Anyone have fish that eat till they explode?! My female betta scares me!

[Octavarium]

Lets just say shes worse than my 3 pugs on land when it comes to racing towards food despite any obstacle in way. She is constsantly rotund and ready to explode, looks unhealthy (no not dropsy) but she swims all over fine and couldnt act healthier!! Its hard to keep food away from her as its community...and yes, she will race 4 feet to the other side if I drop some pellets/flakes/live food to snatch up all she can, making it hard to manage her in a community. I've only seen puffers in past I've owned have these giant bellies, anyone else have fish like this? Can it possibly be OK to be that full all the time???

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[Hendre]

LOL. i feed my betta sparingly after i bloated him lol. My little pink tail litterally gets an inflated stomach after bloodworm feeding and eats till it comes out of his gills

 

[Kaliska]

I had a bunch of danios become crayfish food because they ate the sinking food, I had to add enough for the crayfish to get there, until they bloated and their spines bent too much to swim. Eventually they'd struggle along the bottom and *chomp* into a crayfish. Otherwise those crayfish are surprisingly horrible at catching fish. I switched to guppies who don't seem to suffer the overeating complications but occasionally a very pregnant female will struggle to swim and end up being found beheaded and argued over by the crayfish.

 

[FreshyFresh]

That's the problem I had when keeping groups of female bettas in community tank settings. They'd eat too much. One by one (over a long period of time) I lost them due to bloat I couldn't get them out of.

 

[Kaliska]

Frozen food will reduce the risk of bloat and some things can be improved by soaking. Most breeders feed only frozen. Partially because it gets them in condition better and partially because with the large amounts they feed the bettas would all bloat on dry, processed foods. For awhile when I stopped breeding I went to various sized pellets but found they just don't do as well. Mine now get more frozen mysis, bloodworms, beef heart, and raw organs (chicken heart, gizzard, liver (fattening), beef liver, still looking for bulk beef heart) bought at the grocery store and cut up. I aim to make the pieces the size of a guppy and then give the smaller ones to the bettas. I have some wild caught natives that share the rest and the snails will always happily work on the pieces that come out too large or too much connective tissue for the fish. Sometimes when I'm feeling lazy or they got fed well the day before I still give a little flake or hikari micropellets. I'm not buying more betta pellets when both brands are gone.

 

[Octavarium]

Good advice Kaliska, I have frozen daphnia, blood worm, and brine from Hikari I will try to give to her mostly before I feed the community. I believe in variety for community otherwise, I do those forzen foods, live black worms or brine as treat once a week or so, New Line Spectrum small pellets, new line flakes, and omega one flakes w/ algae wafers for bottom guys. Safe to say my betta loves all lol, but as said Im going to give the frozen a try like you said and use the baster to give it to her first...so hopefully shes full on that while I feed the others 20 min later or so.

 

[Aquaticfrog32]

Same thing happens with my female Betta. :Shudder: Worse than my dogs, who were strays and eat anything even remotely edible.
IMO, I would just feed you`re betta less on days she`s really bloated. Maybe try switching to a less fatty fish food?

 

[Hendre]

Same thing happens with my female Betta. :Shudder: Worse than my dogs, who were strays and eat anything even remotely edible.
IMO, I would just feed you`re betta less on days she`s really bloated. Maybe try switching to a less fatty fish food?

Or add more frozen foods, they reduce bloat unless overfed of course

 

[FreshyFresh]

IMO, the problem is, in a community tank setting, how are you going to control what each different fish eats?

When I kept groups (3-6) of female bettas in my planted community 55, I'd add enough food so every fish could get some. As you say, bettas are aggressive eaters, where others not so much, so the bettas would eat more than they should.

If I ever did female bettas again, it would be only them in a tank.