Live food for betta

I have a betta fish and wanted to know if there was any type of live food I could put in his tank that he could eat/hunt. Something that could live in there with him but also be his food. Is this possible ?? Any advice would be appreciated

 

Bloodworms are a betta delicacy. Some types of snails depending on the betta's personality.

 

Bloodworms are a betta delicacy. Some types of snails depending on the betta's personality.

Would blood worms be able to live in the tank with him and not destroy plants??

 

Get some fancy expensive shrimp and your betta will make himself some midnight snacks in no time! Lol.

In all reality, you would need to find something that the betta can kill, but not kill all of, if you wanted some type of balance. It is a very difficult task. I would recommend you start a culture of a live food (bloodworms are a great suggestion!) in a separate container to ensure your betta is not going to eat the whole population and bloat himself in the process.

Livebearers are an option, if, for example, you wanted a trio of guppies whose fry the betta could eat. The only issue with that is it would be a very large once-a-month feeding, and if your betta is long-finned and slow, he might not fare very well against zoomy guppy fry.

 

Get some fancy expensive shrimp and your betta will make himself some midnight snacks in no time! Lol.

In all reality, you would need to find something that the betta can kill, but not kill all of, if you wanted some type of balance. It is a very difficult task. I would recommend you start a culture of a live food (bloodworms are a great suggestion!) in a separate container to ensure your betta is not going to eat the whole population and bloat himself in the process.

Livebearers are an option, if, for example, you wanted a trio of guppies whose fry the betta could eat. The only issue with that is it would be a very large once-a-month feeding, and if your betta is long-finned and slow, he might not fare very well against zoomy guppy fry.

Lol he ate him shrimp buddy's. So hes in there alone now had to move rest of shrimp to my other tank. I think I'd like to try the bloodworms thing. Hmm. Would they live in the substrate? And would my plants be ok?

 

Bloodworms won't live for long inside an aquarium. They aren't a true worm, but rather their "food" form is actually a larval stage of a fly. You can pick up a large bottle of freeze-dried bloodworms for quite cheap that will last you years with a single betta.

 

Bloodworms won't live for long inside an aquarium. They aren't a true worm, but rather their "food" form is actually a larval stage of a fly. You can pick up a large bottle of freeze-dried bloodworms for quite cheap that will last you years with a single betta.

I have some freeze dried bloodworms jut wanted to see if there was anything that he could hunt and eat whenever he felt like it lol

 

Daphnia might work... not sure about the culture living with the betta though.
They're not super complex to culture separately from the Betta. I recently had my colony crash though (when: How To: Culture Daphnia | Fish Food 203724 says to be careful not to overfeed it's serious. Accidentally killed my entire culture overfeeding once).

 

The biggest problem with that is that bettas are not self-limiters. They always feel like eating! And if allowed to hunt whenever they want, you would soon have a bloated, constipated betta.

 

Aww little fattys lol. Well thank you for the information. I think I'll just stick to the freeze dried stuff for now. I was hoping he could hunt something other than the shrimp

 

He can certainly hunt foods if you provide him with supplemental live food. I just wouldn't try to establish a colony inside the betta's tank.

 

Aww little fattys lol. Well thank you for the information. I think I'll just stick to the freeze dried stuff for now. I was hoping he could hunt something other than the shrimp

Frozen stuff is really good too

 

mine would eat my bristlenose babies

 

I keep cherry shrimp in a few betta tanks, the population seems to be self sustained and the bettas mainly go after the little ones, though there are some bettas that will kill them all in one go. If you were invested in raising live foods for your betta then setting up a shrimp tank would be nice, you can feed culls to the fish and keep the better looking shrimp as eye candy. Some people will have a small group of livebearers like guppies or endler that provides a steady supply of bite sized fry.

Other non-aquatic foods easily cultured are fruit flies, white worms and grindal worms. Brine shrimp are good too if you can get them to adulthood (I cannot).

 

I have got 20+ plus baby mollies yesterday and I already have 5 2 weeks older. I'm not sure what ill do with all of them so ive been thinking of seeing if my betta in the next tank likes eating them.

 

I have got 20+ plus baby mollies yesterday and I already have 5 2 weeks older. I'm not sure what ill do with all of them so ive been thinking of seeing if my betta in the next tank likes eating them.

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I keep cherry shrimp in a few betta tanks, the population seems to be self sustained and the bettas mainly go after the little ones, though there are some bettas that will kill them all in one go. If you were invested in raising live foods for your betta then setting up a shrimp tank would be nice, you can feed culls to the fish and keep the better looking shrimp as eye candy. Some people will have a small group of livebearers like guppies or endler that provides a steady supply of bite sized fry.

Other non-aquatic foods easily cultured are fruit flies, white worms and grindal worms. Brine shrimp are good too if you can get them to adulthood (I cannot).

I do believe I shall try this and see hopefully I can get it to work lol thank you everyone for the replies it was really helpful!!

 

I put 3 newborn mollies in my fighter tank but to my surprise my cardinals tried to eat them and sent them into hiding, I assume the fighter would like them.

 

U could try pond snails, although you might have to crush their shells. If your betts doesn’t like them they breed super fast. I have some in with my betta but he ignores them. They are very annoying if they start up families so if your betta isn’t interested you’d have to remove them.