Help! My Betta Won't Eat!

[Memphase2690]

I'm new on this forum, and i have a problem.
My new Crowntail Betta, Ares, won't eat anything! we have tried betta flakes and pellets, but neither work.
When we give him the flakes, he flat out won't eat them. he'll eye them, and leave them there.
and when we give him the pellets (first tried it this morning), he will swallow them, make a weird head motion, like he's chewing (or choking), then spits them out.
I got him at Pet Club, the best LPS in sonoma county ( the other two are PETCO and Pet Smart, but i don't care for them).
My little sister has two other bettas from there, Rainbow and Ember (yes, rainbow is a male, but she didn't know until after she named him.), and they are fine, they both eat the betta flakes and are very happy. Ares currently has to live in an unheated mason jar while his habitat establishes, and i suspect he may not be eating because he is unhappy living in a jar with 4 inches in diameter to "swim around" in.
i hate putting him in such a small place, but it's WAY better than the cups they come in, with two inches in diameter for "swimming".
all they can do in those cups is turn around and go up for air, and they barely have enough room for just that. just two inches is a big difference for them, not kidding, when i first put him in the jar, he was so happy, he had just enough room to go into full flare and still have a little room to spare. he is small, so he should be okay in the jar for a little while longer, hopefully until his tank is established.
any advice to make him eat? i really don't want him to die because very much love him and he deserves to have better than he has now. 
thank you for any suggestions, all are very much apreciated.

 

[Ninjouzata]

When did you get him? Sometimes it takes fish a while to get settled in and start eating.
Do you know what the temperature is?
 
Flakes are not good for bettas as it is hard to tell exactly how much you're feeding them and it can cause bloat. What brand/size pellets have you tried him on? Did you try soaking them?
 

to the forum btw!

 

[guppy2002]

He just need to get used to his new home and food. Flakes are perfectly fine for betas. I always feed mine and there are no negative reactions. Here's a little trick I learned to get new betas to eat; take the largest flake you can find. Dip some of it into the water with your fingers. When the Betta notices, wave it around a little bit. But not too much or he will get scared. Bettas are carnivores in the wild, so this is like hunting for them. This worked with my three female bettas in a sorority. I even dangle the flake up to about an inch above the water and the girls jump! Good luck with Ares, and I hope you get a bigger tank.

 

[tunagirll]

Poor appetite is one of the first signs of illness in a betta. I don't think there's anything specifically wrong with him right now, but it's probably a result of living in a small container that isn't heated.
 
When I had Nigel in, I was still cycling the tank so I popped him into a small 1/2 litre acrylic betta container, about the same volume as your mason jar, and then clipped the whole thing inside the actual tank with a bulldog clip, so that the small betta container was submerged in the tank. It let the heater in the tank regulate his water temperature, so that he could be comfortable while waiting. I also changed that water twice a day because it was such a small container! If you only have a heater in the tank, set it to the appropriate temperature and try clipping the betta container to the wall like I did.
 
If you can't do that, then you'll need to find a way to keep him at a comfortable temperature or it's likely he will just get worse. Good temperature and clean water is 90% of the job.
 
As far as fish food goes, I only use pellets as flakes make bettas prone to bloat. Try soaking in garlic juice to entice him! If he's spitting them out, they might not be good quality, it might just be because he's feeling off, or it might be they are too big (need to be tiny). Best of luck

 

[Wildbetta]

Bettas often take a little while to get used to their new surroundings.  The fact that you have him in a mason jar with no heater (correct me if I am wrong) is another reason why he might not be eating since when they get cold they will eat less.  While you have him in the jar, make sure you are doing 100% water changes every day to keep him from being sick and make sure to get the new water as close to the old water's temp as possible.
 
