Betta Diet Questions.

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I'd rather feed my fish live food, which is sometimes fry. I guess fry wouldn't be too bad to feed your fish. You normally get more then you can occomodate to begin with.
 
Thanks everyone! I guess I could try frozen bloodworms. I could probably handle that ! I did also read that the brine shrimp were not very nutritious. That's why I'll give my bettas a few, but still feed that day with the betta bites.
 
When I got test kits the other day, I also got some blood worms in a gel. It's Tetra brand. It wasn't that gross and it didn't stink. I gave my bettas each about three. I think they liked it!
 
Don't laugh (well, go ahead :lol: )

I sqeezed some out of the pouch onto a plastic spoon. I used another plastic spoon to pick up one worm, plus a little bit of gel (because the package said "nutrient rich gel"), on the very end of the spoon. I dipped the spoon into the water and he came up and ate it off the spoon. I fed one betta, then fed the other one. This is how I feed them live brine shrimp too, so they are used to eating from the spoon by now. Sometimes the brine shrimp swims off the spoon, but the bettas are pretty fast, because they know the spoon means food, so they grab the shrimp right off the spoon!
 
I feed mine dried blood worms and dried brine shrimp. They don't like the flake food I have. My green betta jumped out of the water and tried to bite me as I put my hand toward the surface of the water. I was going to remove a snail from his tank because saw him bite the snails entire antenna off :x , so I reached for the tank and he jumped out and tried to bite me, but I was to fast for him :D . My reflexes has already been put to the test earlier today when my rat snake bit my pointer finger and proceeded to swallow it before I got him loose.
 
Bettacove...awww...how sweet that our bettas eat off a spoon! My bettas are very well "trained" to know that my finger (and the spoon) mean food. My one betta jumps around so much when I feed him that he scatters the food around, so I've "trained" him to follow my finger to the food that he scattered across the tank! The other one follows my finger so well that I could make him spin in circles if I wanted to (but I don't!) One time I reached in to pick a fuzzy off the top of the water, and he "bit" me! It didn't hurt, but I knew I didn't want to feed them the gel bloodworms by hand. The directions say to squeeze the little packet under water and the fish can eat out of your hand. Well, I just used the spoon and it worked fine! The packet had a lot of gel for just two fish. I threw about half of it away after a day (two feedings). There are 16 packets in the box. It was only about 6 dollars, and they liked it!

SoCal, what a day you had! Bitten by the betta and the snake! Hope your finger is ok! I was thinking a little bit about getting each of my bettas a snail to keep them company. But after reading that your betta bit the snail's antenna off, maybe I'll reconsider. The bettas are together now in a divided tank, but before that they were in their own bowls for about a year, so maybe they're just too used to being by themselves. A green betta -- how pretty!
 
LOL how spoiled they are! I have one female who FLYS across the 10gal tank when she sees me coming. It so funny, she like skipps across the water! I use the spoon to feed them frozen foods and if I have left overs i give them to my oscars. Now my big guy knows the spoon and tries to take my hand off when he sees it coming! Hes grabbed the spoon a couple times and i have to chase him all over the tank to get it back lol. I guess no one ever told them not to bite the hand that feeds you...

ashley
 
An t-iasg,

The finger is still attached and works just fine.

I never realized you could train a betta like that. I think I might try to teach mine something, I wounder if I can get him to jump through a hoop(a silk one of course). I could start the first ever betta circus! :D
 
Bettacove -- picturing you trying to get the spoon out of the oscar's mouth! :D I think fish can get as spoiled as dogs or cats!

SoCal -- You could probably still train your betta. Try dropping food pieces a little bit away from him, and use your finger to guide him to the food. Wiggle your finger until he notices it, then move it slowly to the food and see if he'll follow. Once he realizes that food is the end result, he will learn quickly. When my bettas are flaring at each other across the divider (they don't too much anymore) I'll touch my finger to the glass and move it across the front of the tank to get them to swim away from the divider, and they follow my finger then too. I'll lead them over to one of their plants! They have to go to their own corner for a timeout!
 
Well, I my post didn't post for some reason so i'll try again.

I did try the finger thing and this betta is a fast learner, not sure if he was interested in playing follow the leader or if he just really wanted to try and bite me again. What an angry fish he is.
 
Wow...he must be a bad fishie if he bit the snail's antenna off! But keep trying...he may change his mind and be nice!

When my bettas were in their bowls, they never saw each other. One was a little friendlier than the other, in that he would come over to me when I looked in at him. The other one would usually flare and swim away. Well, now that they are together, the one that flared often is now coming up to me too. I think he noticed how the friendly one gets my attention and he is jealous! I really do think that his behavior changed. Maybe your betta's attitude will change too!
 
betta's will
eat worms, crustaceans, insects, and dried food
. so they will really eat anything. There is also a prepared food by Hikari ( i don't know if you can get this where you are ) called Betta Bio Gold.
 
An t-iasg,

Yeah he's bad alright. He swam up to the snail all slow and friendly like then started eyballing the antenna like he was in a trance and "slurp" he sucked the whole thing in like it was a worm then bit down. I hope my snail still gets good reception with only one antenna. :D I think I remember hearing that they grow back.
 
I know what it's like when the betta eyeballs something. One of mine did it once when a little gnat landed on the edge of his bowl. He was perfectly motionless, with his head kind of tilted up, then he just jumped up a little and caught it. But both of my bettas spit out the Hikari Bio-Gold. My lfs recommended it, but said they might not eat for the first day or so. Well, after the fourth day of them spitting it out, I bought Betta Bites. I gave the Bio-Gold to a friend with angelfish, and she said the angelfish liked it!
 
I had trouble getting my bettas to eat anything but dried blood worm so I did the eat it or don't eat at all for a few days. Even when they spit it out they where getting used to the taste and now they eat it. They still prefer dried blood worms though. I got 2 broom tails the other day, WOW are those cool or what!!! Pictures coming soon.
 
Hi SoCal,
Do you mean freeze-dried bloodworms? I tried those once. I think the bettas liked them, but they made my hands red and itchy, and I even used tweezers to pick the bloodworms out of the jar. So that's why I got the gel bloodworms (besides the lfs making me feel guilty for not giving them any live food!) Not that the gel or freeze-dried food is alive anymore, but it's closer to their natural diet than flakes or little pellets!

I don't know what a broomtail is. Is it a type of betta or another fish? I'm curious now -- post your pictures soon!
 
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