Betta not eating

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

aquahungerforce

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jul 31, 2004
Messages
41
Location
Pittsburg, CA
Greetings to all. I purchased a male crown tail betta about 10 days ago. I have him in a one gallon bowl that I change the water in every 3-4 days. Up until 3 days ago he was eating and acting perfectly normal, and now he will not eat. I tried different pellets, flakes, and blood worms. He ate one or two of the worms, but now again today nothing. He has no signs of fungus or dropsy or anything I can physically see on him. Any suggestions? I have kept bettas before but never had this problem. Thanks!
 
You may be overfeeding as well. Especially if you tried all that food, and didn't remove any of it. Could be ammonia levels in the water, which would be caused by the waste and "goo" in your tank.

Is he swimming around, or just laying on the tank bottom?

If you have a test kit, test the water. If you don't have a kit, you should get one, and then test the water :lol:

Good luck with Mr. Betta!
 
I haven't over fed him ( I removed the uneaten food), and I last changed the water yesterday. The water is around 76-78 and today he has blown a few bubbles. He seems to be laying on the bottom hiding behind a plant mostly.
 
Well, if he's blown a few bubbles he must not be too unhappy! Take that as consolation! I have so many bettas it's probably violating a city ordinance. And some of the time when I get a new one, even if it eats fine the first few days, t won't eat again for another 3 or four days. I don't know why, but they do. I haven't had one yet that wouldn't warm up to pellets again. You might try hikari betta pellets baby pellets (the package will say baby pellet on the front). They're much smaller and easier for younger betta to eat. I had the most success coaxing bettas to eat again using that. Good luck!

BTW, I love ATHF too. They say I can imitate Meatwad's voice almost perfectly. :)
 
Im glad to hear of someone else encountering the same thing. My sister and mom have probably 7 or 8 male bettas plus 4 females in a 10 gal (they made their own"save the bettas foundation" for the bettas at walmart :wink: ) and they never had this problem before.
I actually was feeding him the Hikari pellets before, he seems now to flare when I drop a pellet in, swim towards it and swim away. But he did eat two small freeze-dried blood worms today. Better than nothing I guess! I think he's just trying to frustrate me! 8O I'm also having problems with my 10 gal, cant get the nitrite levels down, lotsa fishy stress this week!
Thanks alot everyone for your input, I do appreciate it.

And its always good to meet another ATHF fan frshwaterfinatc!
 
ATHF is a cool show, lol.

It's good that he ate finally. Just seems that he is a very picky betta!! :roll:

You might just have to experiment with different foods and see what he will finally eat. Since it seems he doesn't like the pellets, try bettamin (flake food), and maybe he'll go for that.

Is he still hiding behind that plant?

Good Luck!
 
Back
Top Bottom