Betta fish suddenly refusing pellets

Hello,

I have a betta fish that used to take pellets but is now refusing them and only eating frozen or live food. I recently moved, and after that, she refused to take pellets. Does anyone know how to get her to eat pellets again, or why she suddenly stopped?

Thanks!

Hey there Cyberfish, sounds like your betta prefers find dining! Is there anything else you notice about your betta? How are your water parameters? Was there a change in your source water? Tell us more! Hopefully, its just that your betta developed a finer palate?!

Here is a related thread that might give you some ideas:
New betta won’t eat pellets | Betta Fish Forum

Keep us posted!

Hello,

The water source has changed, but the parameters are relatively similar. The parameters are not good, and the fish is not sick. She's eating completely fine, but she used to also attack pellets, and now she completely ignores it. Which is fine; I don't really mind, except when I have to go on trips.

oppm Ammonia and Nitrite
5ppm nitrate
7.1 Ph

She does eye the pellets but then swims away. Her colours are good, she's not shy or hiding, and she doesn't appear to be sick at all.

Hi,

What brand of pellets are you feeding her? Some are really good, and some are really bad, lol! Maybe trying a new type of pellet will work. I feed Ultra Fresh Betta Pro Shrimp Patties, Fluval Bug Bites, New Life Spectrum Thera +A (the smallest pellet version), or maybe North Fin. Also it's good to change out food every 6 months or so because once you open a container, it starts to lose its nutrition. I have never finished a container of pellets before throwing out the old and opening a new. They put so much in one container that it would take forever to empty one, especially if you only have one betta.

I don't know why she stopped eating her pellets, but there are a couple of things you can try to get her to eat them again. Have you tried soaking the pellets in something like garlic juice to see if that will tempt her? Seachem makes a product called Garlic Guard, but I just either cut up a little garlic and soak that in water, and then soak the pellets in the water, or use some of the water from the minced garlic in a jar that I have for cooking. It's supposed to be an appetite booster. You can also try soaking pellets in Vitachem, which is a way to give her a nice dose of vitamins. You can add the Vitachem directly into the tank, too, if you decide to try that and she doesn't go for it. In other words, it won't be a waste of money. I've used it for a couple of years, especially with my red bettas that seem to need extra help to stay healthy.

Using sinking pellets might get her attention because the sinking food will mimic, or kind of seem like live foods in that it is moving, and that might appeal to her hunting instincts.

Some of my bettas seem to wait to eat until the pellets began to sink, and then chase them down. They really are such characters, lol!

Hope this helps!

I use Bug Bites, and I have tried soaking them in garlic guard and using sinking pellets. I can try using different varieties of pellets, but I haven't really had time to go to my LFS recently. At least she's healthy, which is good. I've had her for around six months so far, and she's been eating pellets since I got her. I wonder why she stopped, though.

The parameters are not good,

Click to expand...

Ack, I just realized I said this. The parameters ARE good. (oppm ammonia. nitrite, 5ppm nitrate, 7.1ph)

Do you think just feeding her pellets for a few days straight would work? She would eventually get hungry and (at least I think) she knows pellets are food.

Edit: I just did I WC and test and here are the updated parameters (tests were taken before wc)
Ammonia:0ppm
Nitrite: 0.25ppm (This was likely due to the amount of frozen food I was feeding this week, I will try to feed less and the wc should have fixed it)
Nitrate: 0pmm
Ph: 7.2

My gues is that she just got spoiled, for lack of a better term. Shes ignoring the burger king food and holding out for the prime rib.
You will likly need to just keep offering pellets untill she gets hungry enought to eat, or forget pellets and feed live and frozen.
Good luck, I hope it works out!

Well, I tried doing the Tweezer strategy, and it seemed to work. She downed 2 pellets last night. She was still a bit cautionary, and didn't attack them like she used to or actively hunt them, it's a succes

She seemed to be her normal self today... except she didn't swallow. She just ate and they spit them back out. I'm guessing she likely uses her throat teeth to slowly grind down pellets, and then continues picking at them at night. Although it makes sense, as the pellets are the size of her eyeball. I should grind them down a bit

My betta does that, he eats a pellet and spits it out and then eats it again and regurgitate the broken bits into the water and then hunts for the pieces.

It sounds like the fasting and your tweezer trick is working!