cognizant

I was considering dropping an algae wafer in Hughie's tank to help vary his diet. Question 1: Can he eat this? Question 2: If yes to question 1, how long should I leave the wafer in his tank before removing it?

Chief_waterchanger

Yeah, betta Splendens can eat algae wafers. You could leave it whole and take it out after 12 hours or so or you could crush it and give him just a little of the crumbled algae wafer bits.

biscotti

The first time I gave an algae wafer to my tank of mollies they went crazy. I thought it was so cute how they swarmed around the wafer. Little did I know that the algae wafer expands after it's been in the water for a while, or in a fish belly for a while. They REALLY over ate, to the point where I thought I might lose a few. It looked like their bellies would burst.

I wouldn't leave it in for more than a few minutes if the fish is going at it.

chickadee

They will eat anything they think is food if they decide they like it but bettas can be picky eaters so he may not decide to try it. Generally peas or other slightly cooked veggies chopped up in very small chunks work better to vary their diet veggie wise. But I have seen mine eat very small pieces of white grape (peeled), pineapple, zucchini, summer squash, butternut squash, sweet potato, cucumber, carrot, and a very tiny seedless piece of strawberry. The betta is the one who decides what they will and won't eat and some of them are very accepting and some will eat nothing but betta food. I had ONE who would eat nothing but freeze dried bloodworms and freeze dried daphnia no matter what. All you can do is try. I have also had good luck with very tiny pieces of raw liver (beef) about half the size of their eye. (one per betta)

Rose

COBettaCouple

We had a Betta (Sora) decide one day to try the algae wafer I dropped in for the Cories in his tank, he was constipated for days. If you want to try wafers for him, I would recommend going with New Life Spectrum or Omega One brand wafers and only dropping in a small piece of one as he could decide to eat all of whatever you put in.