fishnewb

i'm a fairly new betta owner. but i've definitely come to ADORE my new little guy Syd. he's a beautiful crown tail betta with deep dark red and blue colors. i have this guy for a week now, and i've been experimenting with different foods, pellets, flakes and he doesn't seem to be interested in either of those. in fact he spits the pellets back out, but usually ends up eating them later on when he realizes he's hungry. today i fed him a pea for the first time ever and he LOVED IT. he mowed down the entire thing (i took the skin off), and he seemed to really enjoy it. so my question is, how often can i feed my guy peas? once a week, twice a week? i hear it's good for constipation ... i haven't seen him poo since i've had him.

some pictures for fun ...



he is quite the character. he seems to love being in the 10 gallon. i was worried he might be bored/lonely, but he's constantly swimming around, in and through the plants and decor. anytime i put my face up to the glass, he comes up right away to say "hello!"

Phloxface

He's a beautiful fish. I'm glad you are feeding him peas as constipation is a very big problem with Bettas. I have two Bettas with serious recurring problems of constipation. Once they get it you'll be battling it all their lives.
Maybe I misunderstood but you said he ate the whole pea? If so then that is WAY too much for his little tiny belly to handle. I have seven Bettas and I use only one pea for ALL of them and still have about 25% of it left to throw out. I feed it about 3-4 times a week as a treat (not at the same time as pellets) You should cut it into tiny pieces and give only one or two pieces (about the size of half his eyeball). Their stomachs are only the size of one eye so they don't need and shouldn't have more food than that at any one time. Overfeeding can lead to swim bladder problems and I know that all too well! I have one boy who has been battling it for months and will probably be disabled and not able to swim properly ever. I never feed more than 1 pellet at a time (2 for my other larger male) and feed several times a day rather than one or two big meals a day. It is much healthier and easier on their digestion.
Try soaking the pellet in water for about 10 minutes before giving it to him. It makes it easier to eat and digest and he's less likely to spit. They do that because the pellet is too hard to chew so they try to soften it before eating.

Don't worry about him being bored or lonely in the 10 gallon tank. Bettas prefer to be alone and are quite happy that way. The tank looks beautiful and he will find lots of fun things to do and explore by himself.
Is the tank cycled? Do you have water testing kits? Just wondering because you said you've had him for a week and it usually takes a lot longer to cycle a tank unless you cycled it before getting him.

COBettaCouple

He might be pooping without you noticing.. those fins can hide it and the substrata makes it hard to tell sometimes how much they're pooping. A bare surface would give you an idea of how much he poops. We feed our Bettas 3 tiny pellet-sized pieces of frozen peas, thawed and peeled at least once or twice a week as they love them so much - usually for the PM feeding but we have a few finicky ones who get the pea dinner at least 3-4 times a week. It is a good idea to wait for them to finish a piece before giving the next piece so they don't get in the habit of trying to swallow pieces fast in order to get more.. a few of our bettas like to act as if they're done, but when we wait a little bit, they chew some more.. they're characters!

voiceless_kat

LOL Dave

Man, that is so true...Wink J.S. is great for doing that.....I have the tiniest pellets, and he still tries to fit more than one at a time in!!! We love them!!! Val

COBettaCouple

LOL.. why am i not surprised Mr .. i mean Capt. Sparrow would do that. The amount of intelligence these Bettas show is really something and does require you to outsmart them at feeding times.

armadillo

FishNewB, your betta looks amazing. Really pretty fish.

chickadee

Such a beautiful fish! and I fully agree about the one piece at a time to feeding them, besides I love the little ones when they chew. I do think they are so cute when they do it. But you would never know that I am totally 100% batty over my little fishies with the long fins would anyone? I do think that if they would ask me to jump I would ask them "how high?"

Peas can be given every day as long as you do not give them as a meal and still give them their food at meal times. The peas should not be given at meal times or with their food unless you need to treat a constipated fish. They are carnivores and still need to have the protein that 2 meals of protein give them in a day unless they have gotten constipated and need to be cleaned out. Then it is appropriate to hold the protein meals and give the peas or other vegetable meals instead. We just need to be sure that they get adequate protein in their diet.

Bettas will not normally eat flake food as their mouth shape is not as other fish and not made to deal with flakes. If you need to deal with a picky betta and are trying to feed pellets, my recommendation would be to get some fresh minced garlic in the jar at the grocery store. (already prepared) (ask a clerk if you cannot find it) The little pieces of garlic will be in garlic juice and you can soak the pellets in some of the garlic juice as it is an appetite aid for fish. You will see garlic supplements in the vitamin section of many fish supply catalogs. There is also a vitamin supplement called VitaChem that I soak their food in sometimes but my fish would rather the vitamins go in the water and the food go in unsoaked as they eat worms. Nate gets his soaked now anyway as he is recovering from a bad case of finrot and I am using all the methods of treatment at my disposal.

Well, I have written another book..... :

Rose

Stradius011

He is a BEAUTIFUL betta!