Pricey Feeding For Pricey Betta

[MileyMorkie]

I got Iycho the plakat and halfmoon crossbreed betta on December 18th 2018. He cost me a good 40 bucks and his tastes are up in price too.
Recently he's gotten a knack for escargot... I mean snails, killed 5 or so this month alone and that explains his lacking hunger for pellets. He HATES freeze dried blood worms while YoshikI will eat them no problem. I have plans to put both boys with a divider in my 5 gallon, problem is I don't want my red ramshorn snails to be the main course on Iycho's plate.

Would eating ramshorn snails kill him (answer this one blunt if you truly know the answer)? Is it best to culture (in a jar) and feed him live fairy shrimp?
The pellets I feed him are New Life Spectrum.

 

[david1978]

I have some that eat the bladder snails off the glass. They seem to enjoy it and so far no ill effect on the fish. They are carnivores after all.

 

[Jellibeen]

Nothing wrong with a betta eating snails! It's probably fun for him.

 

[BettaMom98]

Just a heads up, freeze dried food carries very little nutritional value and can actually be worse for your betta in terms of bloating because of the fillers it contains.

 

[Smack442]

Have you tried feeding your betta frozen foods? Its a little pricey up front, but if you get the cubed packs they last a good while.

 

[Rtessy]

My imbellis eat parts of ramshorns quite frequently, they're fine.

 

[MileyMorkie]

Smack442 been thinking about that for a while. I do have plans for a fairy shrimp culture but yeah I think I'll have to get him deluxe supplies for his needs, lol.

 

[Smack442]

Smack442 been thinking about that for a while. I do have plans for a fairy shrimp culture but yeah I think I'll have to get him deluxe supplies for his needs, lol.

I payed about $6US for a 30 cube pack of brine shrimp that I'm feeding my two bettas now. I've had it for about it for about two weeks and have only used about one cubes worth. A little goes along way, especially if you're only using it for one meal a day.

My boys also get really excited when they see me pull the frozen food out, so it all makes it worth it.

 

[MileyMorkie]

(Revisiting this because why not)
I didn't list these as things I have fed him but here are other things:
Cucumber, peas, once fed him chicken, once fed him a skin tag, deceased fish, and sometimes chicken.

 

[Rtessy]

(Revisiting this because why not)
I didn't list these as things I have fed him but here are other things:
Cucumber, peas, once fed him chicken, once fed him a skin tag, deceased fish, and sometimes chicken.

A.) Ew
B.) You should never feed a betta vegetables. They're really not meant to digest that. Why feed a deceased fish? Could you guarantee it didn't die of a disease?

 

[Jellibeen]

A.) Ew
B.) You should never feed a betta vegetables. They're really not meant to digest that. Why feed a deceased fish? Could you guarantee it didn't die of a disease?

I was wondering if maybe the OP meant dead fish from the supermarket? I assume that would be fine.

I frequently catch bugs around my house and outside to feed to my betta. They are naturally insectivores, so if’s a nice treat that is good for them.

 

[Rtessy]

I was wondering if maybe the OP meant dead fish from the supermarket? I assume that would be fine.

I frequently catch bugs around my house and outside to feed to my betta. They are naturally insectivores, so if’s a nice treat that is good for them.

Yeah but you don't usually call a store bought fish "deceased", and the vegetable thing still stands...
Yeah, my fish eat a lot of bugs too, mainly because I have a broken window, lol

 

[goldface]

(Revisiting this because why not)
I didn't list these as things I have fed him but here are other things:
Cucumber, peas, once fed him chicken, once fed him a skin tag, deceased fish, and sometimes chicken.

Stop being so "xtra." You shouldn't feed your betta vegetables and definitely not chicken either. Keep it basic: pellets, insects, insect larvae, etc.

 

[AbraCadaver]

Chicken for a Betta? That can’t be healthy. Peas should be fed as a snack, to prevent constipation. Other vegI options, is pointless.
I feed mine micro worms and brine shrimp (live)
If you get any type of live worm culture online, you shouldn’t have to spend money on food again if you keep up with your cultures. In fact you could even make money on your cultures.
As far as snails go, I keep snails in all my tanks and my Bettas sometimes eat them. No I’ll effect so far.

 

[MileyMorkie]

Rtessy scarface AbraCadaver Jellibeen
Just like guppies, goldfish, snails, etc it is highly recommended to feed them peas and this 100% includes bettas/Siamese fighting fish. If you haven't read he cost me $40 and his tastes say a lot. He has had a tumour since the day I purchased him so I have to make the most of his life. They lean more on the carnivore side, yes but I only fed chicken ONCE ok.

About the dead fish, I don't buy that stuff I never ate it and never will. My dog love Acana brand Cat and/or Dog fish based food but like she'd eat an actual one. I usually hand Iycho the corpses of accidentally killed fish. Example being when I failed to save QUOTE on QUOTE "choking" guppy.

