So, I have a girl betta. She's spunky and fast, and I'm quite taken with her.
And naturally, she's infinately fussy with her food.
She's eaten 1 or 2 pellets since I got her, the others she just ignores. She'll eat fozen bloodworms, when it's bloodworm day.
So, yesterday, after fishing out 3 uneaten pellets and plunking them into my 10gal for the ghost shrimps to feast on, I gave in and tried feeding her my freeze dried bloodworms. My other bettas refuse the stuff, and I have a big old bottle of it.
It's Hikari Multi-vitamin Enriched Freeze Dried Bloodworms.
I remember feeding whole pinches to my male bettas. They'd eat it on occasion without too much fuss, but only on occasion.
For the girl, as she's not a strong eater yet, I took up my little bloodworm bowl (a tiny glass bowl, much like a sake cup), filled it with her water, and soaked the worms. I then carefully fed them to her as I would frozen blood worms. She ate 'em up.
Score.
I fed her the worms one at a time, only to see how quickly she plumped up for eating them. It didn't take very many, significantly less than I ever fed my male bettas. I gave my male betta, Sori, a few excess, and out of curiosity, watched his belly as I fed as well. Again, a lot less than when I just plunked them in earlier. I wound up dumping excess into my 10gal for the shrimps again.
So, my questions:
1) Should I continue to try and feed her Hikari Pellets, or do you think she's cool with the Hikari Bloodworms? Would she be fine on such a lopsided diet, I wonder?
Er... in retrospect, my other bit isn't a question so much as an observation I was wondering if you'd like to expound upon or refute.
I noticed that this time, having soaked them in water, it took significantly less for the betta to plump up. I think this has to do with the whole, "swell outside, swell inside," thing. It took less because the worms had already been plumped up, outside 'em.
Because freeze dried bloodworms enjoy a constipating reputation, I wonder if that's mostly because of the dry part, again? Do you think that the odds of stopping up a betta are reduced because the worms are softened up before being eaten?
And naturally, she's infinately fussy with her food.
She's eaten 1 or 2 pellets since I got her, the others she just ignores. She'll eat fozen bloodworms, when it's bloodworm day.
So, yesterday, after fishing out 3 uneaten pellets and plunking them into my 10gal for the ghost shrimps to feast on, I gave in and tried feeding her my freeze dried bloodworms. My other bettas refuse the stuff, and I have a big old bottle of it.
It's Hikari Multi-vitamin Enriched Freeze Dried Bloodworms.
I remember feeding whole pinches to my male bettas. They'd eat it on occasion without too much fuss, but only on occasion.
For the girl, as she's not a strong eater yet, I took up my little bloodworm bowl (a tiny glass bowl, much like a sake cup), filled it with her water, and soaked the worms. I then carefully fed them to her as I would frozen blood worms. She ate 'em up.
Score.
I fed her the worms one at a time, only to see how quickly she plumped up for eating them. It didn't take very many, significantly less than I ever fed my male bettas. I gave my male betta, Sori, a few excess, and out of curiosity, watched his belly as I fed as well. Again, a lot less than when I just plunked them in earlier. I wound up dumping excess into my 10gal for the shrimps again.
So, my questions:
1) Should I continue to try and feed her Hikari Pellets, or do you think she's cool with the Hikari Bloodworms? Would she be fine on such a lopsided diet, I wonder?
Er... in retrospect, my other bit isn't a question so much as an observation I was wondering if you'd like to expound upon or refute.
I noticed that this time, having soaked them in water, it took significantly less for the betta to plump up. I think this has to do with the whole, "swell outside, swell inside," thing. It took less because the worms had already been plumped up, outside 'em.
Because freeze dried bloodworms enjoy a constipating reputation, I wonder if that's mostly because of the dry part, again? Do you think that the odds of stopping up a betta are reduced because the worms are softened up before being eaten?
I knew she was going to be alright, but it was starting to get a little bothersome for her to reject everything other than frozen bloodworms entirely.
