Anyone have a betta in a community tank?

Does it eat the same thing the other fish eat? My betta eats betta pellets and freeze dried blood worms. The community tank eats flakes and bug bites. How does feeding work?

 

Bettas are gluttons and will eat till they cannot swim. I use foods that float and sink so everyone can get their share. It helps to drop the food into the filter output so it gets spread all over the tank too. For bottom feeder tank mates like loaches, plecos, shrimp and corries it's best to feed after lights out so the betta(s) cannot see find the food so easily.

I've heard some people have trained their bettas to swim into a separate cup so they can feed them individually, which helps keep them from over eating in community tanks. Too much work IMO so my bettas, specifically the girls in the sorority, tend to be quite plump after feeding. I often skip a day so they can process all the goods from the last feeding.

Now if you are concerned about bettas eating "non betta" foods then don't be worried. The vast majority of fish foods are made from similar if not the same ingredients. Of course herbivorous fish should get algae/veggie based foods and carnivores should get meatier high protein foods but that does not mean your average cichlid pellet cannot be fed to a betta, or betta flakes should not be fed to guppies. It really doesn't matter, the only thing to take into consideration is the size of the food, ingredients, and nutrient analysis (% of protein, fat, ash etc). For instance, all my small/medium fish (guppies, bettas, mollies, swords, rainbows, danios, rasboras, corries, BN plecos etc) get pretty much the same mix of mini/micro pellets that contains up to 5 different types (Hikari guppy/community, Omega one veggie, spirulina flakes, Aqueon Revitanew, just to name a few). I simply focus on getting the appropriate sized foods that have a good ingredient list and nutrient analysis.

 

Bettas are gluttons and will eat till they cannot swim. I use foods that float and sink so everyone can get their share. It helps to drop the food into the filter output so it gets spread all over the tank too. For bottom feeder tank mates like loaches, plecos, shrimp and corries it's best to feed after lights out so the betta(s) cannot see find the food so easily.

I've heard some people have trained their bettas to swim into a separate cup so they can feed them individually, which helps keep them from over eating in community tanks. Too much work IMO so my bettas, specifically the girls in the sorority, tend to be quite plump after feeding. I often skip a day so they can process all the goods from the last feeding.

Now if you are concerned about bettas eating "non betta" foods then don't be worried. The vast majority of fish foods are made from similar if not the same ingredients. Of course herbivorous fish should get algae/veggie based foods and carnivores should get meatier high protein foods but that does not mean your average cichlid pellet cannot be fed to a betta, or betta flakes should not be fed to guppies. It really doesn't matter, the only thing to take into consideration is the size of the food, ingredients, and nutrient analysis (% of protein, fat, ash etc). For instance, all my small/medium fish (guppies, bettas, mollies, swords, rainbows, danios, rasboras, corries, BN plecos etc) get pretty much the same mix of mini/micro pellets that contains up to 5 different types (Hikari guppy/community, Omega one veggie, spirulina flakes, Aqueon Revitanew, just to name a few). I simply focus on getting the appropriate sized foods that have a good ingredient list and nutrient analysis.

This is very helpful ! Thank you so much !

 

If it is a piggy betta like the female I had, She would eat until she looked like she was literally going to split. She gobbled as fast as she could. I had to put her in a plastic breeder box at feeding time. Just scooped her in easily, since she was up top begging with the rest of the fish. I let all the fish eat the food and she would go gobble up anything left afterward. She still got a bunch and it ended up being a pain in the but and she got her own tank. It depends on the fish though. If they are not gluttons they may be ok, but they could be jack the ripper and kill all the other fish. IMO its not a good idea. Just make sure you have a back up tank just in case.

 

The last betta i had in a community tank ate the fish when we went out of town for a few days. The other bettas did well in communities though. But i am not dealing with that anymore. Once bit, thrice shy.

 

I added our betta sorority, along with a few corydoras, to my 55g community tank. I was tire of managing two separate tanks. They seems fine so far however it's only been a couple weeks.

 

A while back i had a betta in my 65 gal-community tank and it did pretty good in the tank no problems with the other fish it had its own space it like to stay around and would still swim around like he owned the place Heh, I think it depends on the betta's personality some bettas can do good in a community tank but some will not you won't know until there in the tank so always make sure it can have its own tank if that does happen.

 

Thank you for your input everyone! I added a new friend, but I do have a backup tank if it doesn’t work out. Everything seems fine so far, but I haven’t seen it eat yet. It didn’t come up when the others were eating. By the way, can anyone tell me whether I have a male or female?

 

Does it eat the same thing the other fish eat? My betta eats betta pellets and freeze dried blood worms. The community tank eats flakes and bug bites. How does feeding work?

I have pretty much the same situation in my tank. You can try feeding your other fish on one side of the tank, and then feed your betta at the other side. You could also use a betta log to feed them so they get used to that’s where their food will be. I’ve actually found that my betta will eat the tropical fish flakes and then spit them out again, but he will actively hunt for the daphnia, bloodworms and his own pellets, so he kind of knows which is his food and which isn’t. But they will have a go at eating anything.

Thank you for your input everyone! I added a new friend, but I do have a backup tank if it doesn’t work out. Everything seems fine so far, but I haven’t seen it eat yet. It didn’t come up when the others were eating. By the way, can anyone tell me whether I have a male or female?

Judging by the shape of the fins and the size of the ‘beard’, my guess would be a female.