As for food, I highly recommend staying away from flakes.  They are not a good food choice for bettas.  Bettas tend to have bloating and constipation issues which are easily brought on by overeating.  Flakes are hard to judge exactly how much the betta is eating and they tend to foul the water when the betta does not eat them all.  They also tend to swell more in a betta's belly than pellets.  How big were the pellets you offered him?  Some pellets are quite large and it can take the betta a while of eating it and spitting it out and repeating the process before they finish it off.  The smaller pellets like NLS (new life spectrum) are easier for them to eat.  Keep offering him pellets until he eats them.  You might have to try a couple of different brands too.
 
Keep in mind that they can go at least a week without food so your main concern should be to get his living situation fixed for him.    Everything else should fall into place for you.

 

[Memphase2690]

When did you get him? Sometimes it takes fish a while to get settled in and start eating.
Do you know what the temperature is?
 
Flakes are not good for bettas as it is hard to tell exactly how much you're feeding them and it can cause bloat. What brand/size pellets have you tried him on? Did you try soaking them?
 

to the forum btw!

I got Ares on December 26th, and I'm not sure what the temperature is. His jar is unheated, so I have suspicions that he won't eat because he is unhappy in the small space he is in with no heat.
 
I figured flakes weren't the best for bettas. but when we were at our LPS that was all they had,and i wanted to stop feeding them regular fish flakes because i knew those were most likely worse. we have found no problems with these flakes (they are bettamin flakes), and we use the toothpick trick that is used when you have fry, and it seems to work; plus nobody will eat the pellet food. the pellets are Topfin brand and are about a millimeter in diameter out of water, and are about one and a half/ two millimeters in water. we haven't tried soaking, my family and i are total rookies, so nothing like that occurs to us naturally yet. I guess we will have to learn by trial and error for a little while until we figure it out. 
 
thx, I just had to ask my mom after we were sure he wasn't eating and my swordtail gave birth.

 

[Memphase2690]

Poor appetite is one of the first signs of illness in a betta. I don't think there's anything specifically wrong with him right now, but it's probably a result of living in a small container that isn't heated.
 
When I had Nigel in, I was still cycling the tank so I popped him into a small 1/2 litre acrylic betta container, about the same volume as your mason jar, and then clipped the whole thing inside the actual tank with a bulldog clip, so that the small betta container was submerged in the tank. It let the heater in the tank regulate his water temperature, so that he could be comfortable while waiting. I also changed that water twice a day because it was such a small container! If you only have a heater in the tank, set it to the appropriate temperature and try clipping the betta container to the wall like I did.
 
If you can't do that, then you'll need to find a way to keep him at a comfortable temperature or it's likely he will just get worse. Good temperature and clean water is 90% of the job.
 
As far as fish food goes, I only use pellets as flakes make bettas prone to bloat. Try soaking in garlic juice to entice him! If he's spitting them out, they might not be good quality, it might just be because he's feeling off, or it might be they are too big (need to be tiny). Best of luck

thankyouthankyou, I think he is just depressed for right now, the jar looks kind of homey, I put some gravel in the bottom and he has an anacharis sprig in there. he also has a baby snail in with him ( I found the snail in my 5gal after me and my cousin put the plants in, but i don't really like snails and I figured Ares would eat him, but he hasn't yet). I think he could be just depressed because I got a goldfish to help cycle my 5gal, which I keep Ares next to, and when I put the goldfish in he was VERY mad at me. he was in full flare and fighting against the glass, trying to get into the tank. it was like he was saying "if he can go in there, why can't I?! IT'S NOT FAIR, LET ME IN!" and I had been planning to put him in after the tank stabilized, but then my swordtail, clementine, gave birth to about thirty-two fry and I had to put them in there.
 
thx for the idea, my mom is going to try setting that up for Ares. I did something like what you suggested a few days ago. I got a hot waterbottle (the kind that warms your feet at night) for Christmas, and what I did was fill it with hot water and put it up against his jar, I was hoping it would warm up the glass, thus warming up the water. it seemed to work alright, Ares snuggled up against the side it was on and he looked so cute!

  even though I named him after the Greek war god, his personality is totally different, he is a little scaredy-fish and is very sweet, I love him so much!
 
