Betta: Flake food?

CBTF

;(
Jan 2, 2006
253
0
0
Toronto, Canada
I've raised a few bettas in the past, both on dried blood worms and flake food. My last betta (RIP :( ) had only eaten flake food in his life.

Someone told me that this is unhealthy, and they need a special betta mix or blood worms. Is this true?! I was pretty sure flakes were okay..
 
Betta fish are carnivores and the best diet for them is a varied diet with meat as the primary source. They really don't go for flakes, so your betta was a little unusual in that respect.

Most people feed them "betta pellets" all the time, which isn't a varied diet at all. I've read the ingredients on some of those bottles and there are a lot of fillers in some brands.

I feed mine frozen/freeze dried bloodworms and brine shrimp, and freeze dried tubifex worms and daphnia.

Last night I got my shipment of foods from Brineshrimpdirect.com and they went nuts over the "Earthworm Plus Flake Food". First time they've ever eaten a flake :)

Roan
 
I feed my betta flaked betta food that came with the tank kit I originally purchased for him. I've tried two different types of betta pellets, one of which was far too large for his mouth. Those I would break up but he still wasn't too crazy for him. The one thing that he does get excited about are freeze-dried blood worms. I only give those to him as a treat once in a while because that much protein, supposedly, will constipate him. (I'm only going by what I've read on the packaging.) I've read somewhere in the forums that giving a betta a bit of cooked pea once a week or so is beneficial also. My betta is healthy but goes through periods of not wanting to eat his flake food but he will always eat the bloodworms. I do find that his 'output' does slow down sometimes and I assume it is constipation. Alledgedly, fish get bored eating the same thing day and day out just we do and a little variation in their diet is a good thing.
 
Hm. o_o My betta isn't a huge fan of his pellets, and so mostly gets fed freeze dried bloodworms. I've not yet had a problem with constipation, but maybe that's because he only gets a small amount of the worms, and has a one-day fasting period every week.

I once tried feeding him a teensy bit of the flake food I give to my platies, and found it amusing that he would only eat the orange-coloured flakes. He's a bit of a nutter, that betta, but I love him all the same. ^_^
 
Mine get Hikari Betta pellets most days (3-4 per betta). About once a week, they get Tetra BettaMin flakes instead. Occasionally, I feed a bit of Tetra Freeze Dried Bloodworms in all the tanks -- usually I do this at a time when I'm not feeding regular food, say in the evening if I fed in the a.m.
 
Nice, lots of feedback. It seems that there's no setback feeding them flakes, but treats every now and then are nice.

This is good- im stocking my community tank and was thinking of another betta, but didnt wanna have to add different types of food.
 
My guy is 2 years old now and has lived on pretty much just betta flakes with soem freeze dried blood worms as well. I have tried pellets but he won't touch them.
 
i feed all my fish a combo of flakes, betta pellets, and freeze dride bloodworms (and at night before going to bed i drop in a small peice of algea wafer for whoevers interested , useually the shrimp make sure its gone by morning)

everything but the otto will eat anything that enters any of the tanks but hes a snob he wont even eat algea wafers. my guppies love algea wafers for some reason.

ok before i get flamed i only put in a little of each kind unless all the fish attack the same kinda food in that case i add a little more
 
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