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Post by nathanp2007 on Oct 28, 2008 14:05:18 GMT -5
So i got my new betta on saturday (oct 25th) and so far i have fed him twice. I have fed him (soaked) Sanyu Betta Gold. I give him about 3-4 pellets. I was curious how should a betta eat? Like do they typically (if they like the food) just eat it all up and swallow? Both of my bettas (current and one that died) with everything except Blood worms, would put it in their mouth, have it in there a bit then spit it out. then they kinda avoid the other pellets that are in there. Is that a sign that they dont like it..or is that how they eat?
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Post by goldenpuon on Oct 28, 2008 15:08:50 GMT -5
Typically, it will take bettas a little bit of time to get used to new food. It is normal for them to spit it for the first couple days or even up to a week. After that they shoudl swallow it. Also, bettas are designed to eat food off the surface ( I may be wrong). My bettas always eye the food and try to sneak up on it before they eat it, sometimes even jumping out of the water in the process. They should eat the food whole. I'd imagine that soaking is a good idea for bettas but with mine, they don't pay attention to food once it goes below the surface so I don't soak mine. (Please correct me if I am wrong on this.)
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Post by nathanp2007 on Oct 28, 2008 15:31:51 GMT -5
no clue if ur right or not, but i do know that even when fully soaked or in there for weeks, the food doesnt sink (the food i use)
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Post by bikeguy33 on Oct 28, 2008 18:44:17 GMT -5
bettas are surface feeders. the easiest way to tell where an fish feeds from is mouth location. bettas and arrowanas for instance have mouthes that open at the tops of their heads....where a pleco or catfish has it on the bottom of their head....and fish with a center mouth are adapted to eat from anywhere in between. of course there are exceptions to this rule. now as far as the other bettas that would put the food in and spit it out....is it possible there are inbreeding issues or something like that that may have given them an odd throat or possibly a smaller mouth that didnt allow for swallowing of standard betta food?  ? |
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Post by nathanp2007 on Oct 28, 2008 19:15:46 GMT -5
yeah i know all that about the mouths. Idk if its inbred or not, i mean i got it from petsmart...and my last one spit out food too. Makes me wonder if its more a not liking it type of thing. Obviously i want my fish to eat and swallow the food and not starve like my last one(my last betta wouldnt eat so it died of starvation)
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Post by Carl on Oct 28, 2008 19:15:39 GMT -5
As Renee & Bikeguy pointed out, Bettas are surface feeders, and sometimes take a few days to get to eat dry foods. Try to resist feeding any other foods during this time.
I will admit that I have seen a Betta (on very rare occasion) refuse dry prepared foods of ANY sort. If this becomes the case, I would feed frozen/FD worms/Brine Shrimp and then try and get live blackworms and gut load them prior to feeding with your Spirulina food.
Carl
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Post by nathanp2007 on Oct 28, 2008 19:17:43 GMT -5
haha sorry but live any type of worms isnt gonna happen in this lifetime. i bet it will eat the FD blood worms, but is that healthy to feed it only that?
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Post by Carl on Oct 28, 2008 19:35:45 GMT -5
haha sorry but live any type of worms isnt gonna happen in this lifetime. i bet it will eat the FD blood worms, but is that healthy to feed it only that? No, as they are not nutritionally complete, even for a carnivore as commercially prepared FD BW are lacking in many nutrients. You could try soaking your FD Worms in vitamens and a Spirulina Slurry prior to feeding. Bill noted in another post dealing with this subject that he will subsitiute human vitamens for the more expensive fish variety and I totally agree. Carl |
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Post by goldenpuon on Oct 29, 2008 10:18:27 GMT -5
What kind of food are you feeding him? Do not just feed him freeze dried bloodworms. Personally, my bettas will eat almost anything but that but bloodworms. Ever since I bought a new container of bloodworms, my betta haven't liked it and spit it. My guppies are the only ones that eat it.
