Betta living with live food - Will he overeat?

[Aqua67]

I have a 5.5 gal aquarium that has been going for several years with cherry shrimp. This tank also has plenty of copepods and tiny baby snails (ramshorn and bladder) as well as some of the adult larger snails of the same type. I was going to add daphnia to the tank also. I was considering adding a betta, most likely one of the wild types (Imbellis or Smaragdina most likely) and I was wondering if you think the betta would stuff himself and give himself bloat, or if you think he would eat the live food only when he was hungry. I realize it might just depend on the betta and its personality. I figured I’d watch him closely and if he’s eating live foods then I could hold up feeding any other store bought foods. I wouldn’t want him to eat every single thing in the aquarium though as I’d like to keep the populations going of everything currently in that aquarium. Right now I do have a betta in with a lot of other fish in a 38 gal aquarium, and that aquarium has maintained an amphipod colony for many years. That betta is doing fine and is not getting fat or experiencing any difficulty eating foods he shouldn’t, being in that tank now for several months. He does love to hunt though and he spends much of his day in the java fern jungle and scrutinizing the cracks in the driftwood for amphipods. Just wondering what others opinions would be on a betta living with live food in a 5.5 gal aquarium. Thanks.

 

[MaloK]

One beautiful thing, is that a betta bloating on live food rarely get stuck...

But yeah they will eat and eat and bloat. but as long as you don't introduce dried food... There will be no problem.

A betta swallows at least 10 time the amount of water for 1 pod to swim in. chasing prey with a full stomach...

No. Water swallowed does not really count as solid matter and will be digested really quick. and bellies goes back to normal within a night.

 

[Aqua67]

Sounds like it might work then. Thank you.

 

[GaryE]

An advantage to live food is that it is complete. Betta bloat is from a lack of roughage in prepared foods. A Daphnia, with its body structure, is very high in roughage and fibre.
In a 5, the Daphnia population will be very low. He'll clean it out to nothing in no time at all. I've dropped net fulls of daphnia into 10 gallon tanks with Betta imbellis or wild caught splendens, and not one Daphnia was swimming 3 hours later. The fish looked full, but never developed bloating.

Some individual bettas become snail hunters, but many don't. So that isn't reliable.

Consider that a 5 gallon is a small enclosure, and it is a lot easier to catch prey in a limited space than in an open one. So chances are, he'll render that tank pretty barren of live food quickly.

 

[Aqua67]

Thank you, GaryE. I’ll do with the Daphia and other critters like I do with my amphipods then. I will just get several colonies established outside of that betta aquarium and drop in what I need for feeding. It is good to know I won’t be setting him up for bloat. Thank you.