Ingredients In Betta Food.

[Dch48]

I have been giving my Betta HikarI Betta Bio-Gold pellets a couple of times a week since I got him 15 months ago. He loves them but I recently bought a package of HikarI Micro Pellets that are supposed to be for all fish. I'm a little mystified by what is in them.

The Betta Bio-Gold has, in order, Fish Meal, Wheat Flour, Soybean Meal, Rice Bran, Potato Starch, Krill Meal,Corn Gluten Meal,Wheat Germ Meal, Brewer's Dried Yeast, Wheat Gluten Meal, Fish Oil, Spirulina, Garlic, Dried Seaweed Meal.

The Micro Pellets have Fish Meal, Krill Meal, Soybean Meal, Flaked Corn, Cuttlefish Meal, Brewer's Dried Yeast, Wheat Germ Meal, Wheat Starch, Fish Oil, Powdered Cellulose, Vegetable Sucrose, Dried Seaweed Meal, Garlic, and Spirulina.

Granted that neither food looks especially good for a carnivorous fish like a Betta, why does the food that is supposedly made for Bettas contain less animal protein than the food made for general use?

Don't worry, Benny also gets Frozen Bloodworms, Omega One flakes, and BugBites which are all mainly if not completely animal based.

 

[CheshireKat]

Looks like a lot of fillers to me. I'd guess that most betta foods are gimmicks aimed towards people who don't know any better and think bettas need a very special diet that these betta foods provide.

 

[Dch48]

Looks like a lot of fillers to me. I'd guess that most betta foods are gimmicks aimed towards people who don't know any better and think bettas need a very special diet that these betta foods provide.

Even worse were the Tetra Betta Pellets I bought in the beginning. The first 2 ingredients were wheat flour and wheat gluten, then "dried fish protein". Really?, For a Betta? They got trashed.

I will say this though. People who think that fish meal means it contains fillers are wrong. Fish meal is all fish and by all I mean the meat, the skin, the bones, the guts, the fins etc. It is all ground up and dried. It actually is pretty nutritious.

 

[fi3ryicy]

so just to clarify, most betta pellets are rubbish for betta fishes?

 

[Dch48]

so just to clarify, most betta pellets are rubbish for betta fishes?

It seems so lol. I have seen some made by Omega One and New Life Spectrum that look better. I am currently breaking up Omega One shrimp pellets and adding the small pieces to the HikarI foods to beef them up some. I also add some crumbled freeze dried Bloodworm to the TetraMin flakes my Betta gets once a week.

I just don't get how they say some of these foods are made especially for Bettas when the fish are almost completely carnivorous by nature. Just check the ingredients list on anything you buy and even then supplement your Betta's diet with things like Bloodworms or brine shrimp about once a week. I have even bought live flightless fruit flies at PetSmart and my Betta loves them. If the first ingredient in the list is not a meat based protein of some kind then I would advise not buying that food for a Betta.

 

[CheshireKat]

Most of the foods "for bettas" are no different than tropical fish food.

People who think that fish meal means it contains fillers are wrong. Fish meal is all fish and by all I mean the meat, the skin, the bones, the guts, the fins etc. It is all ground up and dried. It actually is pretty nutritious.

I've read that it depends on how the whole fish meal is processed--actually, how all the ingredients are processed--and that this makes a difference in what's nutritionally available.

 

[Dch48]

I found a new food that has replaced the HikarI Bio-Gold. It's the ZooMed brand and looks a lot better.
Ingredients:
Fish Meal, Wheat Flour, Squid Meal, Soybean Meal, Krill Meal, Fish Oil, Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Shrimp Meal, Dehydrated Beets, Lecithin, Garlic Powder, and the usual assortment of vitamins and minerals

It comes in a tube and just says BETTA on the label. It looks like it has more protein up front.

 

[treadingwater]

Fluval Bug Bites for Bettas is amazing. My betta boy loved it. I also feed it to my baby angels to help them grow.

 

[Dch48]

Fluval Bug Bites for Bettas is amazing. My betta boy loved it. I also feed it to my baby angels to help them grow.

I have the Bug Bites Tropical Formula which is almost exactly the same and Benny loves it. It's his favorite. He gets it twice a week.The only difference in the Betta variety is that they leave out the peas and add shrimp. Therefore the protein content is a bit higher but many people feed their Bettas peas to help with digestion.

Bug Bites is a great food.