Betta's eating habits!

[ShellBeaumont]

I have a male betta in my tank with my Cory cats (he's moving to his own tank as soon as it cycles as I've noticed a tiny bit of aggression toward my lovely cories! Anyway that's a whole other story)...
He keeps eating the sinking pellets that I put in the tank for the cories and his stomach seems to be really swollen. I feed him his food first to try and fill him up so he won't go after the pellets (which he seems to swallow whole) but that doesn't work.
Are the pellets causing his swollen stomach and is it dangerous?
Thanks!

 

[TheMightyOscen]

I would say that they are. A betta's stomach is smaller that his eye - this means over feeding can cause problems, the most common problem being constipation. Do not feed your whole tank for 24 hours (all the fish will be fine don't worry) and after the 24 hours are up, feed your betta a tiny piece of soft, de-shelled pea (about 1.5mm of it) and don't put any other food in the tank until the next feed. If he continues to eat the pellets then perhaps try to distract him by his own food at the surface, if that doesn't work then don't feed the betta at all as he will get his food from the pellet for your other fish. Moving him to his own tank sounds like a brilliant idea.

 

[preyas1207]

What do you feed your betta? Flakes or Pellets the floating ones. If hes eating the cories i know as a fact that most sinking food will expand after a while usually most pellets are just like that

 

[TheMightyOscen]

I hand feed my betta two pellets (each pellet is around 1/3 of his eye and they expand a little when they are wet). I'm lucky enough that my lil guy will take food from my fingers.

 

[preyas1207]

thats neat!their only 1/3 of the eye wow really good micro pellets :/ hm ya its mainly the sinking stuff

 

[TheMightyOscen]

The only things I can suggest is separating the fish into different tanks or to distract your betta while you feed your other fish. Have you tried the not feeding for 24 hours and then the pea feeding?