Live Betta Food

I see that some Betta owners also have cherry or ghost shrimps in their tanks. I'm not into a community tank but rather want my Betta to enjoy the real circle of life with some live foods. If I purchase cherry or ghost shrimp will he eat them or will they just end up messing up his beautiful finnage? Any other suggestions for live foods I can get at PetSmart?




My tank is a 5 gallon with 1 betta (9.5x9.5x14)
Not heavily planted but there are 3 solid places to hide but I don't want the shrimp to hide where he can't eat them because I don't plan on keeping them just want some live food for my guy. Thanks in advance.

 

Live worm would maybe be an easier alternetive for your betta. (Not experienced)

 

He may be a shrimp eater he may not. Depends on the individual Betta. You may want to look into culturing things like live blood worms, black worms, tubifex worms, grindal worms etc.
My bettas were also given live tadpoles on occasion. Absolutely fascinating to watch their hunting tactics come into play on these. But I do emphasize occasionally with tadpoles because this is usually a big meal for a Betta and pretty rich.
Some folks who have small fry (like young guppy fry) have also found their bettas will eat those. However it again depends on your individual Betta. Some will, some ignore them.

 

He may be a shrimp eater he may not. Depends on the individual Betta. You may want to look into culturing things like live blood worms, black worms, tubifex worms, grindal worms etc.
My bettas were also given live tadpoles on occasion. Absolutely fascinating to watch their hunting tactics come into play on these. But I do emphasize occasionally with tadpoles because this is usually a big meal for a Betta and pretty rich.
Some folks who have small fry (like young guppy fry) have also found their bettas will eat those. However it again depends on your individual Betta. Some will, some ignore them.

Wow thanks Nataku! Does PetSmart sell tadpoles if so how many do you suggest during 1 feeding? Maybe 1 or 2 the most? Also I'm not into culturing anything I rather just purchase. I'll try 2-3 shrimp and see if he eats at least 1 within 24hrs if not guess I'll just remove them from the tank and not sure what to do with them after that.

 

HI there just about the easiest live food is daphnia. It is normally easy to get a starter culture off Ebay with some even available with food pellets though I used to have a couple of jars of old tank water on the window sill. Pretty soon you get green water which is perfect for daphnia to feed on. I used to keep a larger square kitchen food container on the windowsill with an airstone and add green water as needed. Next to it were two large glass jars with my green water.

Once set up it is free as you only need to add old fish tank water to the jars to feed the algae making the green water.

It is possible during the summer to collect daphnia from outside water containers ( I would not collect them from a source with fish in (like a pond) as there is an outside chance of parasites).

Often fish stores have bags of live daphnia ; these are perfectly good as a starter culture.

The beauty of daphnia apart from fish loving to hunt them is that it is virtually impossible to overfeed as they just swim around and stay alive.

 

Big chain stores do not sell tadpoles.
I cultured my own in some of the run off overflow vats that were used at a water plant that was used to catch water for testing whenever they opened up an RO unit. Inevitably someone would leave a door open to an RO room and frogs would hop in, fall into these big vats and breed in them. I would scoop tadpoles out with a fish net before they dumped the vats.

You could also probably net some out of a local pond, although there is a small risk associated with them carrying parasites that way.

A smaller LFS that isn't a chain may carry daphnia or Brin shrimp or the like, some may even have starter cultures for you, but if you want live then culturing is just a way of life. Many are very simple. Literally a Tupperware with a scoop or two of oatmeal in it that you transfer every couple weeks by taking a spoonful of it and plopping it down into a new batch of oatmeal.

 

HI there just about the easiest live food is daphnia. It is normally easy to get a starter culture off Ebay with some even available with food pellets though I used to have a couple of jars of old tank water on the window sill. Pretty soon you get green water which is perfect for daphnia to feed on. I used to keep a larger square kitchen food container on the windowsill with an airstone and add green water as needed. Next to it were two large glass jars with my green water.

Once set up it is free as you only need to add old fish tank water to the jars to feed the algae making the green water.

It is possible during the summer to collect daphnia from outside water containers ( I would not collect them from a source with fish in (like a pond) as there is an outside chance of parasites).

Often fish stores have bags of live daphnia ; these are perfectly good as a starter culture.

The beauty of daphnia apart from fish loving to hunt them is that it is virtually impossible to overfeed as they just swim around and stay alive.

Is this the right option? Also how much daphnia do I feed at a time? 750 seems like a lot so I take it these will last a while, do I keep them in jar by window like you Taff?