I'll see if i can get some pics, he looks awesome.
 
btw we got him in my 5gal the way you suggested, he is very happy

. we gave him a pellet to see if he would eat it, and he did the same thing as before. but he kept putting it back in his mouth, so we suspect he is just a picky eater and likes to play with his food, LOL. we had to transfer him out of the mason jar and into an old plastic betta "tank" to attach it to the wall, it's about the same size but the mouth isn't smaller than the jar itself; we put his plant in but not the gravel (it's shorter than the jar so it would have given him less room). I think he'll do better now that he is in a warm environment where he belongs

I will overview any more suggestions, but I think he will be alright for now.

 

[tunagirll]

Good news
 
Now I have to give you bad news: your goldfish is a cold water fish and setting the tank to a comfortable temperature for Ares is going to make your goldfish very uncomfortable! They like it 22 degrees C max, and a minimum for your betta is 26 degrees C. Your swordtail fry are fine in there, temperature wise.
 
Right now you are a little bit stuck between a rock and a hard place:
 
Your goldfish and betta temperatures aren't compatible
Remove the betta and he will be cold
Remove the goldfish and your tank won't cycle without ammonia
Use ammonia and your fry will die
Nowhere to put the fry
Leave the fry and the betta and remove the goldfish, not enough waste in the tank to cycle and ammonia for fishless cycling will kill the fry
 
You mentioned your sister has some betta tanks. Does she happen to use filters? Are these healthy mature tanks? Taking some of the media from her tank may help speed up your cycling radically.

 

[Memphase2690]

Good news

 
Now I have to give you bad news: your goldfish is a cold water fish and setting the tank to a comfortable temperature for Ares is going to make your goldfish very uncomfortable! They like it 22 degrees C max, and a minimum for your betta is 26 degrees C. Your swordtail fry are fine in there, temperature wise.
 
Right now you are a little bit stuck between a rock and a hard place:
 
Your goldfish and betta temperatures aren't compatible
Remove the betta and he will be cold
Remove the goldfish and your tank won't cycle without ammonia
Use ammonia and your fry will die
Nowhere to put the fry
Leave the fry and the betta and remove the goldfish, not enough waste in the tank to cycle and ammonia for fishless cycling will kill the fry
 
You mentioned your sister has some betta tanks. Does she happen to use filters? Are these healthy mature tanks? Taking some of the media from her tank may help speed up your cycling radically.

I know goldfish don't like warm water. we don't even have him anymore, he died the day I posted this. we put some of the 20gal community tank water in my 5gal, to cycle it faster; it would have been ready in 24hrs if we had put more in there, but we put a lot of it in my sisters 5gal, so we could spare only a little for mine. plus, I have substrate in the 5gal (which is my fry tank at the moment), so it had to settle down anyway. he was going to live in the fry tank (before it was the fry tank), along with some ottos, but the fry happened so that plan was scratched. we don't have any more room for real tanks, so my mom went to the thrift sore and got very nice vases. Ares is going to live in one of them soon, after it finishes cycling; it's about 3/4gal and I know it's to small for him but for now its the best we can do.
 
actually once the fry were born we moved fickle (the goldfish, I wanted to call him something, so I called him fickle, because he was supposed to "fickle up my tank") into a bowl. when he was in the 5gal, we had the heater unplugged until we moved him for the fry. 
 
you asked about my sister's bettas and if they are in filtered tanks. Ember is in my sisters 5gal, along with two corys and two ottos. this tank is filtered, and was (as I previously mentioned) based off the 20gal water, so it is fine, she uses small river rocks for gravel, and has no plants. but she has some larger river rocks from outside (they have been washed thoroughly, I promise) made into a kind of cave for a hiding place; so her tank is good for now.
 
