Betta having trouble finding food?

[bloodlucky]

This is a rather difficult question and a topic I'm sure everyone has on their minds.

I have a betta in a 2.5 gallon, he seems to have trouble finding his food on time. He loves his home and he's always swimming up and down so he doesn't notice the pellets floating at the top until he swims across it, which could take a good 30 minutes. By then the pellets are soggy and he just spits them out.

Does anyone else have this problem? He doesn't have trouble eating. I fed him bloodworms and brine shrimp, but since those sink and get pushed around by the filter, he instantly finds them and chases them down. But since the pellets don't sink or move, he can't find it!

He doesn't have anything against the pellets. Like I said, he eventually finds it if he swims near it but by then it's all soggy and lost its "flavor" so he just spits it out

 

[Calypso77]

Mine gets very excited at feeding time and is all over the place knocking them down so I wait til I have his attention and I drop a pellet at a time as he is at the top looking at the top and he gobbles them right up.

How many do you give him in a day?

 

[bloodlucky]

Mine gets very excited at feeding time and is all over the place knocking them down so I wait til I have his attention and I drop a pellet at a time as he is at the top looking at the top and he gobbles them right up.

How many do you give him in a day?

I give him 3 a day.

 

[bloodlucky]

Mine gets very excited at feeding time and is all over the place knocking them down so I wait til I have his attention and I drop a pellet at a time as he is at the top looking at the top and he gobbles them right up.

How many do you give him in a day?

Today I actually observed to see if he even eats it and like I said he just swims around completely ignorant of the fact that he's being fed, ten by the time he finds out about the pellets, they've lost their color and nutrition therefore making it useless to eat so he just spits them out

 

[Calypso77]

What kind of pellet are you feeding? How big are they?

 

[bloodlucky]

What kind of pellet are you feeding? How big are they?

Wardley Betta Foods, probably the most common Betta food I've ever seen. My friends have the same brand food, except they keep their Bettas in tiny bowls so it's probably hard to miss when they feed them lol

 

[Calypso77]

Those are pretty big pellets. You can get Omega One Buffet Pellets that are half the size. Should do the trick. My sister had the same pellets as you and hardly saw her Betta eat, i got her to change pellets and she switched to these and he eats every one he gets.

 

[KevinM]

Play with your Betta more, I know it sounds strange, but bettas have the iq to know you, talk to it sit near the tank, run your finger up and down the side of the tank, get any interaction with him as you can,


A trick you can teach him(I did this with one just to see if it works) run your finger to the top if the of the tank, if your Betta follows give him a treat or a pellet, do it agin a few hours later, for a total of 3 times a day, then repeat till you can drag your finger to the top and he follows every time, this will mean to him food time.

Also you can try bloodworms my bettas go batsh**crazy for them, like jumping out of the water when they see a blue cup(I mix them with some of the tank water in a blue cup)

Just work with your Betta as again they are very smart I have one that even likes to be petted, I try not to as it messes with the slime coat but he swims up and rubs on my finger all the time

 

[bloodlucky]

Play with your Betta more, I know it sounds strange, but bettas have the iq to know you, talk to it sit near the tank, run your finger up and down the side of the tank, get any interaction with him as you can,

A trick you can teach him(I did this with one just to see if it works) run your finger to the top if the of the tank, if your Betta follows give him a treat or a pellet, do it agin a few hours later, for a total of 3 times a day, then repeat till you can drag your finger to the top and he follows every time, this will mean to him food time.

Also you can try bloodworms my bettas go batsh**crazy for them, like jumping out of the water when they see a blue cup(I mix them with some of the tank water in a blue cup)

Just work with your Betta as again they are very smart I have one that even likes to be petted, I try not to as it messes with the slime coat but he swims up and rubs on my finger all the time

He's fairly new to my tank less than a week. He keeps swimming against the back glass

 

[KevinM]

get some Bloodworms, if you get dried just soak for a min or 2 in some of its tank water and then pour it in. I bet he comes out =) just feed a few, mine eats maybe 3 or 4.