He's named after a character in a series of games called Corpse Party, so his love of meat makes sense I guess.
All sources I looked at via searching if certain things are safe resulted in NO actual answer just endless debates with no end point. Before I even got Iycho and YoshikI I did my research. I originally bought a betta for therapeutic purposes because I have anxiety and autism. I don't ever use these as excuse for things but I do know aquariums and gardening help with stress.

 

[AbraCadaver]

Rtessy scarface AbraCadaver Jellibeen
Just like guppies, goldfish, snails, etc it is highly recommended to feed them peas and this 100% includes bettas/Siamese fighting fish. If you haven't read he cost me $40 and his tastes say a lot. He has had a tumour since the day I purchased him so I have to make the most of his life. They lean more on the carnivore side, yes but I only fed chicken ONCE ok.

About the dead fish, I don't buy that stuff I never ate it and never will. My dog love Acana brand Cat and/or Dog fish based food but like she'd eat an actual one. I usually hand Iycho the corpses of accidentally killed fish. Example being when I failed to save QUOTE on QUOTE "choking" guppy.

He's named after a character in a series of games called Corpse Party, so his love of meat makes sense I guess.
All sources I looked at via searching if certain things are safe resulted in NO actual answer just endless debates with no end point. Before I even got Iycho and YoshikI I did my research. I originally bought a betta for therapeutic purposes because I have anxiety and autism. I don't ever use these as excuse for things but I do know aquariums and gardening help with stress.

I said you should feed peas as a snack for constipation... lol. I said, any other vegI option is pretty much useless.
And like I said, just order a live culture of some type of worms and that’ll fix the issue...
You can keep worn cultures going forever. In like a week I’ll have some micro worm cultures available.

 

[goldface]

Rtessy scarface AbraCadaver Jellibeen
Just like guppies, goldfish, snails, etc it is highly recommended to feed them peas and this 100% includes bettas/Siamese fighting fish. If you haven't read he cost me $40 and his tastes say a lot. He has had a tumour since the day I purchased him so I have to make the most of his life. They lean more on the carnivore side, yes but I only fed chicken ONCE ok.

About the dead fish, I don't buy that stuff I never ate it and never will. My dog love Acana brand Cat and/or Dog fish based food but like she'd eat an actual one. I usually hand Iycho the corpses of accidentally killed fish. Example being when I failed to save QUOTE on QUOTE "choking" guppy.

He's named after a character in a series of games called Corpse Party, so his love of meat makes sense I guess.
All sources I looked at via searching if certain things are safe resulted in NO actual answer just endless debates with no end point. Before I even got Iycho and YoshikI I did my research. I originally bought a betta for therapeutic purposes because I have anxiety and autism. I don't ever use these as excuse for things but I do know aquariums and gardening help with stress.

Never fed my betta nor goldfish peas. Highly recommended or not, never needed to and if there's no need to why bother? There are better options to deal with constipation like daphnia or even fasting. And again, I do not recommend feeding chicken. Bettas are carnivores, but more specifically, they feed mainly on insects, insect larvae, and other aquatic invertebrates like snails and daphnia.

 

[AbraCadaver]

Never fed my betta nor goldfish peas. Highly recommended or not, never needed to and if there's no need to why bother? There are better options to deal with constipation like daphnia or even fasting. And again, I do not recommend feeding chicken. Bettas are carnivores, but more specifically, they feed mainly on insects, insect larvae, and other aquatic invertebrates like snails and daphnia.

I fast mine for 3 days and then feed a pea, and also use epsom salt baths.
Chicken just seems... not safe, to me. I wouldn’t feed a cheap Betta chicken, let alone a 40$ one.
I do feed them some chopped up frozen (raw) shrimp though anytime I cook with it, they get some

 

[MileyMorkie]

ok, I'm just tired of being yelled at by everyone (by that I mean not nicely worded criticism). Some of you still have "just started" experience selected, don't know if you guys forgot the fix it or something.
If your hoping I do creepy bugs or daphnia culture there will be broken containers, I don't that kind of stuff in my bedroom. It has been raining so I will be handing my boys and navy (my guppies and platies) earthworms. I have tried handing Iycho a strawberry, he darted around like a bouncy ball. After my vacations in July and August I will be culturing and experimenting with fairy shrimp, snowball or ghost shrimp, brine shrimp, and sea monkeys to see what my boys like.

 

[TheBettaSushi]

I have tried handing Iycho a strawberry, he darted around like a bouncy ball. After my vacations in July and August I will be culturing and experimenting with fairy shrimp, snowball or ghost shrimp, brine shrimp, and sea monkeys to see what my boys like.

