Feeding a betta

MollyFan1

AC Members
Nov 27, 2006
105
0
0
42
SF, California
I've had my first betta for about 3 weeks. He seems very happy in his 10- gallon. The only concern I have is that it seems he is not eating enough. When I feed him with betta food, he doesn't seem eager to eat or he doesn't even notice when I feed him. Sometimes he will come up and eat 1-2 little balls and other times he will catch them while they go to the bottom of the tank. Most of the food (those betta balls) end up going to the bottom of the tank. I usually siphon a lot of those when I clean the tank. I've also fed him freeze-dried worms and he's not interested in that either. Are bettas usually like this? Is something wrong with him?

My water parameters are fine (no ammonia or nitrites), the tank is fully cycled...
 
I feed my betta Hikari "betta Bio Gold"...he gets about 4 or 5 pellets a day and stays plump ...what is the temperature of tour tank? They like it between about 78-85.....
 
The temp is at 76. I have a heater that should maintain the tank at a constant 78 degrees. I do have an extra heater on hand that I may stick in the tank with the other one. I'm feeding him HBH betta bites. On the bottle, it says they should eat about 16 balls a day and I see him eating about 4-6 each day.
 
Maybe turn up the heat a little bit, but if he is not getting thin and his color is good, I wouldn't worry about it.
 
Um..I feed my bettas "wardly betta food"
And I give them 1 pellet at a time, if they dont eat the first, then IMO there not hungry
 
He is very beautiful and a bright blue color, he does seem healthy to me. I guess I'm putting too much food in at a time. I dump 8 pellets at a time. I guess I was comparing him to my mollies that will eat anything in sight in a blink of an eye.

Thanks!
 
Some bettas tend to be very picky - I should know, I have 9 ;) Try frozen/thawed bloodworms, dried ones arent as attractive or tasty :) Betta BioGold is another thing bettas like - but is a more expensive betta food. I dont feed my bettas flakes because not only is it not as tasty or attractive to the bettas, but it easily causes swim bladder, a deadly disease bettas commenly get. How much are you feeding him though? I only feed mine 4 pellets a day when I feed pellets which is rare for me, 8 is too much. I really suggest feeding thawed frozen bloodworms, only feed 4-6 though, which is how much I feed my healthy little ones. Are you planning on putting any other fish in the 10 gallon with him??
 
i always feed my bettas 1 pellet at a time. for one thing, i don't want them to sink to the bottom. another is i don't want them stuffing themselves all at once. I use HBH betta bites as well and if it's eating 4-6 each day, thats good enough. I feed mine 6 every other day and supplement with flakes and freeze dried bloodworms which they love. i guess sometimes the FD food is an acquired taste so give them a while to accept it.
 
16 pellets does sound like a lot to me. 4-6 a day should be fine.

I feed mine primarily pellets with the ocassional treat of frozen blood worms.

Each ebtta is different that I have ever owned. My last guy would only eat betta flake food. Others would only eat freeze dried food.

A varied diet is the best if you can get them to eat other foods.
 
I was feeding him 16 pellets a day as per the instructions on the back of the bottle. He does only seem to eat 4-6 pellets in a day. I will only feed a pellet at a time. I thought he was starving himself.

I have no plans on getting anything else for the 10-gallon. He seems to be enjoying all the space instead of the dirty little cup he came in. If I do add more fish, it would only be 3 cories. I just don't know if my betta will accept the cories but my betta seems pretty calm, I still havent seen him flare up.
 
AquariaCentral.com