Betta Gorging on Infusoria!

My male betta is gorging himself on live "bugs" living in his tank! His tummy is so stretched and huge that I can't imagine WHY he would keep EATING them, but I do see him eating them off the sides of the tank, every day. I have never seen him so stuffed, and I haven't fed him ANYTHING in TWO weeks! I am waiting for his tummy to go down some.

Is there any chance there is something wrong do you think? Or, is it that he will just keep eating these lil bugs until they're gone or he explodes? I took out his HOB filter about a month ago because it seemed to be causing him some distress. I replaced it with a sponge filter, and since then, it seems the bug population has exploded (according to his tummy).

All my tanks have plants, so I assume the situation wouldn't be much better in any of them. Any advice?

bkw1982 said:

well if the case is tht he is eating bugs in his tank then the obvious thing to do is remove the bugs. if they are on the glass scrape em off, if there in the water do a water change. next u need to find where the bugs are comin from or whts causing them so u can keep em out ur tank.

p.s. u have the strangest problems with ur tanks lol

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Strange problems I know!!!! The thing is, I know what the bugs are, but they are naturally occurring in a planted tank. I choose to have live plants, so they are there. With the absence of a HOB filter, they seem to have proliferated quite a bit. I do regular, twice a week water changes, but Val still stays stuffed. I know bettas are known to eat until they burst, so is the only choice I have, to get rid of the plants and clean out the bugs? I hope not - he seems to enjoy the plants and I do too!

webcricket said:

Hmmm, infusoria are microscopic. They shouldn't be visible to you as "bugs" in the tank. All of my tanks are planted and I don't have any bugs. Can you describe the bugs further? Perhaps there is a different way to remedy them if they can be identified. Are they free-swimming or attached to the tank glass and plants?

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I don't really SEE them, but I do see Valentino eating them (something). He seems to face the back wall of the tank a lot, lunging toward them so I assume they live on the tank walls.

I have a tankful of baby bettas, and when they were smaller, I watched them eating the same thing - tiny bugs swimming in the water. If you look with a magnifying glass, you can see them fairly easily. I kept on near the tank to watch the babies' growth.

I'm not so much concerned about the bugs being there if it isn't going to hurt Valentino to have such a full belly all the time. I'll have to take a pic of him to show you - sheesh he's a lil pig!

Capecods. So weird. I did a search and didn't find it "normal" for them to exist in freshwater aquariums. All the info seemed directed at marine tanks. Still, I believe you. I do have some algae in the tank, but the water parameters are perfect. Ammonia is zero, Nitrite is zero and Nitrates are also zero due to the regular water changes.

I'll clean the algae off and gravel vac especially good and do a big water change and see what happens. Weirdness.

Thanks for your help.