Marc

Wondering if he would eat them and not knowing whether or not it was good or bad, I dropped 3-4 brine shrimp into my Betta's tank - which he promptly chased down and ate. Is there anything wrong with feeding him live brine shrimp?

chickadee

Brine shrimp are good for him but very rich. They should not be his only food, but I am in the process of trying to persuade a little Betta she CAN eat something else and it is a hard thing to do. It says right on the can of the Freeze-dried variety to only feed 2 or 3 times a week, but my stubborn little girl won't eat anything else right now.

They are a very good source of protein and roughage for them though. You should not have to worry about constipation with a Betta who eats them. LOL

Rose

0morrokh

Live foods are in most cases not recommended due to the possibility of them carrying diseases...but you can buy freeze-dried brine shrimp at the store that are perfectly safe to use.

chickadee

OOOOPS!!

Missed the LIVE part. Must be sleepy. No Live Shrimp are not recommended. Good answer, Omorrokh.

Rose

Butterfly

You could always hatch your own the eggs shouldn't carry disease. Right?
Carol

chickadee

So right! And I here they are not all that hard to raise. The eggs I see advertised on eBay say they have an 85% hatch rate. I think that is pretty good.

Rose

MaryPa

I feed my fish frozen Brine Shrimp once a week.

0morrokh

The problem with frozen is that freezing does not kill all of the germs. There have been links from parasitic diseases to the feeding of frozen foods. Freeze-drying does kill everything though.

Marc

Hmmm... if I raised the shrimp to adult size, would they be much more safe?

Butterfly

Probably, although I have been using frozen shrimp and blood worms for years and haven't noticed a problem. My fish love chasing even the tiny just hatched brine shrimp. They only get them when I have tiny fry to feed though.
Carol

ebbandflow

Say your betta will eat both freezedried bloodworms and freezedried brine shrimp... is it ok to feed them both? If so how many days for each?

chickadee

I should say here that of my 3 Bettas, I have one that eats Bio-Gold pellets and wouldn't touch a bloodworm or shrimp if it were given to him on a golden spoon. Anoter will eat Freeze-dried bloodworms and the same goes for him where other food is concerned. Now my little girl has decided that she is ready for Big Betta food and wants nothing to do with the baby pellets anymore so I tried the bloodworms - NOPE - pellets - NOPE - Freeze-dried Baby Brine Shrimp - OF COURSE! So now I have 3 Betta each eating a different thing. Let me stress something, Bettas are not into variety. They find something they like and they do not like to be bothered trying to be changed to a different food even if WE think it would be nice to change them. It is a lesson in futility to spend the money and find they only want the food they chose to eat in the first place. They may eat one piece or even one meal, but they will go back to the one they chose in the first place and you will be stuck with a can or container or freezer of food you don't know what to do with.

Rose

0morrokh

If any Betta would eat more than one food, I think you're only supposed to feed brine shrimp twice a week.

chickadee

That is what it says on the can even. They are so rich they are a couple times a week food, but so far I have found that the ones that like bloodworms won't touch shrimp. (by the way, Misty is now tired of shrimp and will not touch it either, she is now eating bloodworms. Wonder of wonders - I have two of them eating the same thing!)

Rose

Butterfly

Shhh.... don't tell them Rose!!
Carol

MaryPa

I too have used Frozen for years and my fish are very healthy.

Joe G

I have brine shrimp eggs, what do i do just put in glass with tank water, when they hatch feed them to my fish.

inari

some one on the first page said that it would be amazing if ur bettas eat more than one thing...idk if this counts but Tenshi eats both pellets and flakes the flakes contain brine tho so that might be what she is liking :