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Post by 8 in the Corner on Oct 29, 2008 11:58:32 GMT -5
I have never had any luck feeding pellets to bettas. Personally I think bettas are too small to process pellets properly. I lost a couple of nice males to digestive problems while feeding pellets quite a few years ago  and have fed only BettaMin flakes (when I keep them isolated) to them ever since. Haven't lost any to digestive problems since.
Tetra makes BettaMin, it comes in a small yellow plastic can and the flakes are red in color. The protein is high (48%), which is what bettas need (they are carnivores in the wild) and it must taste good because I have never had a betta refuse it. 
It is not expensive ($2.29) and a can lasts quite a while.
I only have one betta right now (a blue crowntail with a red wash), he lives with about half a million mixed fancy guppys in a planted 10g (yeah, it's probably overstocked : . He eats what they eat, HBH flake food. He is fat and sassy and I am sure he has an occasional guppy fry for a snack  when he can catch them in the najas grass.
John
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Post by Carl on Oct 29, 2008 12:29:58 GMT -5
Personally I have to respectfully disagree. I understand your concern with pellets, however it may be a question of soaking in water to soften or the actual pellet used. I have never observed this in my clients aquariums or in my feeding trials. However my main issue is not with whether flakes or pellets are used, but with the quality of ingredients and Tetra Products including BettaMin may have a good analysis of protein, but this is often meaningless if the proteins (amino acids that make them up) are of low quality. For example a leather shoe is high in protein, but you would not want to pulverize them and make a fish from the powder. Here are BettaMin ingredients: Fish meal, ground brown rice, torula dried yeast, shrimp meal, wheat gluten, dried potato products, dehulled soybean meal, fish oil, soybean oil, algae meal, sorbitol, lecithin, l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (vitamin C). Artificial colors including red 3. Ethoxyquin as a preservative. Compare this with Sanyu/Hikari: White fish meal, shrimp meal, soybean meal, wheat flour, rice bran, wheat germ, yeast, vitamin A, B C, E and other minerals It is noteworthy that superior Whole White Fish meal is used and the the number two ingredient is not a cereal as with Tetra. For further explanation, please see this article: Proper Fish NutritionCarl |
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Post by goldenpuon on Oct 29, 2008 12:35:52 GMT -5
Thera tropical fish pellets work well. My bettas love them. They are small which the bettas like. How big are the pellets you're feeding? In my experience, mmy bettas will spit out or even refuse to eat large pellets altogether. I discovered this when one of my first bettas, Clover refused to eat his food and spit it out. Then I switched to a smaller pelleted food and it worked great. He loved them and oaced around the tank begging for more. XD
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Post by nathanp2007 on Oct 29, 2008 17:54:52 GMT -5
americanaquariumproducts.com/BettaGold.htmlThese are the pellets i bought and have tried to feed my last betta and are currently trying to get this betta to eat them. Id say they are normal sized...not big, and when soaked (when he spits them out) they fully fall apart so its not like they are super soft by the time i put them in his tank. But to be honest i already have multiple betta foods and it would suck to buy another new one..i have the top fin betta food but was told it wasnt that good, i have the cheap food that i got when i was noobish about fish, and now this food which im told is super good, but i cant get my betta to eat it, maybe he will its only been 4 days...but whats up with the fish spitting it out...idk if that means i should just keep trying and he will eventually have to cause he wont let himself starve, or are they that stubborn?
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Post by goldenpuon on Oct 29, 2008 19:00:19 GMT -5
Not normally. I gave my cousin one of the bettas I bred once. He got sick and ended up not eating until he truned gray and was very skinny. Then he started eating and is fine now! One tip for feeding bettas i don't switch around the food too much. Tyr one type of betta food for at least 4 days and if he doesn't like that one then switch. Bettas can be quite fussy and if they keep getting their food switched it can cause them to spit it out. Also keep in mind that when they are spitting the food they may be tasting it. If your fish don't eat the food right away, leave it in there for a while and they migtht take it while you're not looking. Also, if your food is falling apart after you soak it, you should soak it less time or if you find it better, don't soak it at all. If youir betta's taking a while to eat it, odds are its soaking in the tank water anyway.