 

[bloodlucky]

get some Bloodworms, if you get dried just soak for a min or 2 in some of its tank water and then pour it in. I bet he comes out =) just feed a few, mine eats maybe 3 or 4.

I will try that too. I don't have too much money though so I want to keep one consistant thing

So is the Betta food I bought useless?

 

[Calypso77]

I will try that too. I don't have too much money though so I want to keep one consistant thing

So is the Betta food I bought useless?

I would go get the other pellets I suggested the ones you have are probably too big.

 

[KevinM]

Could try Hikari Betta Bio-Gold Pellets too, they are really small. I feed mine pellts every other day and Blood worms on the off days and skip feeding all together on Mondays. Can get them at Walmart

 

[shellieca]

I think you said you have Wardley pellets . . . if so try crushing them. The bits will sink and he scavenge the bottom, I had to do that for a little while. I switched to the Top Fin Betta Bits pellets & haven't had any eating problems since, unless the Betta is sick. One of my small females will spit the pellet out over & over but eventually eats it. The freeze dried foods don't actually offer any nutritional value so don't make that the main diet, frozen is much better if you decide to also feed blood worms or brine shrimp. When feeding my Bettas I wait until they are at the top of the water looking at me, then I drop a pellet next to him or her, once it's eaten I drop another. I do one pellet at a time so I can make sure the food is getting eaten. If I remember correctly from one of your posts, you've only had him a week? If so, it could take him a little bit to adjust but he should get into a routine. A 2.5g tank with a filter may be too much current, try turning off the filter while you're feeding him. One last thing, if at all possible get a bigger tank, not all agree with me, IMO they should not be in anything less than a 5g to really thrive.

 

[bloodlucky]

I think you said you have Wardley pellets . . . if so try crushing them. The bits will sink and he scavenge the bottom, I had to do that for a little while. I switched to the Top Fin Betta Bits pellets & haven't had any eating problems since, unless the Betta is sick. One of my small females will spit the pellet out over & over but eventually eats it. The freeze dried foods don't actually offer any nutritional value so don't make that the main diet, frozen is much better if you decide to also feed blood worms or brine shrimp. When feeding my Bettas I wait until they are at the top of the water looking at me, then I drop a pellet next to him or her, once it's eaten I drop another. I do one pellet at a time so I can make sure the food is getting eaten. If I remember correctly from one of your posts, you've only had him a week? If so, it could take him a little bit to adjust but he should get into a routine. A 2.5g tank with a filter may be too much current, try turning off the filter while you're feeding him. One last thing, if at all possible get a bigger tank, not all agree with me, IMO they should not be in anything less than a 5g to really thrive.

Thanks for the advice about my pellets. I will definitely do that. I feed frozens and never dried. I always stuck with frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp as my dad taught me to do so back when we had the massive tank in our entrance.

Since im getting a 40 gallon for Christmas, all of my 10 gallon things will be moved from the 10 to the 40. I may be able to move him to the 10 gallon but it's not clear yet

 

[CorallineAlgae]

I have the same problem with my betta. I decided to idea bloodworm feeding cone (I think Lee makes it if it's still available). It's basically a plastic ring attached to a suction cup that goes at the top corner of the tank. You can use it like this to feed pellets or flakes. It also has a perforated plastic cone that allows you to pour in bloodworms and the fish just suck them out. The idea is that the fish eat in the same spot every day and the current can't move the food all around the tank.

Might seem strange but I've used the same feeder for over 10 years and it just plain works for nearly every picky top feeding fish I've ever had. It's only an option if anybody still makes the things.

Other than this I agree with all of the advice of the other posters. You have to get the betta's attention before you feed them.

 

[Laser]

The wardly foods I've seen don't have the same quality ingredients as omega or new life spectrum. My bettas definitely notice when I drop the NLS pellets in and they are tiny in comparison to the HBH pellets I had originally bought. I think they tend to notice because of the garlic but I always wait until they see me and drop it near them in their line of site just to be sure.

 

[bloodlucky]

Thanks guys! I will definitely invest in other products.