CleverBs
Aquarium Advice Addict
This is my marine betta i have had him for about 4-5 months now and hes doing amazing. I just wanted to give some info on what I did to allow him to adapt to aquarium life well. Because when i got him he only would eat live foods now he will eat anything i put in the tank even pelets.
MB are very slow eaters and investigate what they are going to eat before striking. So i found that the best way to train it was to set up a QT tank for just the MB to be alone in to learn to feed. When i got the MB it wouldn't eat anything not even live foods. After a few days of not eating I tossed a guppy in the tank and it made a meal of that but took it over an hour to become interested in and eat. After it ate the first guppy it was much more excepting the next time. I fed 2-3 baby guppies at a time (I breed guppies so I had them and knew they were safe) he would eat them in about 20mins. I was extreamly concerned at this point that he would never be able to be in a community aquarium begins it took him so long to eat and he was refusing anything but live foods. So i got him nice and fat on guppies then starved him for 4 days. I then put a full cube of mysis shrimp in the tank so that he would be surrounded by the food. He didnt even eat a single one. So i then moved on to Krill and he took to krill quickly. so i kept him in the QT (40g) till he was eating krill off my feeding tongs. This way I could spot feed him if i needed to in my larger tank. I transferred him and he refused to eat for about a week or more but once they get Hungary enough even dead food is appealing lol. So he started eatting well and now he hideds all day unless i approch the tank and as soon as i do he comes out of hidding and begs for food. i can hand feed him now anything I want. He eats shrimp pellets, krill, squid, shrimp, scallops, mysis, brine. They are beautiful and he is by far my favorit fish and people who have never seen one before are always blown away by his beauty. He is about 6" long maybe bigger and spends most of his time during the day either laying behind or rock or swimming in the "darker" areas of the tank. Alot of people told me dont get one because they are a pain to feed and all they do is hide. this isnt really true. Yes it was a pain to get to eat but thats ok. He never even came close to starving the entire time so theres really no fear in it. He also is one of the most personality filled fish in my tank. We even play a game where he comes up to the glass and i make a fist then open my hand quickly and he fans out and makes a C shape with his body like they do when attacking live pray then darts away and comes back ready for round 2 lol. He is out of hiding 60% of the day and if im in front of the tank hes 100% out and swimming around always.