DO NOT feed Bettas fruit or vegetables! Aren’t sea monkeys the same as brine shrimp? I’d just feed some good frozen foods and rotate with quality pellets and some bug bites. If your betta is constipated, fast for a few days, if that doesn’t work, give a quarter piece of a de-shelled pea. They can’t digest it, so it will have to pass right through. Daphnia is a much better option for constipation.

Giving your betta skin tags and dead fish is disgusting and I would never recommend that. I think you should read up on their diet before going further with your little experiments.

 

[VSA]

You should take some time to read up on what bettas eat and strategies for introducing them to their staple diet once introduced to your tank. I'm not sure why you seem to think you betta knows he is 40 dollars and is therefore a primadonna. More likely he is confused because he has not been offered the same food consistently so cannot identify certain food items as food by himself.

 

[david1978]

DO NOT feed Bettas fruit or vegetables! Aren’t sea monkeys the same as brine shrimp? I’d just feed some good frozen foods and rotate with quality pellets and some bug bites. If your betta is constipated, fast for a few days, if that doesn’t work, give a quarter piece of a de-shelled pea. They can’t digest it, so it will have to pass right through. Daphnia is a much better option for constipation.

Giving your betta skin tags and dead fish is disgusting and I would never recommend that. I think you should read up on their diet before going further with your little experiments.

Well they are but sea monkeys cost more.

 

[MileyMorkie]

New Life Spectrum pellets and Pete's pellets is the only "betta food" he'll take. I've had him for FIVE months done my research and I'll tell you guys how often I get just pointless debates as results when I search up specific things! He's killing my free red ramshorns. I'd rather have him killing fairy shrimp whenever he pleases than making me ticked. He WON'T eat freeze dried bloodworms

I'm just going to point this out. Word your messages so you don't offend me or cause problems! I don't treat him as a "pet", I treat him as family. All things minus the peas listed I fed him ONCE months ago. I actually have fought with a creator/admin of a game forum, not proud so don't push me please! Extra or not I'm as much as a suck for my boys as my dad is to my dog.

He won't live long anyways now I know he has a tumour so what's the point in not giving him lots of love?

 

[david1978]

Most of mine never liked pellets. They seem to prefer flakes so who knows. I just stick with a quality staple food for the most part. They had fun hunting the ghost shrimp. They still peck snails off the glass so I'm not sure that can be prevented.

 

[MileyMorkie]

I was thinking around December to get ghost shrimp but randomly forgot about doing further research. The sea monkey and brine shrimp tests will be how much more modified one is and if hybrid can occur (nothing to do with feeding them). Anything to keep him busy is best (so my dad doesn't nearly kill him with too many pellets again).

 

[Marimo]

Just a heads up, freeze dried food carries very little nutritional value and can actually be worse for your betta in terms of bloating because of the fillers it contains.

That also depends on the brand. Repashy makes some of the finest foods out there. It's a premix that you prepare then freeze. Good stuff!

 

[david1978]

Personally I would just go with the seed/fairy shrimp since the extras would stop live and swim around. Black worms if you have gravel would be interesting to watch too.

 

[MileyMorkie]

I have a lava rock substrate meant for plants. What species of fairy shrimp would be best?

 

[TheBettaSushi]

Well they are but sea monkeys cost more.

That’s what I thought.

New Life Spectrum pellets and Pete's pellets is the only "betta food" he'll take. I've had him for FIVE months done my research and I'll tell you guys how often I get just pointless debates as results when I search up specific things! He's killing my free red ramshorns. I'd rather have him killing fairy shrimp whenever he pleases than making me ticked. He WON'T eat freeze dried bloodworms

I'm just going to point this out. Word your messages so you don't offend me or cause problems! I don't treat him as a "pet", I treat him as family. All things minus the peas listed I fed him ONCE months ago. I actually have fought with a creator/admin of a game forum, not proud so don't push me please! Extra or not I'm as much as a suck for my boys as my dad is to my dog.

He won't live long anyways now I know he has a tumour so what's the point in not giving him lots of love?

Wow ok... First off all, no one is arguing with you, and from what I have read, everyone on here is giving you sound advice so take that as you wish. I find it strange that you’ve given your betta some “foods” (like skin tags and fruit/veggies... even if you did it once) that aren’t good for him and will cause more problems. New life is a good staple food. I really don’t suggest freeze dried foods unless you soak them first. Try the frozen blood worms that come in small cubes in the freezer section.. you can get them from any pet store that carries fish.

Most of us here consider our pets (water or land animals) family. Most of us take pride in caring for them and giving them the best especially when it comes to food.

My previous betta had a tumor for years and he lived happily until he died from natural causes so saying that he won’t live long isn’t really a valid reason to give an inappropriate diet. Stick with the basics.

If you’re really worried about the rest of your snails dying, you could always put them in another tank if you have one... Bettas are territorial by nature and will try to eat anything that’s in there with him.

