Betta Eating Algae Wafers

I just got some algae wafers for my nerite snails since they seem to have eaten all of my algae and don't have much to feed on. After the algae wafers softened up, my betta started to nibble at it. I just fed her, and I'm worried that her trying to eat the algae wafer will stress her out, since bettas get stressed when there's too much for them to eat. She obviously thinks that this is for her. She even spits most of it back out, but she's trying to force herself to eat the algae bits. How can I stop her?

 

You could try feeding the snails at night. Other options include feeding the snails blanched veggies or putting the betta in a cup or breeder box for a bit while the snails eat.

Bettas basically just don’t know when to stop eating and her spitting the food out is a way of sampling or softening it.

 

You could try feeding the snails at night. Other options include feeding the snails blanched veggies or putting the betta in a cup or breeder box for a bit while the snails eat.

Bettas basically just don’t know when to stop eating and her spitting the food out is a way of sampling or softening it.

Why would feeding at night be different?

 

Why would feeding at night be different?

The betta isn't as active and can't see that well in the dark.

 

Do you turn your tank lights off at night? The fish will sleep at night but usually not the snails.

 

I quit holding my bettas in community tanks because they would eat the community fish food, especially algae waffles. Rather, I keep four right now in each 2.5 gallon tanks. I have had about 7 die in the last two years because of overeating and SBD, and it was because they were in community tanks.

 

I would stop feeding your nerite snail. Even at night it's a big risk to your betta. On that, I agree with ap4lmtree. Believe it or not, your nerite is probably fine without being target fed. It'll do just fine eating biofilm.

 

I would stop feeding your nerite snail. Even at night it's a big risk to your betta. On that, I agree with ap4lmtree. Believe it or not, your nerite is probably fine without being target fed. It'll do just fine eating biofilm.

I've kept my nerite with betta for 3 years, and never fed the snail. It grew and survived just fine on algae and biofilm. It will be fine

 

Do you turn your tank lights off at night? The fish will sleep at night but usually not the snails.

Yes, I do

 

I quit holding my bettas in community tanks because they would eat the community fish food, especially algae waffles. Rather, I keep four right now in each 2.5 gallon tanks. I have had about 7 die in the last two years because of overeating and SBD, and it was because they were in community tanks.

I would hardly call it a community. It's only my betta and two nerites in a 20 long. I only got the snails because of an algae problem.

I would stop feeding your nerite snail. Even at night it's a big risk to your betta. On that, I agree with ap4lmtree. Believe it or not, your nerite is probably fine without being target fed. It'll do just fine eating biofilm.

Yikes. Sucks to waste my money :/

 

I just noticed that my betta is really stressed. She has stress stripes and won't come out from behind her plants. Every time she sees me while she's out, she runs and hides. This worries me because she's usually tremendously trusting of me. Is the stress because of the algae wafer sitting there? She isn't even acknowledging it, so I'm not sure.

 

I also vacuumed my gravel, but she never gets stressed about this. In fact, she swims right up to my hand and just watches me every time.

I'm really worried about her. She's been under a lot of stress these past few days. A few days ago, I did a water change and forgot to plug the heater back in for around 17 hours. She was probably under constant stress that whole day. And now this. Will she be okay?