In spite of my fears... I have a Betta on the way for my 10 gallon!

[laritheloud]

I have a handsome plakat fella I'll be picking up and introducing to a ten gallon tank in early January! This fish is for my son, who chose the beautiful blue and yellow marble color. It'll be our first betta, and I hope he turns out to be healthy for us. All the struggling health with these guys scares me a bit, not going to lie!

That set aside, does anyone have a favorite food to feed their betta fish? If i were a reasonable person I'd just feed a variety of all the foods I already have. But... you know, I baby my fish, so I have to know exactly what your bettas love to eat. 😝 Open to hearing any tips and suggestions for a happy betta boy!

[StockEwe49]

Mine will eat Extreme Nano Pellets over frozen food! I also hear Fluval's bug bites are liked a LOT, but have not tried them.

[Maggie]

I fed Hikari micropellets until he reached adulthood and then switched to their betta pellets as the main food. He also got frozen bloodhound or frozen brine shrimp, regular flake, spirulina flake, and bug bites pellets. Alot of bettas enjoy live baby brine shrimp but mine never went after them. He loved live adult brine shrimp as a very special treat that I'd get from my LFS.

[Bjorn]

My betta is a piggy and will beg for pellet, fry food, and frozen food. He'll wait by the food door if I open it or if we make eye contact.

I sometimes feed live baby brine and he'll jump if I hover a drop from a pipette above the water line.

He's by far my favorite fish to feed and reminds me of my cat sometimes in that he's either begging for food or draping on a leaf to take a nap.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Bjorn

[laritheloud]

Love all of this! We already have Fluval Bug Bites and Xtreme Nano Pellets so maybe I don't need to purchase a separate food for him... though I have to admit, the temptation is really, really high to buy a betta pellet. 😝 I also regularly feed frozen daphnia to my gouramis, so I'll try it with the betta too.

[GameCzar]

Bettas can get constipated, I've been feeding some spirulina flakes occasionally along with her regular pellets to make sure she gets her greens.  😉 Our last boy loved tubifex worms, but this girl isn't a fan.  She loves frozen brine shrimp though. 

[laritheloud]

On 12/15/2021 at 4:12 PM, GameCzar said:

Bettas can get constipated, I've been feeding some spirulina flakes occasionally along with her regular pellets to make sure she gets her greens.  😉 Our last boy loved tubifex worms, but this girl isn't a fan.  She loves frozen brine shrimp though. 

I'm totally familiar with anabantoid constipation 🤣 Used to happen to Lady Marmalade my first thicklipped gourami before I worked out an appropriate feeding regimen. I know now to be conservative with the pellets and to rotate spirulina in with the mix!

[Ken Burke]

My bettas eat it all: frozen brine, bloodworms daphnia, etc; pellets, flake, anything.  My favorite is feeding frozen daphnia and bloodworms with a pipette.  So fun to watch them hunt down bloodworms as the sink….

[FrozenFins]

My betta, Hugo has defenetley become my favorite fish. He is going thruogh some finrot troubles and Im hopping he'll make a recovery but im doubtful. 

My favorite foods to feed him were...

-Hikari Betta Bio Gold (staple, almost every day)

-Northfin Betta Pellets (also a staple, but not as much as the hikari)

-Fluval Bug Bites (once a week as a treat, this is his favoirte food and is a must for all bettas IMO)

-Frozen Blood Worms (also as a treat, once a week)

[laritheloud]

On 12/15/2021 at 8:17 PM, James Black said:

My betta, Hugo has defenetley become my favorite fish. He is going thruogh some finrot troubles and Im hopping he'll make a recovery but im doubtful. 

My favorite foods to feed him were...

-Hikari Betta Bio Gold (staple, almost every day)

-Northfin Betta Pellets (also a staple, but not as much as the hikari)

-Fluval Bug Bites (once a week as a treat, this is his favoirte food and is a must for all bettas IMO)

-Frozen Blood Worms (also as a treat, once a week)

I hope Hugo pulls through! I know he's been through so much, what a wonderful little guy. We love Bug Bites as a biweekly treat for our gouramis, it doesn't surprise me that bettas would love them too 🙂

[Dancing Matt]

Mine loved live baby brine and it was fun to watch him hunt.

