Nemo isn't eating

[DogFish]

It has been 5 days, and in that time I have seen Nemo eat one betta bite (Hikari) only. I waited 24 hours for him to settle in and gave him one betta bite.
He was very interested in it, ate it, spit it out, ate it, spit it out and left it. That night I gave him one and he ignored it. Ignored same next day. On the third day he did the eat and spit, and finally ate the whole thing. Thats the last time he has eaten. I have taken out the uneaten bits each day. I offered him a bloodworm twice but he just eyeballs them and leaves them alone.
Shall I just keep trying and assume that he won't let himself starve? Or should I go buy something else? I tried the flakes that came with the tank too, and he wouldn't touch them either.
He has so much character, when I get the turkey baster in there, he follows it around, keeping an eye on it.
When we put a mirror up, once a day, he spots himself across the tank and flares, and zooms over to tell that other betta to get lost!
He has built a very nice large bubble nest, and gets very upset if that other mirror-betta shows up on that side of the tank!

 

[basstracker_v16]

Hi Dog.

First I will admit I'm not even close to knowing all about Betta's. BUT, I do have
2 of them and I've been through a bit same as you.

First Betta was Caesar. Waited a day before trying to feed him. I got him some
BIO-blend dry food pellets. He ignored them totally, tryed for 3 days, woudnt touch
em. Then I tryed Hikori Betta Bio-Gold, same results. Day 5!, I got some frozen
blood worms, dropped ... DROPPED a few into the tank... he looked at me like I
was nuts! Ok fine, starve! Well, I got silly and tryed HAND feeding him with a
tweezer.. he eates!!! Wont touch it if it falls to bottom tho! Now he eats adult frozen
brine shrimp too, if hand fed!

Now Betta #2, Brutus. Took him a week before I saw him eat. Wouldnt touch any
thing at all. Well I did notice he would eat SOME of which fell to the bottom, but never
when I was there. Now tho, he will only eat the Betta Bio-Gold.

If the next one I get gets this fussy with eating, my wife wont let me keep it!

Now I'm not sure if this helps, but try different stuff. Find out what the fish store was
feeding him too. Maybe something is up his fin and he's protesting.

 

[staredecisis]

Same goes for me as basstracker has said, I'm not the most experienced betta owner, I've only had two, but both have been extremely fickle at first as far as eating. I think they need time to adjust to the change. My first betta wouldn't eat anything but Betta Bio Gold, and he took awhile to even get into that. My 2nd betta did the same as yours, and would eat the pellet, then spit it up, 5 or 6 times.. but he would only eat very scarcely. But I'll tell you what, now that they're both adjusted to their homes and surroundings, they come darting over to me when they see me pick up the pellet dispenser. They ravage anything that I drop in the tank, garble it down before they even know what it is. Also they jump out of the water to nip my fingers holding their food before I drop it in, and they stay in their feeding corners begging for more long after they know they've eaten a square meal.

I think your little guys will do fine after an adjustment period. They won't starve to death.. Just keep offering food and taking it out if they don't want it.

 

[Aqua_Princess64]

I had the same problem when I got my first betta, which is the one I have now and I looked it up on the net and it said that bettas sometimes may not eat for a few days when their food is changed. If that was true for mine and is true for yours, then Nemo will get used to the new food and soon eat it all up, and ask for more!!

 

[DogFish]

Thank you all, it is good to hear about your bettas. I will ask the store what they were feeding them, that is a good idea. (Plus I will have another excuse to scope out the new bettas heh heh heh).
If all 5 of your bettas were fussy eaters and came around, then I have hope for Nemo. Arn't they just the neatest little guys!?