I am new to this, with only about six months of experience, so take this with a grain of salt. Maybe he doesn't like the pellet food- I know bettas often like varied diets. I know that my fish prefers blood worms and other freeze dried foods over plain pellets. I'm sure someone else has more information, but it may just be something as simple as your fish being a picky eater! I hope this helps you somewhat.
Looking for some advice for my anorexic fish
Hi all.
Background Info:
Just this past weekend I purchased my first betta in years from PetCo. He is a smallish Double Tail Half Moon male betta. He appeared very feisty and healthy at the pet store.
He is living in a 5.5 gal tank with filter, heater, a clay pot and several live plants. The temperature is usually around 80 degrees +/- 2 degrees. He is active and appears to be doing well except I am having problems feeding him.
Problem:
At first he wasn't terribly interested in food but he had just been introduced to his new home. Now, he is hungry, but is unable to eat the Hikari Betta Bio-Gold pellets that I purchased for him. He ingests the pellet but continually spits it out, and re-ingests it several times until finally it falls into the gravel. I'm currently guessing that the pellets are too large for him. Does anyone have any suggestions of a complete diet (nutritionally sound diet) for my betta? Does anyone have any experience with this situation?
Additional Info:
His mouth opens and closes normally and the pellet does fit in his mouth, but maybe it is too large to swallow (??). I chose these pellets because they appear to be a complete feed and my previous betta lived for 4 years on them.
Thanks!!!
Background Info:
Just this past weekend I purchased my first betta in years from PetCo. He is a smallish Double Tail Half Moon male betta. He appeared very feisty and healthy at the pet store.
He is living in a 5.5 gal tank with filter, heater, a clay pot and several live plants. The temperature is usually around 80 degrees +/- 2 degrees. He is active and appears to be doing well except I am having problems feeding him.
Problem:
At first he wasn't terribly interested in food but he had just been introduced to his new home. Now, he is hungry, but is unable to eat the Hikari Betta Bio-Gold pellets that I purchased for him. He ingests the pellet but continually spits it out, and re-ingests it several times until finally it falls into the gravel. I'm currently guessing that the pellets are too large for him. Does anyone have any suggestions of a complete diet (nutritionally sound diet) for my betta? Does anyone have any experience with this situation?
Additional Info:
His mouth opens and closes normally and the pellet does fit in his mouth, but maybe it is too large to swallow (??). I chose these pellets because they appear to be a complete feed and my previous betta lived for 4 years on them.
Thanks!!!
1 - 20 of 28 Posts
Hello! I also have a betta who will not eat pellets. He is a picky eater and will only eat betta flakes. Every time I give him a pellet, he takes it and spits it out. He gobbles up the flakes though! Definitely try to get some flakes for him 
Have you tried soaking the pellet in either water or garlic juice before hand to soften them?
NLS is a more preferred food on this site over hikari and they are already garlic flavoured. They are also small!
But maybe try soaking the pellet before hand to see if that makes it easier for him to eat
NLS is a more preferred food on this site over hikari and they are already garlic flavoured. They are also small!
But maybe try soaking the pellet before hand to see if that makes it easier for him to eat
If he can fit it into his mouth easily, then he can swallow it. I would guess he doesn't like/ isn't used to the flavor. Be persistent. Eventually he'll get hungry enough to eat it.
If he can fit it into his mouth easily, then he can swallow it. I would guess he doesn't like/ isn't used to the flavor. Be persistent. Eventually he'll get hungry enough to eat it.
Agreed. And I would most definitely switch foods to NLS
Try giving him different food. Many bettas hate pellets, so I gave up using them. But I did find a slightly higher success rate if you soaked the pellets before feeding them.
Other foods you can use are bloodworms, flakes, mozzie larvae, moths/flies/bugs, steamed egg, beef heart mix, brineshrimp mix and just whatever you can be bothered giving them
Other foods you can use are bloodworms, flakes, mozzie larvae, moths/flies/bugs, steamed egg, beef heart mix, brineshrimp mix and just whatever you can be bothered giving them
Agree that your brand of food isn't the best, I would switch to the New Life Spectrum, Betta Pellets (NLS) Also as others have mentioned the pre soaking can help.
Part of this issue is that the fish in pet stores are not fed pellets. Your fish most likely does not know what the pellet is. It is just like buying a bird in a pet store, all they eat is junky seed mixes. I would say try other pellets until you find one he likes and be patient. Betta fish are carnivores and love meat. I work at a Petco and the betta fish just get worms. Perhaps if you feed a water soaked worm and pellet at the same time he may eat them.
Most fish food companies advise against presoaking pellets, including NLS.
But sometimes the Betta, will not take a hard pellet, I think soaking for a very short period will not take to many nutrients out of the pellet. Plus it can help betta's who are prone to getting constipated not get constipated if pre soaked. You could argue the fact that the food companies don't want you to pre soak because the pellets that are pre soaked tend to expand so the feeder is likely to feed less, than what they would if fed dry. Feeding dry the pellets are smaller so you are likely to feed more, and you would then need to buy more food quicker.
The other thing many food brands say is feed your fish two to three times a day as much as it can consume within two minutes. We all know that betta's are greedy little things, and if we took that advise they would likely be well over fed.
The other thing many food brands say is feed your fish two to three times a day as much as it can consume within two minutes. We all know that betta's are greedy little things, and if we took that advise they would likely be well over fed.
I think soaking a pellet for a few seconds is fine, but pellets start to dissolve before long, which is why soaking for too long could leech out nutrients or release a lot of particles into the water that would start to decompose.
I feed all my fish as much as they can eat, including the bettas. Feedings take more than 2 minutes. Since I feed NLS I am not concerned about bloat or constipation.
IMO there are a whole lot of underfed fish here.
IMO there are a whole lot of underfed fish here.
Haha I think some bettas at least would agree with youI feed all my fish as much as they can eat, including the bettas. Feedings take more than 2 minutes. Since I feed NLS I am not concerned about bloat or constipation.
IMO there are a whole lot of underfed fish here.
I've never had a problem with NLS, I don't need to soak them either. They gobble them up. I usually give one omega one pellet each feeding and I soak that for maybe 20 seconds because my little guy has a harder time eating it for some reason.
I feed my bettas 2 -3 pellets twice a day. I left one of my bettas in the care of my family while I was on vacation once, and they fed him as much as he would eat. He ate to the point of severe bloat, and got pretty bad SBD. He was always prone to SBD after that as was unhealthy the rest of his life in general. I'm just very leery of overfeeding.
Either it's too late in the day and I've had a brain fart, or I really don't know what "mozzie larvae" are?
Other foods you can use are bloodworms, flakes, mozzie larvae, moths/flies/bugs, steamed egg, beef heart mix, brineshrimp mix and just whatever you can be bothered giving them
Mosquito larvae maybe? Just a guess.
Yes Mosquito larvae. Some members can harvest Mosquito Larvae while they are still young, this is Mosquito's that are not yet fully developed and can be found in small shallow area's of water, still in their swimming larvae stage before they reach adult hood and emerge from the water. Some members will set area's suitable for adults to lay eggs so they can harvest the larvae for their fish, free live food. Being prone to mosquito bites myself and reacting badly to them the thought of setting up area's for them to lay eggs makes me personally cringe.
I think Manitoba's provincial bird is the mosquito. So if anyone wants to come up here and steal them all, you're welcome to.
1 - 20 of 28 Posts
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