Betta spitting out food

[Crystal_Marie]

Hi all.

So, my betta has become a picky eater. She’s now spitting out pellets she used to eat so quickly. But she spits them out and chases it, tries to eat it again, spits it out, etc until it hits the tank bottom. She was able to eat frozen blood worms no problem. Last night she saw her food and just ignored it. I just saw her open her mouth wide as if to vomit. She’s still actively swimming and exploring. She was just able to eat a pellet I presoaked. She spat it out until it broke up and then ate the pieces.  I can tell she feels hungry. Should I be concerned for illness? She’s always been a good eater and I’ve always used the same food (API betta pellets).
tank mates are a female nerite snail who has just started laying eggs and a blue shrimp. Tank is planted. 

water parameters are:

• pH 8.2* this is the only parameter that I don’t understand. I was 7.4 for over a month. I have an API water softener pillow in the tank. I recharged it 2/19 and pH went from 8-8.2. On 1/21 I replaced my carbon filters. Could that be the issue?
• Nitrates 20-40 (it’s really hard to get a good pic but I’m basing my reading off of the master kit and test strips. I used both).
• Hardness 30ppm
• Nitrite 0
• Ammonia 0
• KH/Buffer 80ppm
• Water Temperature: 80°F

edited to add: my shrimp just died 😣 I don’t know how old it was. No signs of illness. Was going about the tank yesterday like normal.

Edited February 22, 2022 by Crystal_Marie

[Colu]

If he's spitting out food and starts to get a sunken belly then I would treat with Fritz Expel p as that could be wasting disease if he not losing weight and can still eat then I would just monitor for now  he looks healthy from what I can see in the picture

[Crystal_Marie]

@Colu I have fritz maracyn and fritz paracleanse. I’m treating with those just in case. I prophylactically medicated her when I first got her so I know she tolerated the meds well. I’m also soaking her pellets. She only gets 2 pellets 2x/day.

[AndreaW]

What a beautiful Betta!

Bettas can be picky eaters and they also can play with their food. They can also lose their appetite when they are stressed or their water quality is suboptimal.

Mine won't eat pellets and is picky about his frozen foods too. I notice one day he loves his brine shrimp, and the next day he doesn't, but he will go for the blood worms. The rare times I feed him pellets (I soak them) I have noticed he sometimes spits them out and breaks them up and eats the smaller pieces. I think it's because the pellets might be too large for their liking (even though he will slurp a worm down fine and I've seen Bettas eat shrimp whole).

The thing that would concern me though is your high nitrates. I would work on bringing those down through a series of water changes. I think shrimp are very sensitive to high nitrates so that could be an indicator so that could explain what happened.

Overall, she looks fine and healthy. I would recommend improving the water quality to see if that helps her and her tankmates.

And I'm sure you know this already, but be careful with over-medicating fish and always be aware of what medications your tank mates can handle as well.