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Help! New betta won't eat!

AfternoonNarwhale

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So as of yesterday I got my first betta fish ever(yay!!). His name is Iggy and he is very active and seems to be settling in pretty well-except he won't eat! We have tried many times today and yesterday, but although he comes and investigates, he won't eat them. This morning he even took one and spit it out! What should I do?
 
It is quite common for newly purchased bettas to refuse to eat the food you give him. If the food you are giving is not the same as the shop, bettas often don't recognise it as food. The solution here is to keep offering a very small amount, and remove it if he doesn't eat it. Bettas do not starve themselves to death; sooner or later he will realise it is food.

I have had several bettas, one by one over the years. I have always fed betta pellets, starting with Hikari, then I moved on to Atisons, now I use Northfin. The majority of my bettas would only eat the pellets as soon as they were placed on the water; if one escaped and the betta found it later when it was soggy and waterlogged, they spat it out. But I've had one betta which would only eat soggy pellets. I had to soak them for several minutes, then carefully lay them on top of the water with a pipette.
If yours won't eat hard pellets, try soaking one and see if he'll eat that.
 
I suggest that you give him a variety of food until he accepts one. I usually don't trust pet sellers but as my LFS is my BFF I don't care what he gives me.
 
One of my new Bettas wouldn't take dried food or frozen bloodworm and eventually I gave him a baby shrimp which he devoured then tried him with live bloodworm which he took. Yesterday he ate the dried food quite happily for the first time but it's taken nearly 2 weeks for him to take dried food. I think for him it just took him a little bit longer to settle in than the others. Maybe just try a few different types of food to stimulate his appetite and remind him that not being hungry is a nice feeling.
 

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