How good is a bettas eye sight and betta flaring?

So I have had my betta for almost 48 hours and I am already noticing some little quirks in his personality. So I hope someone out there can answer the following for me. 1 How good is a bettas eye sight? 2 What exactly does a betta flaring look like? 3 Would a betta have the guts to flare at a cat? 4 How often should I feed him a pea. Also any expert advice on feeding types of food and best method for feeding. Thanks people. Your all great.

 

1. Good enough to see through the glass and at least several feet. 2. Fins and gills are spread as far as the betta can get them. It's hard to explain, but when you know what normal personality looks like, you'll be able to recognize flaring. 3. Yes. Most definitely yes. (On a side note, a betta may also become used to and even enjoy the company of a cat outside of the tank) 4. Once a week. Just little bits of it. No betta can actually eat a whole pea, though it will try.
Bettas eat a lot of meaty foods. Omega One has a great betta food. It's more expensive than the Tetra stuff, but when you consider that a single container will last for months, five to eight dollars isn't so bad. Blood worms (freeze-dried, frozen, or live) and various types of insects and shrimp (again, freeze-dried, frozen, or live), are good treats.

 

cool thank you. I think my betta is flaring at my little 6 month old kitten. The kitten just sits by the tank watching him and the betta swims over to him. Are they becoming friends then? I have lots of frozen food for my community tank is it ok to experiment and see what he likes? He had a name now too. His name is SamuraI as he seems so feisty.

 

Yes definitely the betta will get to recognize your kitten. Just make sure the top is covered securely so your kitty can't reach in and "pet" him
Carol

 

Should be fine to experiment. As long as it's mostly animal matter, he'll do okay. I periodically feed my betta some goldfish food to vary things.
The fish and kitten may be trying to be friendly, or they may be hunting each other. (My koi, Miyamoto, has actually managed to stare one of my cats down. If she starts watching his tank, he swims up to the glass to watch her back, and she'll sudden run from the room in a panic.) Either way should be fine as long as your cat doesn't knock the tank over. If there's any concern about this, put the tank somewhere with a "lip". My betta's tank is on a piece of plywood that has screws hedging it in at two opposing corners, so it can't slide anywhere if a cat slams into it a full speed.

 

yes carol there is a lid. The kitten has not done anything yet apart from watch. But he is a very inquisitive kitten. SamuraI has stopped flaring at him now and there just looking at each other. Its like their talking. Thanks for advice bout securing tank on surface. Toby (the kitten) is only 6 months so don't think he could move it now. But something to think of for future.

 

A lot of cats like to lay on the tops because their warm and can dislodge the hoods. But I would think at this point a tantalizing fishie might be more likely to entice Toby to dip his paw in the water. My cat (Angus) likes to look at all the tanks.
Carol

 

If you betta is a baby or very small, you are going to need to start him on "small betta" foods. The smallest pellets and those made for Bettas under 6 mos of age are the Atison's Betta Pro by Ocean Nutrition. The formula for older bettas (more than 6 months) is the Atison's Betta Formula by Ocean Nutrition, they are only slightly bigger. Bettas stomachs are the size of their eye approximately so they need very small meals. The tiny pellets will swell in their tummies so they need to be soaked in a garlic solution or vitamins or just dechlorinated water for about 5 or 6 minutes (not longer than 10 minutes) before feeding them. If you have a problem finding the Ocean Nutrition pellets, there is an alternative pellet form food. It is HikarI Betta Bio-gold pellets but these are bigger than either of the other two and you will not be able to feed as many of them. Pellets being too big for the bettas mouths are the main reason that I reject the brands that are sometimes more readily available and to tell the truth the betta pellets I got from Omega One were too big for my bettas mouths and I did not use them. They make an excellent food line and their foods are very high quality but they were just TOO BIG. For very young bettas they are not good choices for that reason. The Freeze-dried bloodworms you get from Omega One are even enormous and they are good quality but my bettas prefer HikarI Brand on them as they fit their mouths better.
I do not feed my bettas frozen foods as I do not want to risk it but HikarI makes frozen foods that Dave has said are fine to use. I just have never cared to get into using frozen foods. I do feed my little guys raw liver once in a while but the pieces have to be very small and about a third the size of their eye and only given occasionally.

I like to handfeed my bettas and drop one piece of food in at a time. There are good things and bad things to be said about this.
You always know what the betta eats and doesn't eat - good. You get to spend quality time with your betta. - good
You get to make sure they do not overeat and get sick. - good
Your betta will sometimes pout if he does not get his way. - bad
Your betta will sometimes not eat if someone else tries to feed him. - bad/good (depends on the circumstances)
Your betta will grow in personality and character. - good
I feel that dumping food in a tank is always a mistake as most of the time you will be overfeeding your betta.

A betta meal is:

Small pellets: 3-5 pellets per meal (no more than 2 times a day for older bettas but baby or young bettas need 3 meals a day) 3 if they are young 5 if they are an older betta

HikarI pellets: 2 pellets per meal (no more than 2 times a day)

Freeze dried Bloodworms: 3 to 5 per meal (no more than 2 times a day) 3 for young bettas 5 for older bettas

Frozen foods: do not use them myself but perhaps someone else can advise you.

