[Kytkattin]

Ever since I put plants in my tanks I also ended up putting various other critters in my tanks unintentionally. I don't know what most of them are, but my bettas do: tasty. Often I see my fish laying on something, holding themselves so still I think there is something wrong with them, only to watch as they shoot forward to pick off some poor, unsuspecting creature for a quick snack! There is a difference in hunting styles between my boys and girl. It is obvious that she has an easier time moving through the water with her short fins so she can be quicker and doesn't need to sit in stealth as much or for as long.

So who else has hunting bettas? Do you have a video of them on the prowl?

Unfortunately, my camera dies very quickly, so I don't have any video of my fish actually eating, but you can see Spooky doing the pose before decided that there is nothing good to eat on the rock. And FYI, these are videos if you click on them!



And this second one is just to show how adorable she is! Though you can see she thought about going down to hunt for a second. :-D

 

[Bombalurina]

Gosh I love your fish. She is just the cutest thing!
My bettas like to stalk the little snails in the tank, but never manage to hurt them. I do like feeding them live food, though, because the way they rip into it is just brilliant. Usually they swallow it whole, but my HM boy is not yet used to it and chases it around for a while first.

 

[Kytkattin]

Thank you! She really is quite sweet. She has grown on me, I wasn't so sure about her when I first bought her, but now I wouldn't trade her for anything!

I really need to look into different types of live foods. I almost bought a fruit fly culture, but I think I would rather go with brine shrimp...

 

[LittleBettaFish]

My bettas love live food, particularly my wilds. I have micrworms for my smaller natives and killifish (as well as my albi fry) as well as blackworms for my adult fish. Now summer has come around again, I will be harvesting mosquito larvae as well.

I usually sprinkle a heap of blackworms onto the substrate. My bettas have fun picking them out of the gravel and I think it provides them with a bit of stimulation. I gutload the blackworms with high-quality dog food and fish pellets so I assume they are providing some extra nutrition.

One of my albi fry which is about 1/2 an inch long was wrestling with a blackworm twice its size the other day. It's amazing how they are born with that instinct to hunt.