bhcaaron

So I know that a healthy diet (with food variety) keeps a healthier, happier fish. So I will be ordering the following things from DFS: Tubifex, Daphnia, Blood Worms and betta Bio-Gold.

Do you have any other recommendations?

I know that mixing the brands is also recommended, but, for now, to save money, all are the same brand. Oh! I forgot... I already have frozen peas ahahahahaha

sgould

Give 'em a steak!

Barbrella

Are you getting frozen bloodworms? Dried foods aren't really the best for bettas.

I would get frozen brineshrimp instead of the daphnia, which has a mild laxative effect on bettas and which you won't need if you're doing the pea thing. My bettas don't really like daphnia, I think partially because they're just too tiny.

Isabella

I feed my fish with: a variety of flakes, frieze-dried bloodworms, frozen bloodworms, and frozen brine shrimp.

bhcaaron

hahahahaha

Fillet Mignon anyone? lol

bhcaaron

No, they're not frozen. I'm ordering through DSF, I'll have to check to see if they have frozen. However, I've heard they are more expensive. Are dried not good for them or is it that frozen are just better? If the latter is true, then I'll just have to wait on the frozen. I'll check tomorrow with my LFS to see how much they sell them for, however, I remember the lady telling me that they were expensive.

Thank you for the heads up though.

bhcaaron

Since you and Barbrella seem to agree, I'll change the daphnia for the brine instead of the daphnia. However, once again, I think it will have to be dried and not frozen for now. I'll eventually have frozen things as a treat to make them last longer.

Aren't brine shrimp marine? I know that feeding freshwater feeder fish to some saltwater fish like lion fish as a staple is detrimental and eventually deadly for the saltwater fish. I don't intend to concentrate on any one type of food, but, will feeding saltwater shrimp to a freshwater fish cause any harm?

COBettaCouple

lately we've been feeding our bettas a simpler diet, only 3 foods (they were getting about 8 at one point).. Betta Pro pellets, Hikari frozen bloodworms and frozen peas.

bhcaaron

What were the eight foods previously selected? They really must have been happy fishies!

COBettaCouple

let's see.. they had 1) betta pellets, 2) betta vitamin pellets, 3) color pellets, 4) daphnia, 5) frozen peas, 6) dried bloodworms, 7) soft krill pellets, 8) betta flakes with brine shrimp ..and sometimes they'd get fruit treats.

bhcaaron

haha WOW Thanks!

I just saw some brine shrimp flakes at my lfs... THEY ARE EXPENSIVE! $59.99 EEK! I can't afford that.

I checked out prices for food at walmart and my lfs and LiveAquaria is either equal or cheaper even WITH S&H!

I will also have to wait on the frozen foods. I'll order that next time I have enough money.

bhcaaron

Has anyone ever used Attison's Betta PRO?
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...1&N=2004&Nty=1

Yea? Ney?

bhcaaron

Trying to find out what is best when it comes to content. Is it better to have more or less crude fat? What about ash? I can imagine that with protein, more is better; fiber, more is better; moisture, less is better; phosphorus, less is better. Am I right?

Here is a comparison for Tubifex:

Nutrafin / Azoo

Crude Protein: 42% / 52% (min)
Crude Fat: 5% / 12% (min)
Crude Fiber: 2.6%/ 5% (max)
Moisture: 9% / 5% (max)
Phosphorus: .6-.8% / does not specify only states "minimal"
Ash: 8% / 12% (max)

With Nutrafin price comes out to about $2.34/oz while Azoo is about $3.21/oz. While I'm not comfortable with not knowing exact phosphorus content, I believe Azoo would be the better product for the fish in this case (If my above assumptions are correct about protein and fiber). This doesn't mean these are the products I'm buying, just wanting help in choosintg.

What is the difference between Dry Protein and Crude Protein?

bhcaaron

Did anyone else have trouble feeding daphnia to Bettas? Not only are daphnia a freshwater food source, as oposed to the salty brine, but, they are the most nutritive food I've found. Even compared to brine shrimp, daphnia have more protein and fiber than brine!

