Betta's getting fat

[Easystreet]

Hello,

Hachi has become a bit chubby. It all started with my adding ADF's to the tank. I have to feed them too...well Hachi is very very fast when it comes to blood worms and even though I drop the food right in front of the frogs he is there to snatch it up. Which means he is eating too much.

How can I prevent this? It sounds like a stupid question because the only way I can see to fix this is to seperate them.

Do I not feed him for a couple days? Or just feed him very very little. Like 1 worm. He usually gets 3-4 pellets in the AM then 3-4 pellets or 3-4 blood worms (every other night on the worms) at night. But now he is getting his 3-4 pellets in the AM and a whole bunch of worms every other night.

Should I only feed him at night now?

Should I only feed him every other day? I feed the ADF's every other day. Well I put food in fron of their face every other day.

Please let me know what a good Betta diet plan is.

Any help would be great.

Jason


PS. I think my frogs were attempting to mate. If they are and I get tad poles, we all know Hachi will go to town, will they be bad for him?

Thanks again,

J

 

[eudielynn]

Don't know how much help I can be, but I'll try. First of all, even though bettas can go for several weeks without food, they really need several small meals each day except for when they are being fasted to clear out their systems. I would cut back on the number of pellets, but not the number of times you feed. I'm not sure how you feed your bloodworms to the frogs, but I can tell you how I do it. I have a 20 gal tank with 2 ADF's and various other fish. I feed the other fish at the same time on the opposite side of the tank from the ADFs. Then when they are occupied I take a clean turkey baster and suck up bloodworms I have defrosted in declorinated water. I put the turkey baster in the tank right in front of the frogs and practically drop the worms on them. They have awful eyesight, but their sense of smell is very good and they usually grab the worms up before the fish know what is going on. If you have a very small tank glass pipettes will work just as well in getting the food down to the bottom to them.

If you should come up with tadpoles and your betta eats them, which he probably will, they shouldn't cause him any problems.

Hope this helps and if not you might want to also post in the "Invertebrates, Amphibians and Aquatic Reptiles" section. Inchworm is a moderator there and she is an encyclopedia of knowlegde on the ADF's. She might be able to come up with some other way of feeding them that would limit your bettas access to their food.

 

[BettaMomma]

I have one little mini girly fish that is too timid to butt in with all the rest of the hogs in my tank so I lower a breeder net into the tank and she swims right in. Then I feed her while she's in there and feed everyone else at the same time. That way, everyone's happy and she gets the food she needs without everyone shoving her out of the way.

You could do something like this w/your betta and keep him in it for a little while, while you feed your froggies.