Hercules Wont eat?!?!?

[LittleBettas]

Hercules, the betta fish who I got for free at Walmart after he was placed in a cup with another Betta (my betta king) has severe fin loss (shredded), well, the good news is Hercules has new fin growth!!!!

Bad news is, he refuses to eat... he is not acting lethargic, and he swims over when I put his pellet in and checks it out, then swim up to me and wiggles around in the tank

Hes in 1.5 gallon tan but it is only half full since he has trouble swimming, he gets 100% water changes everyday and this is also the first day he a not had Tannis (oak leaves) in the water... or his M larva

Im not sure if he is just being picky cause he wants his larva (the larva I have left aretiny so Im waiting for them to get a bit bigger) or if somethings wrong

hes swimming better than he has been, hes a lot more active and more curious....

should I wait for him to give in and eat the pellets?
or see if he'll eat a M larva?

I am also going to try soaking his pellets again in the garlic water... so i that helps I'll update and just keep soaking them for now on

[Sakura8]

Sounds like Herc has decided to go on a hunger strike because he wants the good stuff: mosquito larvae. Don't give in or you'll be stuck feeding him mosquito forever and then King will demand some and then Tihs and before you know it, you'll have buckets of mosquito larvae and very spoiled bettas. Soak Herc's pellets in garlic juice and maybe see if you can make them move around a little like they're alive. If he doesn't eat them, he doesn't eat. Do you have frozen bloodworms? You can try those and see if he'll eat them. Herc DOES need lots and lots of protein to fix his fins but it's not good for him to get in the habit of writing the menu. From now on, maybe switch it up on him a lot so he never knows if he's getting mosquito larvae, pellets, or bloodworms.

[LittleBettas]

Thats a good idea to keep it switched up, lol... I figured thats what hes trying to do... I dont have bloodworms but I'll pick some next time Im out

I soake some pellets in the garlic juice... King got all excited when he saw the container (he LOVES garlic soaked pellets) and since he ate the regular pellets this morning I went ahead and gave him one

I moved it around for Herc... he put it in his mouth then spit it out... grrr... hopefully by morning he'll be a bit more willing... he did lay on one of his leaves (fake plant he lkes to sleep on) an draped hisself over a leaf to watch the pellet sink... then he gave me a "now what?" look... lmao

I'll have to start switching his food around... no one else seems to have a problem with no M larva... Herc just wans to be spoiled :P

[Sakura8]

Yup. He just wants to be a problem child, the silly guy. I can just imagine him watching that pellet sink, haha. A variety is always the best way to feed a betta, both nutrition-wise and also to keep them from getting like Herc.

[LittleBettas]

lol, I wish I had gotten it on video, it was really cute, but I am going to start feeding randomly, I've heard a lot of people talking about freeze dried shimps... would those work to?

[Sakura8]

Yeah, you can try those. Some people are against feeding freeze-dried every day because they think it causes bloating but if you only feed one or two, Herc should be okay. It's up to you. Really, the more variety the better. You can never have too much fish food. Like me, I have three different kinds of pellets, freeze dried bloodworms, freeze dried daphnia, frozen bloodworms, frozen daphnia, frozen baby brine shrimp, and frozen brine shrimp. Not to mention fish flakes and various wafers/pellets that I feed my community tank.

[LittleBettas]

lol, and I thought I ws bad ith the two difernt pelets,the goldfish flakes, the soaking pellets, and the algea wafers... lmao

[Sakura8]

Nope, I think my fish have more variety of foods than I manage to feed myself, haha.

[LittleBettas]

lmao, I think my fish already have that (I really should start eating better, lol)

[Sakura8]

I know me too. It's fresh fruit season in CA, I really should eat a lot of fruit while I can. After the season's over, it's back to produce grown in other countries and costing more, lol.