Hope that helps!
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Post by Carl on Oct 29, 2008 19:22:49 GMT -5
I do not think you should buy another.
You seem to be softening them well, otherwise they would not fall apart.
Unfortunately, as I noted earlier in this thread, there is the occasion Beta that simply will not eay ANY dry prepard food I have tried (although rare IMO, I have seen this).
In this case I go back to what I said earlier about using frozen or FD bloodworms, Brine shrimp or similar and adding (soaking in) vitamens, minerals, a maybe a spiruilina slurry to soak them in prior to feeding to boost their nutritional value. Gut loaded live worms are best, but you already noted that you will not go this route, & I can respect that for the obvious reasons.
In these few stubborn Bettas I have encountered, I have had them live 2 plus healthy years with the mehods I mentioned above vs. much less when only FD/fronzen worms were fed.
Carl
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Post by cashay on Oct 30, 2008 14:35:17 GMT -5
My Betta was definitley a surface eater, Would spit the pellets out of his mouth, and would not touch them again, Even when I tried soaking them, He just didn't care at all for them. He did eat the flakes, and fd blood worms, and never spit that out unless the flake was really big... then he kinda broke it up, by spitting it out but would eat it all.. i guess from reading everyones responses, All Betta's are different, I would just watch him and figure him out, See his likes and dislikes... good luck with him  |
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Post by Carl on Oct 30, 2008 16:54:25 GMT -5
My Betta was definitley a surface eater, Would spit the pellets out of his mouth, and would not touch them again, Even when I tried soaking them, He just didn't care at all for them. He did eat the flakes, and fd blood worms, and never spit that out unless the flake was really big... then he kinda broke it up, by spitting it out but would eat it all.. i guess from reading everyones responses, All Betta's are different, I would just watch him and figure him out, See his likes and dislikes... good luck with him I think this is excellent advice! Also as John/8 pointed out this may be a size issue, although I have rarely seen this as a problem with the very small Sanyu or Hikari Pellets The main point is to not limit his foods or feed only one food which may be of lower quality as I this is where his longevity will be cut short if he is a finicky eater. Try and diversify as much as possible and try soaking WHATEVER you feed in additional vitamins, minerals, Spirulina Slurry, etc. to improve nutrition. Carl |
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Post by nathanp2007 on Oct 30, 2008 18:58:41 GMT -5
Update---put 4 new pellets in (soaked) and he looked at them, and ignored them like he knows what they are and he doesnt like them. So if im to buy flake for a betta, which should i buy do you think Carl? Btw im assuming that Spirulina 20 isnt the right flake to feed him...if it is, YAY..if not, then i guess i gotta buy new food.
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Post by goldenpuon on Oct 30, 2008 19:13:14 GMT -5
I feed my bettas Omega flake food. They love it! Some of my females jump out of the water thinking the food's somehow in the air when it's feeding time. lol
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Post by Carl on Oct 30, 2008 19:37:54 GMT -5
I feed my bettas Omega flake food. They love it! Some of my females jump out of the water thinking the food's somehow in the air when it's feeding time. lol The Spirulina 20 flake is good for gut loading or making a slurry for FD worms, etc, but not as a diet for Bettas as you already noted. The Omega Betta Flake is an excellent product as most Omega Products are (with the exception of their Veggie Flake). The Omega Betta Flake has Salmon, Halibut and Shrimp as the first three ingredients if my memory sevrves me (I have used many of their products inclding in trials) Your other options (besides persistance) are what I mentioned earlier. Carl |
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and have fed only BettaMin flakes (when I keep them isolated) to them ever since. Haven't lost any to digestive problems since.
. He eats what they eat, HBH flake food. He is fat and sassy and I am sure he has an occasional guppy fry for a snack 
when he can catch them in the najas grass.