COBettaCouple

lately we've been feeding our bettas a simpler diet.. Betta Pro pellets, Hikari frozen bloodworms and frozen peas. They love the pellets and seem to be doing quite well. we're happier with these pellets than any we've tried before. i'd say yea on them.

bhcaaron

Thanks COBetta. I'm going tank crazy! I don't want to mess up and I've gone from bare bottom to fully planted w/ driftwood and back a couple of times! Its time to go to sleep now, hopefully I won't mess up tomorrow morning when ordering. Wish me luck if you'd like, but, most of all, give me advise if you can spare it. I just want a happy lil fish. I think I'll start with the 10G. Any thoughts on what you'd do with it would help.

bhcaaron

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...4&pcatid=15464

Anyone ever used it? Thoughts?

0morrokh

I think I've heard the name before but never heard from anyone who's used it. Normally I don't like dumping extra chemicals into the water, but that stuff looks pretty "natural." It's looks to be mostly indian almond leaf extract, which a lot of Betta breeders use. But it's certainly not necessary.

Kevin

looks like it's okay to use...i'm pretty sure you can trust ocean nutrition

bhcaaron

Maybe I'll try it another time. I already ordered my first batch of stuff last night. I may look into it further in the future if I ever try to breed one.

chickadee

I am currently using it as a treatment for finrot for Nate and it has the added benefit of keeping the tank free of algae even though it sits in full sun for 8 hours a day. I am using a combination of that and sunlight and frequent water changes instead of the option of more medications at present. The other tanks have very small doses of it in them as well as I like the way the bettas behave in the almond leaf water. I think it makes them spunkier. I do not believe it is necessary to have a healthy betta but I think they seem to like it. I do not use the strength the bottle recommends though as it would be cost prohibitive. It also makes the taking of really good pictures impossible as everything looks dirty in the pictures. It has stained my plastic canvas dividers ans some of the decor a bit.

Rose

bhcaaron

Hmmm.... I think I like the sound of it.

Now why OH why did you not mention this before!?!? (sigh) How's it working for the finrot?

chickadee

Nate heals from the finrot and has been doing very well actually but his problem is that when he is ALMOST ready to go to the big betta boys tank, he always chews a part of his tail back off. So actually his problem is not so much finrot right now as being protected from it because of self-destruction. The fins are growing back at a really fast rate with the high protein diet he is getting and all but so far they are mostly cellophane instead of the lovely red that is his main color. If he will LEAVE THEM ALONE long enough, I do have hope that he will someday be the beauty I got.

Attached Images

Nat_demo_large.jpg (35.4 KB, 6 views)

bhcaaron

Have you thought of therapy? I'm sure there's a psychologist somewhere willing to take your money to make him feel more "at one" with itself!

Tazmiche

My bettas sulk if i give then daphnia!! I have started putting it in for Honey as she is SSOOOOOOO picky. I figured it's good for you, will stay afloat and if you are hungry enough you will eat it. Today i noticed ( when she thought i was not looking ) her eat one!! She is such a ( too yummy for words) Spoilt madam. She has even moved into my bedroom by my bed!

I'm used to nutrafin products, seem ok. I'm looking into atisons stuff myself at the moment.

Barbrella

Mine give me the "You've got to be kidding! You expect us to eat these...these..FLEAS??" look and turn up their cute little noses.

Tazmiche

HAHA that's the reaction i get!! Well described!!

Kevin

my boys eat anything...lucky me...
little off topic, but emilio loves to nip at my finger...or maybe he hates it when it gets in his territory...who knows

chickadee

The boys in the den (Marty, Qwin, and Triton) do not like daphnia but they will eat them when I am not watching. I think you have it right, a lot of it is because they are spoiled but when they see that this is supper, nothing else is coming, they will fill their tummies with it.

I do not usually do this to them unless I am super busy and do not have the time to feed each betta each piece of food for their meals. When I have the time, I handfeed every one of them. (99% of the time) If I did not do this, they may be more ready to eat what they are given.

Rose

LuvaBetta

Ah, you've GOTTA hand-feed the bettas! That's so much fun interacting with them then. It cracks me up when they strike so hard they miss, then chew anyway! Like a cat - "I MEANT to do that!"