Rainbow used to live in the 20gal, with some other fish (2 dojo loaches, a clown pleco, and two/now one swordies). but we moved him so we could have a wider fish collection; he now lives in a flat bowl (if I can get pics I'll show you, I know it doesn't sound good but he loves it I assure you), with some anacharis. he has three river rocks from outside with a 7 watt heater underneath them, he likes to wiggle underneath the rocks and get as close to the heater as possible. his habitat has no filter because it wouldn't fit, but my mom does 10% water changes every other day (he is slowly becoming her fish, and not my sister's), so he should be fine for now.
 
btw I am positive that the 5gal is safe for the fry because we put two in before putting in the rest, waited a couple hours, and when we left the house then came back later, and found them still alive, we put the rest in and they are thriving now (this was the only way to test it at the time, as the test kit we had then were really old strips that didn't test ammonia. we have a liquid test kit that tests everything, so we're good now). and we can't clip Ares in his cycling tank because the edge is circular, and the mouth is too small to put his current home in.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Sorry that the goldie died
 
Water contains virtually no bacteria, so it won't affect your cycling at all.
Majority of the bacteria live in the filter media, and then the rest on hard surfaces like decorations, substrate, and walls of the tank.

 

[Memphase2690]

Sorry that the goldie died

 
Water contains virtually no bacteria, so it won't affect your cycling at all.
Majority of the bacteria live in the filter media, and then the rest on hard surfaces like decorations, substrate, and walls of the tank.

Eh, I didn't even know we were keeping Fickle until my mom told me after I asked if we should sell him or something.
it was hard because my male swordie, Mustache, had just died three days before, and I felt like I was killing all of my fish. so it just about killed me when we were sure Ares wasn't eating, because I thought I had killed my first betta (I've never had a betta belong to me before, so I was super exited when I got him).

 

[tunagirll]

 

Good news

 
Now I have to give you bad news: your goldfish is a cold water fish and setting the tank to a comfortable temperature for Ares is going to make your goldfish very uncomfortable! They like it 22 degrees C max, and a minimum for your betta is 26 degrees C. Your swordtail fry are fine in there, temperature wise.
 
Right now you are a little bit stuck between a rock and a hard place:
 
Your goldfish and betta temperatures aren't compatible
Remove the betta and he will be cold
Remove the goldfish and your tank won't cycle without ammonia
Use ammonia and your fry will die
Nowhere to put the fry
Leave the fry and the betta and remove the goldfish, not enough waste in the tank to cycle and ammonia for fishless cycling will kill the fry
 
You mentioned your sister has some betta tanks. Does she happen to use filters? Are these healthy mature tanks? Taking some of the media from her tank may help speed up your cycling radically.

I know goldfish don't like warm water. we don't even have him anymore, he died the day I posted this. we put some of the 20gal community tank water in my 5gal, to cycle it faster; it would have been ready in 24hrs if we had put more in there, but we put a lot of it in my sisters 5gal, so we could spare only a little for mine. plus, I have substrate in the 5gal (which is my fry tank at the moment), so it had to settle down anyway. he was going to live in the fry tank (before it was the fry tank), along with some ottos, but the fry happened so that plan was scratched. we don't have any more room for real tanks, so my mom went to the thrift sore and got very nice vases. Ares is going to live in one of them soon, after it finishes cycling; it's about 3/4gal and I know it's to small for him but for now its the best we can do.
 
actually once the fry were born we moved fickle (the goldfish, I wanted to call him something, so I called him fickle, because he was supposed to "fickle up my tank") into a bowl. when he was in the 5gal, we had the heater unplugged until we moved him for the fry. 
 
you asked about my sister's bettas and if they are in filtered tanks. Ember is in my sisters 5gal, along with two corys and two ottos. this tank is filtered, and was (as I previously mentioned) based off the 20gal water, so it is fine, she uses small river rocks for gravel, and has no plants. but she has some larger river rocks from outside (they have been washed thoroughly, I promise) made into a kind of cave for a hiding place; so her tank is good for now.
 
