Betta ate a snail! Harmful?

brigid_marie

brigid_marie

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Feb 3, 2006
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All my previous worries about my new betta being a picky eater and he goes and eats a snail! Earlier last week, I started trying guppy fry as live food for him (as per the suggestion of some here) and within 24 hours, he ate them. I also started to notice some algae on his glass, so I put in 2 of the small pond snails from my 20g. I've checked the little pagoda and fake bonsai tree and inspected the red gravel substrate and all I found was a chip of one of their shells! He ate them! Will this hurt him? Is this normal? I'm just going to assume I should keep my dude solitary and not consider him for a community tank. I feed him bloodworms (the only thing he'll eat) every other day, so it's not like he ate the snails out of starvation.
 
brigid_marie said:
All my previous worries about my new betta being a picky eater and he goes and eats a snail! Earlier last week, I started trying guppy fry as live food for him (as per the suggestion of some here) and within 24 hours, he ate them. I also started to notice some algae on his glass, so I put in 2 of the small pond snails from my 20g. I've checked the little pagoda and fake bonsai tree and inspected the red gravel substrate and all I found was a chip of one of their shells! He ate them! Will this hurt him? Is this normal? I'm just going to assume I should keep my dude solitary and not consider him for a community tank. I feed him bloodworms (the only thing he'll eat) every other day, so it's not like he ate the snails out of starvation.
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Snails won't hurt him, they are known to commonly pick at snails in their tank-some will also eat shrimp. You could experiment with baby ghost shrimp and see how he likes those. Also, try adding peas to his diet in addition to the bloodworms, they are very good for them and most like them. Just cut them up into small, bite-size pieces.

supgourami said:
Maybe you should feed him everyday.
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Every other day feeding is fine as long as he’s getting enough to keep his stomach slightly rounded, just depends on amount your feeding. Most people over feed their betas. I fed mine 5 tiny hikari beta bites a day with periodic treats and he lived just over three years with a nice round stomach and he didn't die from age; I had to euthanize him because of a slow-growing tumor that eventually made it impossible for him to swim.
 
my betta and tetras get vittles twice a day. best mantra for feeding I would say. my plecos get an alternating diet of wafers, bloodworms, and fresh greens once a day.
 
Rowangel, bettas are insectivores, veggies (you suggested peas) probably give very little benifit to them, and should not be a regular part of thier diet; feed veggies to bettas no more then about once every three months, preferably less. Whatever veggie matter that is in flakes or betta food is suffiecient IMO, and, as said above, more veggies won't offer much benifit.

That being said, my bettas have taking a liking to "fish flies", and will eat house flies when I can catch them.
 
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As far as not putting him in a community tank bc he likes to eat snails....I had(he passed over the weekend) a betta in my 55g tank see sig. He got along great with all of the other inhabitants, but he hated snails. He would try to kill them everytime. My other betta now lives with the snails and he doesnt bother them at all. Always remember, each betta is different. I also feed mine about 5 betta bites a day and feed bloodworms every few days or so.
 
dorkfish said:
Rowangel, bettas are insectivores, veggies (you suggested peas) probably give very little benifit to them, and should not be a regular part of thier diet; feed veggies to bettas no more then about once every three months, preferably less.
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I used them once a week and found them to be very beneficial in keeping the digestive system top-notch/preventing constipation and have found peas recommended by several beta breeders. Use of pea may be a personal choice, but I doubt would cause any harm.
 
cyberbeer65 said:
That's way too much food.Once a day is sufficent.
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I only give the tank enough food that can be eaten in like, 20 seconds. So it is not way too much food. It the same as giving them enough food once a day that they can eat in a minute.
 
I, too, have had the pea recommendation from betta lovers. I think it's probably more like roughage that they can't digest, but that will clean out their system. To prevent or treat constipation, like Rowangel said.

I used to feed my betta every other day. He'd take flakes, pellets, and frozen food. I'd give him about a half a pea every other week. He lived for almost three years, which I'm told is pretty good for a betta.
 
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