mīnākṣi refuses to eat.

[auburn]

Hello hello.

So, the trials of myself and Mini are written under a thread entitled "New Owner - Need Advice".

Now I come with questions surrounding eating. Mini has not eaten a single pellet in the two weeks I have had him. I've tried two different brands. Last Friday and Saturday, he did eat frozen blood worms that I gave him.

With advice I picked up from this forum, I decided to only give Mini pellets until he decided to eat them. Now that it has been a week, I want to know how long I should be waiting for him to eat his pellets. And whether or not I should give in and feed him the food I know he likes.


I don't want to starve him to death.

[FullofBliss]

My fish doesn't like pellets much either; you should try some flakes for betta fish and supplement with the blood worms. I've heard from many people that betta fish don't much at all and most fish in generally die from being overfed.

[kelly528]

I am not afan of flakes. They were cutting-edge in the 70s but we have since moved onto bigger, better and more nutritious things for our fish.

I seems like your guy is just having trouble crunching full sized pellets. You can either crush them for him or keep him on mini-pellets until he gets big enough to handle them. Some other smaller, nutritionally valid pellets for bettas are Hikari Micro-Wafers and Atisons Betta-Pro. Many people successfully keep juvies or small females on small tropical granules. As long as they list predominantly meaty ingredients and have a crude proteing content of at least 40% anything will cut it.

[FullofBliss]

Ok I'll start chopping up the pellets too! I want him to have the best.

[Hadouken441]

Is he not eating because he doesnt like his food or is he not eating because he's sick? My fish didnt eat for a week and a half because of how sick he was

[kelly528]

Some fish stop eating when they're ill but considering he like any and all food that he can fit in his mouth I don' think this is the case.

[dramaqueen]

I use Hikari micro pellets for small fish that can't eat regular sized pellets.

[auburn]

I tried crushing his pellets last week, but they just sank before he had a chance to become interested. As well, I rehydrated the pellets--no go. I also rehydrated, and then mashed, and also no luck.

I'm not sure if he's sick or not. I don't know what sick looks like. But he's been marinading in aquarium salt since Saturday, so shouldn't that have cured most of the potential ailments?

I think Mini must be a picky little bugger because I gave in and gave him some frozen brine shrimp this evening, which he had no problem devouring.

I'll try out the micro pellets this weekend. And if necessary go to the flakes. Thank you all for your responses.

Also...Mini looks just like your Avatar pic Dramaqueen.

[FullofBliss]

Yeah I tried splitting the pellets I have with no luck either and yet he gladly took the flakes. I'm trying to find the hikari pellets to get him the nutrition he needs