethaw it before I give it to them right? Also how much/how often should I feed the frozen? In one tank it is just my girl and the shrimp but in the other there is my male, a guppy, an oto , 4 glofish, and some bladder snails that hitched a ride in on a plant.

[dramaqueen]

I also feed mine BettaMin flakes.

[Kim]

Yup, frozen should be thawed. I place mine in the microwave for 14 seconds or so then feed with tweezers to avoid overdoing it. They last for a while, you just make sure that when you thaw it everything looks good and doesn't have a foul odor. If you have several tanks you can feed it to your other fish too (except for the otto but I can guarantee that he won't touch it) and you shouldn't have to worry about having it for too long. I feed one feeding of each frozen food (daphnia, brine shrimp, and bloodworm) once a week. In the morning I always feed pellets and on the days that they don't get frozen for supper I feed pellets as well. When I feel like dealing with distributing flakes I'll do that instead of one feeding of pellets. I usually use the daphnia on fast day...that means no feeding in the morning and a small portion of daphnia at night.

[kelly528]

Originally Posted by Calmwaters

I have been giveing them tropical flakes and about 2-3 times a week giveing freeze dried bloodworms. But now that I know I should be giving flakes exspecially for Bettas I will go get some when I get off work in 50 min. How long are the frozen foods good for? I could get some of that while I am there. I think I would have to dethaw it before I give it to them right? Also how much/how often should I feed the frozen? In one tank it is just my girl and the shrimp but in the other there is my male, a guppy, an oto , 4 glofish, and some bladder snails that hitched a ride in on a plant.

Frozen foods are pretty much good forever--- just avoid thawing and re-freezing it. Not very food safe lol! They usually come in convenient blister packs. You will want to cut the frozen cube in half and feed the guys half a cube in one go. Store the rest in a baggie, pill case, etc. until the next feeding. You'll be doing well if you feed one cube per week that way.

I thaw mine by putting it in a brine shrimp net and running hot water over it in the laundry room sink. That way it is strained as it thaws (you'll want to strain them to get all the nasty water they come in out).

Bladder snails are what I feed my betta--- the little babies are perfect for them.

Speaking of flakes, look into granules. They take in less water and are usually tastier for fish too. They come in different granule sizes so you can pick one small enough for your guppies and glofish.