Rainbow used to live in the 20gal, with some other fish (2 dojo loaches, a clown pleco, and two/now one swordies). but we moved him so we could have a wider fish collection; he now lives in a flat bowl (if I can get pics I'll show you, I know it doesn't sound good but he loves it I assure you), with some anacharis. he has three river rocks from outside with a 7 watt heater underneath them, he likes to wiggle underneath the rocks and get as close to the heater as possible. his habitat has no filter because it wouldn't fit, but my mom does 10% water changes every other day (he is slowly becoming her fish, and not my sister's), so he should be fine for now.
 
btw I am positive that the 5gal is safe for the fry because we put two in before putting in the rest, waited a couple hours, and when we left the house then came back later, and found them still alive, we put the rest in and they are thriving now (this was the only way to test it at the time, as the test kit we had then were really old strips that didn't test ammonia. we have a liquid test kit that tests everything, so we're good now). and we can't clip Ares in his cycling tank because the edge is circular, and the mouth is too small to put his current home in.
 

 
As above, the vast majority of your bacteria are living on filters, rocks, the glass - not in the water. In order to 'seed' your tank, you will need to take some of the filter media (eg a piece of sponge) and put it in the tank to be cycled. Taking about 30% will allow the first tank to recover quickly without stressing the fish in that tank, while providing enough material to quickly populate the new one. You will also need to put more media into the donor tank to give the recovering population somewhere to live.
 
In regards to tanks, a 3/4 or 2.5 litre vase is probably going to make your betta unhappy. I'm sorry but there's no way to sweeten that. It's not just the volume but the shape, which is mostly up and down, with little horizontal room to move. I know it's better than the cups in the pet store, but it's like saying keeping a dog in the laundry is okay because they're in a glass cage at the shop. They need room to run and stimulation, and so does your betta
 
Budget wise, if you're short then you can look at a temporary roomy container such as a plastic storage crate. These can be had extremely cheaply and have enough room to let your betta swim and take a filter and a heater. Even a 10 litre bucket can do. If you look around your home you'll probably find something suitable - just make sure it's chemical free.
 
Your fry alone won't have enough bioload to cycle the tank. If that's their new home though and not for the betta anymore, that should be fine (the bacterial colonies will increase as the fry increase)
 
A betta hovering in the area of the tank where it's warm indicates the tank overall is too cold. If the tank is warm enough, he will swim through the whole tank not just the warm spot.
 
It's unfortunately one of those things where if your family wanted a wider range of fish, which is GREAT!, there is also going to be a need for more tanks, more thought into what grows to what size, what goes where, tanks, suitable tankmates. I love variety as well but even just one betta and tank takes up plenty of my time! So I honestly feel for you and I hope it doesn't sound like criticising because it's not meant that way; just trying to pass on my own experience and advice to help you make some choices
 
Good luck!

 

[Memphase2690]

okay, sorry I haven't replied, been having random things pop up. Tunagirl, I'm sorry if I haven't been completely clear. my fry tank is fully cycled, and the fry are thriving. they will be four weeks old friday night, I'm trying to start switching them to flakes, most of them have figured out it's food, but not all. they have three ghost shrimp living with them now (I think one died, but I can't find it's stinking body) so they eat any leftovers. Ares is doing great, we got him clipped to my fry tank the way you suggested. then once his vase finished cycling, we put him in there; and now he is SUPER happy, he bubble nests like crazy (his vase has a heater, I think it's a 7 WATT), but mom keeps cleaning it out. he has a plant in there with him (plus his anaccharis) and he's eating fine now, SO relieved.

  everyone for your help

. Ares is fine now and I'll probably move him to my 5gal once my fry are gone. ~Memphase2690
Oh, I almost forgot. Rainbow isn't too cold. he just likes to use the rocks as a sort of obstacle course to play with. we removed two of the rocks, and he doesn't do it anymore. apparently it's too boring to play in now. his new favorite game is Weeping Angel; if you stare at him he'll freeze, then when you look away he will move just a tiny bit, and he'll repeat this until he has to go up for air. it's really funny.

 

[tunagirll]

Wonderful news don't forget to share pictures! We love to see bettas