[Guppysnail]

Congratulations I hope your new friend is healthy and does well for you. Did you get to see the Coop presentation by Gianne Souza? Tons of great stuff. Looking forward to seeing pictures. I fed Bruno Tetra betta mini pellets, hikari baby pellets. I fed others but these were his favorite as well as frozen mysis shrimp he was in love with. 

[laritheloud]

On 12/15/2021 at 8:46 PM, Guppysnail said:

Congratulations I hope your new friend is healthy and does well for you. Did you get to see the Coop presentation by Gianne Souza? Tons of great stuff. Looking forward to seeing pictures. I fed Bruno Tetra betta mini pellets, hikari baby pellets. I fed others but these were his favorite as well as frozen mysis shrimp he was in love with. 

I have frozen mysis shrimp but haven't fed them too much yet! I tend to default to frozen daphnia. I haven't seen the presentation but it's on my list. Life's been crazy this season. I'm pretty sold on the Hikari betta pellets and I'll probably be picking those up to add to the rotation.

Fingers crossed the little guy does well. They're such pretty fish, and you know I love my anabantoids 😂

[Gideyon]

Mine liked hikari micro pellets. I also switched it up with omega betta flakes which he would enjoy too.

I wanted to try bug bites but he didn't last long enough. 

Regarding feeding... Mine struggled to eat until I got a feeding ring. He was a good swimmer but he did not like chasing for his food.  The ring made things so much easier. Someone in this forum gave that idea and it was a massive help. 

As for health and feeding... I sometimes wonder if too much of the hikari with not any variety, during an extended time hurt him.  I was doing some reading when trying to diagnose, and apparently there are some proteins that are not present in one food but could be in another, and that lack can cause problems.   So the variety is more than for keeping things interesting for the betta, but it could also be for its own health. 

Also, I think you're experienced enough to know, even if not with bettas, but overfeeding causes many issues and it's hard (at least for me) to know when that is. That 2 minute rule or whatever doesn't mean much if they're a glutton. I learned that a hungry betta is a healthy one.  So I tried to feed not so much, and fasted once a week. 

[Nel]

I recently got my betta and I got the Tetra Betta flakes, the Hikari betta bio-pellets and also some frozen blood worms. 

The first week he got a pinch of flakes in the morning and more or less 10 pellets in the evening. Because I thought: whatever he can eat in a minut 🤣. What he could eat in a minute was 12 and more pellets in the evening. 

When I found a little cinnamon role on the gravel, I realised that this was probably due to overfeeding (but asked for confirmation here). So after a day of fasting , he now gets a very tiny pinch of  flakes in the morning and 5 pellets in the evening. Because of the overfeeding, I haven't given him any bloodworms yet. I'm also wondering how much bloodworms do I give him? 

[Jennifer V]

On 12/15/2021 at 2:09 PM, laritheloud said:

😝I also regularly feed frozen daphnia to my gouramis, so I'll try it with the betta too.

What's the best way to feed frozen daphnia? With a pipette? 

[laritheloud]

@Jennifer V a pipette would work! I have several tanks so I defrost one cube in tank water in a little cup and eyeball it, pouring a little bit in to each tank.

[Jennifer V]

On 12/23/2021 at 6:47 PM, laritheloud said:

@Jennifer V a pipette would work! I have several tanks so I defrost one cube in tank water in a little cup and eyeball it, pouring a little bit in to each tank.

Thank you! Do you try to suck up what they don't eat within a few minutes, or is the daphnia so small that it isn't a concern? 

[laritheloud]

On 12/23/2021 at 8:57 PM, Jennifer V said:

Thank you! Do you try to suck up what they don't eat within a few minutes, or is the daphnia so small that it isn't a concern? 

I don't worry about it. If you're only feeding a betta I'd cut up a frozen cube to small pieces and defrost those. You can also always feed daphnia on water change day and feed in the morning, clean later in the day!

[sudofish]

I feed mine Xtreme Betta pellets. Occasionally substituting Hikari freeze dried daphnia. The betta is my favorite fish to feed as I can almost hand feed it. The other tank is a feeding frenzy when I put food in.