Pea Treats

Peas are given as follows: one frozen pea is defrosted in a cup of warm water or nuked in the microwave for 20 seconds with skin on. Remove from heat or water and let cool to room temperature. Do not cook just defrost. Remove skin from outer pea.
Cut a very tiny size pellet out of one of the inner halves of the pea about the size of the fish's eye or a bit smaller, never larger. Cut it in 3 or 4 small pieces (they are going to be tiny) and feed them to your fish off of a clean finger tip. Just dip the pea pellet into the water in front of him and when he sees it drop, hopefully he will go after it and eat it. If you cannot get him to try them the first time, try not giving him a meal and giving him a pea treat in place of it. He will know then that they are to eat. Usually they LOVE their peas if you can get them to try them. Do this at least a couple times a week but can be done every day if you want, just not as a meal. The only time you can use peas in place of a meal is if your fish is totally constipated or when you are trying to get him to try them for the first time. Otherwise they need to be given no closer than 3 hours before or after a meal.

Rose

 

An addition to chickadee's info on foods.
The Omega One betta food that I referred to earlier is in flakes, which can be crushed to allow for a small betta to eat them. (For a young betta, take a small flake and rub it between your fingers for a moment.)

 

Bettas are funny.. if they see something they feel like flaring at, they'll flare.

 

do the foods mentioned above float. SamuraI won't seem to eat anything off the floor. He dropped a blood worm last night and it still sat there.

 

All food listed specifically for bettas will float for awhile, because they are top feeders.

 

My cats all love to lay in front of the betta tanks, sometimes they will paw at Casey or Tiny King, if they get really active. I think the bettas enjoy the attention from the cats as much as attention from a human.( or anything!) Casey will flare at the kitties, but he is a cheeky little guy. I call it babysitting!! LOL
Val

 

Ill be honest and say Ive never taken this much interest in food before. In fact I never took this much interest in the entire hobby before. I thank the lot of you for expanding my mind. My betta seems to love the attention of my kitten. I have been watching most the day (sounds so sad) and the kitten only left SamuraI alone when he went into his cave and slept.

 

Ill be honest and say Ive never taken this much interest in food before.

I blame Tetra (just like I blame Purina and Meow Mix for how people think of dog and cat food). Except for the fish that have a very specific dietary requirement, they made one type of fish food, so everybody thought that one type of fish food was all that was needed.

 

that's what I mean. I just always assumed u chucked in some flakes and that was that.

 

Well bettas mouths are made different from most fish's mouths. They work on more of a hinge type of joint instead of jaw like other fish. It is difficult for them to "pick up" their food if it is not floating. Some of them learn with much practice to get things off the floor of the tank but flakes are hard for them to manage if they are not broken up into pellet sized pieces. I have just never given my bettas flakes as it is hard for them to manage them. I do like Omega One but I do not think they are very realistic about the ability of bettas to eat flakes or the pellets they make. They are large and need to be broken up and then will not float. The bloodworms they sell are LOVELY and fat but unfortunately too big for bettas mouths. I would LOVE to get my bettas to eat Omega One foods but they cannot get them in their mouths and won't try them if I break them up. The quality of these foods is superb but I spent a fortune on foods and had to send it to a friend who kept fish (not bettas) as the bettas would not touch it. I would say that the betta is a funny fish. Some of them will demand variety and love different foods, and you will occasionally run across a betta who settles on one food and refuses to even try the taste of any other food. (thank goodness I only have had one of these..so far) You cannot force a betta to eat what they do not want. They will simply let it stay in the tank and rot until you remove it. I have however, never seen a fish that will refuse bloodworms completely. They do however, need to be of a certain size before they can manage them so if your fish is a tiny baby it will have to have them cut up for them if you feed them as they will choke on them if you feed the whole ones too soon.

Rose

 

Huh. Neither of my bettas have ever had any problems eating flakes.

I break the larger pieces into smaller flakes (not dust, just little bits maybe a mm across), and the fish just wrestles with the piece for a moment, much like a fish would wrestle with an insect or worm that's just barely big enough to fight, then it swallows, and it's over.

 

Because I have noticed Bettas can be spoiled to only eating bloodworms I always teach ours to eat flakes first then BW as treats.
I hold the flake in my finger tips and move it around, by the time he gets there the flake is soft and he attacks and tears a piece off. He thinks he has really done something
Since OMega One flakes are high in protein he gets the protein he needs.
Carol

 

so far samuraI has eaten freeze dried blood worm and flakes crushed up. Went to another lfs yesterday and still no betta food. Think I could feel mts hitting though while looking at the fish.

 

They're really that interesting to watch. ;D At first, we got the Betta flakes and freeze-dried bloodworms. The flakes gave way to pellets since it was easier to control exactly how much food each Betta got and the freeze-dried bloodworms gave way to frozen ones as the constipation risk is so much lower and both Stacy & I found the dried worms to cause a slight allergic reaction with skin contact. Plus our Bettas made it clear they were much happier with the thawed frozen ones. Now their diet has evolved to be more blood worms than pellets instead of the other way around.

Ill be honest and say Ive never taken this much interest in food before. In fact I never took this much interest in the entire hobby before. I thank the lot of you for expanding my mind. My betta seems to love the attention of my kitten. I have been watching most the day (sounds so sad) and the kitten only left SamuraI alone when he went into his cave and slept.