Betta Becoming A Fussy Eater And Losing Weight

[monkeyhanger]

My Betta has lost a lot of weight in the last few weeks. I started out by just feeding the tank inhabitants on Aquarian Tropical flake, then introduced bloodworm as a treat once a week. The betta won't touch the flakes now. All the fish in the tank go for the bloodworm, so the Betta gets very little to eat.

He's a purple veil tail, with red highlights on the fin tips, and a black head. Now his main body is so thin, you can just about see his backbone. His colour has faded. He's also hiding/resting a lot more than he used to, wedging himself in one of my bushier plants between gulps of air.

He probably gets 3 bloodworms in a sitting before the cube is eaten by everyone.

All the fish crowd in to the bloodworm block, and even though the Betta holds his own, the others dont fear him , and don't let him get his fill first before moving in.

The other inhabitants are a lone Neon Tetra (survivor from 10 after a disease wiped them out. I don't want to get rid of it while it's healthy, it doesn't seem stressed, it is sociable with the Bloodfins, and it's colours are normal), 6 Glass Bloodfin Tetras, 8 varied Platys, and 4 Cory Sterbai.

I've been trying to get everyone else fed on the flake, hoping that they've had enough food, then adding the blood worms. This isn't working, those Platys are always hungry!

Can anyone suggest a food type that the Betta will love, but won't be especially desireable to the Platys?

At the moment i'm making sure that the bloodworm thing is more than once a week so he eats more regularly, even if that means everyone else gets more bloodworm too. His colour has started to become vivid again, he's put on a little weight, and is more sociable.

I haven't tried it yet, but as he's so tame (brushes up against my hand if it is in the tank during regular cleaning), I was wondering whether to scoop him up in a 2 litre jug of tank water (just using the jug, no nets) and drop a cube of bloodworm in so he gets to feed alone for 5 mins, a few days a week until he's back to normal size again? After feeding, he'll go back in the tank with the tank water. Is this a bad suggestion?

 

[crazychris]

I have 2 blue Bettas, in separate tanks of course. Their favourite food by far is bloodworms. You can feed bloodworms more than once a week, say 2 or 3 times. Put bloodworm cubes in at both end of the tank, at the same time, one near him and hopefully he'll then get some whilst a lot of the fish are busy at the other end! What about frozen brine shrimp? My two like that as well. Can you get any live daphnia from a fish shop? Must admit both mine will eat flake too though.

 

[loraxchick]

i agree they can eat bloodworms more than once a week. tyr slicing a piece off the cube and defrosting it. add the rest of the cube as you normally would and feed the betta separately at the top(all the other fish hopefully will crowd around the cube at the bottom). if a solution cant be found, maybe its time to get him his own tank so he doesnt starve. just a thought.
cheers

 

[monkeyhanger]

i agree they can eat bloodworms more than once a week. tyr slicing a piece off the cube and defrosting it. add the rest of the cube as you normally would and feed the betta separately at the top(all the other fish hopefully will crowd around the cube at the bottom). if a solution cant be found, maybe its time to get him his own tank so he doesnt starve. just a thought.
cheers

That might work if the betta doesn't go after the main cube before you put in his portion, and if some of the other fish don't see that there are 2 parts to the cube on offer, and go after his piece.

He used to happily eat flake before he got a taste of bloodworm. i'll defrost his bit so that it sinks, and will be less visible to the others, and leave the other chunk frozen so that it floats and all the others will be swarming around it waiting for it to melt. They're like a pack of piranhas (especially the platys).

There are sometimes a few stray worms that fall from the block and are not eaten - the Betta doesn't seem eagle-eyed enough to spot these before a Platy does 5 or 10 mins after the block is gone.

 

[JSmails]

i agree they can eat bloodworms more than once a week. tyr slicing a piece off the cube and defrosting it. add the rest of the cube as you normally would and feed the betta separately at the top(all the other fish hopefully will crowd around the cube at the bottom). if a solution cant be found, maybe its time to get him his own tank so he doesnt starve. just a thought.
cheers

That might work if the betta doesn't go after the main cube before you put in his portion, and if some of the other fish don't see that there are 2 parts to the cube on offer, and go after his piece.

He used to happily eat flake before he got a taste of bloodworm. i'll defrost his bit so that it sinks, and will be less visible to the others, and leave the other chunk frozen so that it floats and all the others will be swarming around it waiting for it to melt. They're like a pack of piranhas (especially the platys).

There are sometimes a few stray worms that fall from the block and are not eaten - the Betta doesn't seem eagle-eyed enough to spot these before a Platy does 5 or 10 mins after the block is gone.

I used to keep female bettas who loved pea. This is taken out of the shell and ground down

 

[monkeyhanger]

i agree they can eat bloodworms more than once a week. tyr slicing a piece off the cube and defrosting it. add the rest of the cube as you normally would and feed the betta separately at the top(all the other fish hopefully will crowd around the cube at the bottom). if a solution cant be found, maybe its time to get him his own tank so he doesnt starve. just a thought.
cheers

That might work if the betta doesn't go after the main cube before you put in his portion, and if some of the other fish don't see that there are 2 parts to the cube on offer, and go after his piece.

He used to happily eat flake before he got a taste of bloodworm. i'll defrost his bit so that it sinks, and will be less visible to the others, and leave the other chunk frozen so that it floats and all the others will be swarming around it waiting for it to melt. They're like a pack of piranhas (especially the platys).

There are sometimes a few stray worms that fall from the block and are not eaten - the Betta doesn't seem eagle-eyed enough to spot these before a Platy does 5 or 10 mins after the block is gone.

I used to keep female bettas who loved pea. This is taken out of the shell and ground down

I was cleaning the tank last night (50 % water change and algae scrub on the walls) and the Betta was hanging around my hands while they were in the tank, so I put the 2 litre jug in to see if he'd go in without too much bother. He swam in with hardly any coaxing. So I sat him in his jug by the telly, full of tank water and got a frozen block of bloodworm to put in. He had about 8 worms, and he got put back in the tank as soon as he'd had his fill. Seemed happy enough to watch the telly while I was topping the tank back up, then him and the jug contents went gently back in the tank. He wasn't fazed at all, and set about his normal business. If I can get him jugged twice a week then he should be back up to weight soon, although I will try feeding him a Pea and see if he likes it.

 

[monkeyhanger]

The Betta loves peas, and the other fish aren't fussed about it, except the largest 2 Platys, who seemed to take a few bits out of curiosity. The betta has the biggest mouth in the tank, so if I cut them just small enough for him then the others can't touch the pea anyway.

He has been trying very hard to eat a few pieces that are obviously too big for him, but he perseveres.

He's put on noticeable weight recently, and is getting back to his previous good health.