Feeding my new girl betta?

It seems little Lila is having trouble with the betta pellets. Is there anything else besides flakes that she could eat. She is small.

 

You should order some Atison's Betta Pro pellets on the Drs Foster and Smith website. It is nearly impossible to find stores that sell them. Even Petsmart and Big Al's doesn't have them. They are very tiny pellets formulated for the nutrional needs of young Bettas under 6 months. The pellets are the size of poppy seeds and easy for them to eat. If you cannot order them now and need something quick I also used "HikarI Tropical Micro Wafers" for my baby females. They are very small and easy to chew and the ingredients are very similar to Betta food. These are made for tiny fish such as neon tetras so are great for baby Bettas. The Atison's Betta Pro are best but if you need to, find the "HikarI Tropical Micro Wafers" or any pellets or wafers made for tiny tropical fish. Buy the smallest pack though as she should be able to handle one regular Betta pellet 3 times a day within a month.

 

thanks for the tip. I was considering HikarI First Bites as well.

 

Actually the "First Bites" may be too small and is made for very tiny fry. If you can, get the "Micro Wafers".

 

She might be able to eat Daphnia too. I don't think that's an everyday food, but it could be added to her diet on occasion to give her more variety.

 

Well I found HikarI Tropical Micro Pellets-- She loves them, and I am glad because they have three different pellets in the bag:
Meat
Veggie
Vitamin
So I know that she is getting good nutrition.
I think that I am going to get Spike some of the HikarI Betta Biio Gold, because these wardley pellets are huge!

 

Daphnia is a good diet for sick fish as it is easy on their tummies and it is a substitute for peas for the ones who absolutely will not take them (not as good but will work partially) but, no, cannot be a steady diet.

The Micro Pellets that you speak of are good but be careful as the temptation is to overfeed trying to give them some Meat, some Veggie, and some Vitamin. If she is small try to use the vitamin at each meal and meat one meal and veggie the next or better 3 meals of:

Morning: Meat and Vitamin
Midday: Veggie and Vitamin
Evening: Meat and Vitamin

If she gets one pellet of each at each meal she will not be over fed and will not have a digestive problem but do remember that she should probably have at least one or two pea treats a week just to be sure.

The Betta Bio-gold is excellent as are the two forms of Ocean Nutritions Atison's Betta Foods (Betta Pro for up to 6 months; and Betta Formula for over 6 months). ALL the other brands that I have bought and tried, and believe me with my little gluttons it has been a LOT, have been way too big for any betta mouth. It does not work to break them up as they do not float well after they are broken and the fish will not touch them.


Rose

 

Ok, so I guess I am overfeeding? Lila is about 1 inch long. I stick my finger in the pouch, and feed her what sticks to it, which is usually like 6 or 7 pellets. But they are really small-- smaller than a pin head. Is this too much? I feed her 2 times a day.

 

Ok, so I guess I am overfeeding? Lila is about 1 inch long. I stick my finger in the pouch, and feed her what sticks to it, which is usually like 6 or 7 pellets. But they are really small-- smaller than a pin head. Is this too much? I feed her 2 times a day.

yea, i'd probably feed her as many as would equal the size of her eye. (i'm not sure how big a pinhead you mean) I think Rose's advice would be the way to go since she's familiar with that food & small bettas. she sounds so cute, we came this close to rescuing a little female with fin rot today, but have otos in the q/h tank now and no home for her. are there government grants for rescuing bettas - they have them for NOT growing crops, so why not for betta rescuing?

 

That is too much for her tummy and you are going to have a constipated baby and that is no fun for her or you, I promise.

It needs to be:

Breakfast: 1 Meat Pellet and 1 Vitamin Pellet
Lunch: 1 Veggie Pellet and 1 Vitamin Peller
Dinner: 1 Meat Pellet and 1 Vitamin Peller

I know that does not seem like much but the pellets will swell up and if you do not believe me put a couple of them in a small amount of water and leave them for about 10 minutes and then look at them. That is how much they are going to swell inside of her and she will be overstuffed with more than that. Her tummy is going to be the size of 1/2 of her eye and that is tiny indeed. If you overfeed her she cannot digest the food and it will go into her digestive system undigested and stuff her with dry food and she is going to be really miserable and she can die.

She is also going to need to be getting her pea treats. The directions for this are given in the Welcome and Betta Care Guide in the beginning of this Betta Board.



Hope this is helpful

Rose

 

Ok-- the pea treat I am feeding is really too big for everyone of my bettas!! I guess 1 pea could feel all 5 bettas?

 

I use one pea to feed all 7 of mine and I still have about 1/4 of it leftover to throw out. I find Lava's belly gets very noticably huge after eating only two tiny pieces of pea. It goes down to normal size after a couple hours.

 

After we feed our bettas their pea dinner, the rest of the pieces go to the stomachs with fins (aka: Platys).