My nerite snail has been attacked twice by my betta but a quick tap on the glass scared him enough to never do that again. It’s not something I ever suggest doing but it worked for me and I only had to do it once to get my betta to stop harassing my snail. I wouldn’t suggest that to you though so it’s best to remove your snails out of the Bettas tank and put your snails in another established tank.

Most of mine never liked pellets. They seem to prefer flakes so who knows. I just stick with a quality staple food for the most part. They had fun hunting the ghost shrimp. They still peck snails off the glass so I'm not sure that can be prevented.

Mine likes everything. Thankfully he’s not a picky eater... I give him bug bites, NorthFin pellets (stopped the omega one because of the bha/bht preservatives), and frozen foods... he loves mysis and goes crazy for it. He’ll take frozen over pellets any day.

 

[david1978]

I go with what the most eat. Remember I have 19 of them together.
Theirs I think 4 or 5 that are very closely related and called fairy shrimp. So I guess which ever is easiest to get. I used to scoop them out if the swampy area by my parents house. The black worms might work in that.

 

[Fishcat]

My son’s betta is whatever the furthest thing from a picky eater is, but he especially likes frozen foods and live foods. Baby brine shrimp are a favorite; blackworms are too, but they sink too fast and sometimes he takes a while to notice them on the sand.

 

[MileyMorkie]

I kind of have nowhere to put the ramshorns, my 29 gallon has way too many. He only eats ones that are the same size as an expanded betta pellet, there is little food in the tank ever since I put Iycho in. Sorry I got a little snappy, I get completely shocked when I interpret messages quickly, I need to work on my understandings. I was going to get Beavertail fairy shrimp because of fast growth, size, lifespan, and irony but they might be too big. I might get Winter or Redtail fairy shrimp because they are average and come in packages of 1,000 eggs.

 

[TheBettaSushi]

I kind of have nowhere to put the ramshorns, my 29 gallon has way too many. He only eats ones that are the same size as an expanded betta pellet, there is little food in the tank ever since I put Iycho in. Sorry I got a little snappy, I get completely shocked when I interpret messages quickly, I need to work on my understandings. I was going to get Beavertail fairy shrimp because of fast growth, size, lifespan, and irony but they might be too big. I might get Winter or Redtail fairy shrimp because they are average and come in packages of 1,000 eggs.

No worries... sometimes it’s hard to interpret through messages. Bettas will eat anything that will fit in their mouths and even go for something bigger... well they try to anyway. It’s almost inevitable to try stopping them. The only other thing I can suggest in keeping your snails from becoming betta food is to divide your betta from the snails (which can become quite a task). Can you post a photo of your tank in its entirety so we can suggest other options in keeping your snails safe?

As far as the shrimp go, I’ve never tried it with a betta so I’ll leave that conversation to those who have had success with that

 

[david1978]

Nah. I think she figured out every ones just trying to help.

 

[MileyMorkie]

I have figured it out. I sort of got used to I say something I attempted, get scolded, and then I feel terrible. I'm still learning how everything works. Ummmmm though I am calm now. I'm slightly confuse though if having three separate families of shrimp would work in tank the betta tanks (cherry/snowball, ghost, and fairy). I usually can't pick just one thing.

 

[david1978]

I don't see why you couldn't have all 3 in the same tank. None are predatory nor will they cross breed.

 

[MileyMorkie]

The smaller tank is Yoshiki’s (I need to add more water) and the planted tank is Iycho’s. I am moving YoshikI into a larger aquarium soon.

 

[david1978]

I'm jealous. I can never get roots to grow. Ok plants in general. Lol

 

[MileyMorkie]

I read some information that ghost shrimp are aggressive. I don't know if it is a rumour or something. The planted tank is a 5 gallon and the other is a 1.5 gallon (soon YoshikI will be in a 3.5 gallon).

 

[david1978]

Ghost shrimp aren't aggressive but whisker shrimp are some times mistakenly labeled and sold as ghosts and they can be.

 

[MileyMorkie]

Oh. That makes more sense.

 

[AbraCadaver]

“Just starting” or not, feeding a Betta skin tags and chicken?
If you’re throwing “experience” around...
And you have people “just starting” that know better... you should too.
Experience clearly doesn’t count here, lol.

 

[MileyMorkie]

Ok I didn’t realize “valued” and “VIP” member was via an amount of messages to unlock it.

The “skin tag” thing was a typo I mean to put “algae wafer”. Kind of was lost in my thoughts so yeah I didn’t mean to type that.
AbraCadaver scarface Rtessy Marimo
So you can edit or delete the messages that include anything about the typo. Ok thanks! And don’t continue rubbing it in after, just a fair warning! I haven’t dealt with a spreading humiliation before as I have been usually on platforms where that is rare.