[andrizzie]

Why is Petco so misinformed???
I purchased a betta there, and overheard the staff telling a women to only feed her fish twice a week!!! Which is far too little in my opinion.

Yet, the fish food container says to feed twice a day, 4-6 pellets each feeding!! (8-12 pellets daily) which seems far too much!

While the fish food container is telling me to overfeed my fish, I have never heard of people feeding their fish only once every 3-4 days!
Any ideas about why Petco is lacking information?

Has anyone every had this kind of feeding schedule?

 

[Tolak]

Keep a fish that thrives at 80F at room temperature, 72ish, & yes, you should only feed twice weekly. When I'm resting breeding pairs of angels I do just that.

Of course the food container is going to tell you to feed a lot, they want you to run out & buy more!

 

[Fin Fancier]

That is actually a small kindness on Petco's part. When you sell a fish into .5 gallons of water the less they poop the less they suffer from ammonia burns when the person does not change their water for 2 weeks. Also, as Tolak mentioned, their metabolism majorly slows down in cold water which effects their digestion.

 

[hannat]

Basically, if you have a heated, proper set up feeding small amounts (I have small pellets and feed 3-4) twice daily is good with one day a week set aside for fasting. The day of fasting helps to prevent constipation, though it does make for some very cranky fish. A betta's stomach is about the size of their eye, if that helps at all with amounts. If you have any questions feel free to PM me (or just reply to this comment) and I'll check back after class. Good luck, and don't hesitate to ask lots of questions! We welcome them!

 

[wildmountainthyme]

It's hit or miss with PetCo usually. I was in there yesterday and they had a bunch of veiltails labelled as 19.99 rosepetals.

 

[Sadist]

I think they tell costumers how they're taught to feed the fish while the fish are stuck in those tiny, cold bowls. It's hit or miss with each store and each employee in the store. I've seen one store feed frozen bloodworms to their fish while another overfed them (they were fat with lots of poop or mushy food in the cups with them) and another store where they seemed to be starving.