Algae Wafers

[kholder]

Dropped an algae wafer in for the new snail (just in case he needs it) and my betta won't leave it alone. He keeps biting at it tearing chunks off and then spitting it out...not sure if he's ingesting any, but he could be. Can this be harmful to him?

[fflores]

there is algae in the wild... i'm sure there is nothing to worry about

[Oldfishlady]

When Bettas over eat and they will and do if allowed.....little buggers...they will bloat and algae wafers are really bad at causing that...I would remove it and usually snails will get enough food if you leave a bit of any left overs from feeding the betta, however, if you have the larger type of snail feeding it a very small piece of algae wafer at light out once a week may be needed-especially if this is a small unplanted tank.

[kholder]

Thanks. All I could do is think about that one time a friend's goat got loose in an alfalfa field....it wasn't pretty; I was afraid of bloating. The wafer is out.

[dr2b]

I've never been able to put algae wafers, shrimp pellets, seaweed, or veggies in for my otos because my bettas eat that stuff. Even funnier is they guard it. I finally gave up. I have to put the betta in a separate thing in the tank while the others eat...

[dramaqueen]

They guard it? That's funny!

[dr2b]

Ugh yes ... the guard it. They sit on top of it when not eating it and chase anything away that comes near it. Crazy bettas lol.

[Dragonlady]

If your betta does not overeat on an algae wafer, it is harmless IMO. One of the ingredients in most algae wafers is spirulina. (I intentionally feed my juvenile bettas spirulina flakes and the occasional algae wafer as part of their balanced diet... with no bloating.) In the wild, a betta would get the veggie portion of his diet by eating prey such as daphnia that are gut loaded with algae.

[zoragen]

Just recently my guy has started going after the algae wafers. For months he totally ignored them.

A few weeks ago he looked really bloated so I fasted him.

I tried another one yesterday & he picked at it but didn't look like he was eating much & didn't get bloated.

I'm hoping I have enough algae "naturally" (tank is planted) for the 2 snails w/o supplementing w/ the wafers if that silly fish won't stop eating them!

[jeanclaudeasher]

I had a betta that used to go after algae wafers. I broke them into half (or quarters when I could) and then only dropped the smaller pieces in - he left those alone most days.