Snob Betta ?!?

[MaloK]

My new little guy has been home for 2 weeks now.

I try to feed him correctly as much as possible but my problem is, that no matter what, he would never touch any pellets I give him. He tried them in the beginning but spit them out and never touched them again.

Now I have 4 kinds of different Betta pellets, loll... And they all get 100% wasted, even after his fasting day, Mr. Snubinous would look at them like they are poops falling in the tank. And continue begging until he gets what he wants... Shimps and worms. His he manipulating me ?

I tried so hard last week that I had to do water changes every day to siphon the rotting pellets at the bottom and also remove an Exxon Valdez size oil spill from the surface.

At the moment he ate nothing else than frozen brine shrimp, blood and tubifex worms for 2 weeks.

What should I do to convince him to at least retry the pellets ? How much time can he sustain a rich diet like that ?

 

[Aqua67]

I think that is the type of food he probably eats the most of in the wild, if given a choice he would fill up on tiny crustaceans, worms and larvae. Freeze dried or frozen should be fine. If it were me, besides the blood worms and baby brine shrimp, I’d toss in live food such as amphipods and drop them in one by one, making sure the betta saw it. If he doesn’t eat it on its way down to a hiding spot, it will give your betta something to look forward to every day….the hunt. If you can find a small amount of live daphnia or something from the local pet store, try that too.

 

[GaryE]

I never used pellets for Bettas. Insects are the way to go. Beware of mistaking richness for quality - whiteworms are rich and fatty, but other foods generally aren't.

In the wild, a Betta would mainly feed on mosquitoes, probably nabbing one every couple of days. A family member had a Betta she fed on freeze dried tubifex, decapsulated artemia cysts, and dried shrimp, as well as occasional flake, and it lived close to 6-7 years.

I know its diet because I supplied its food to her.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Nothing like having a prima donna! Stock up on frozen brine shrimp, mysis, bloodworms. Feed him a variety. Sneak in a pellet or two now and then, and maybe eventually he'll learn to like them.

 

[MaloK]

I think that is the type of food he probably eats the most of in the wild, if given a choice he would fill up on tiny crustaceans, worms and larvae. Freeze dried or frozen should be fine. If it were me, besides the blood worms and baby brine shrimp, I’d toss in live food such as amphipods and drop them in one by one, making sure the betta saw it. If he doesn’t eat it on its way down to a hiding spot, it will give your betta something to look forward to every day….the hunt. If you can find a small amount of live daphnia or something from the local pet store, try that too.

Amphipods... that sounds yummy. I see There's some pod mixes... What do I need to start breeding them.

 

[MaloK]

I never used pellets for Bettas. Insects are the way to go. Beware of mistaking richness for quality - whiteworms are rich and fatty, but other foods generally aren't.

In the wild, a Betta would mainly feed on mosquitoes, probably nabbing one every couple of days. A family member had a Betta she fed on freeze dried tubifex, decapsulated artemia cysts, and dried shrimp, as well as occasional flake, and it lived close to 6-7 years.

I know its diet because I supplied its food to her.

Perfect, I will loosen up on the pellets, and look for what insects are available next time I go to my LFS.

 

[Nells250]

Exxon Valdez size oil spill from the surface

HA!!!

I am no pro, but my first betta was new to me in August, and she didn't eat anything but the one brand pellet I bought along with her. Now, 4 months later, she finally eats most of what I put in there, even SOME of the dried "bugs" she hated before.

Just sayin'...

 

[Aqua67]

Amphipods are very easy to breed and maintain a colony, especially if you keep it separate from your fish tank. They don’t need anything special. I keep a whole bunch of separate colonies in jars of green water, that I keep on my window ledge. Just in case I have a colony crash. I always have back up colonies. I have a huge colony going in one of my shrimp tanks, but I have to aggressively farm those as they can compete with the shrimp for food. The fish in my other aquariums love to hunt/eat the amphipods and even so, I end up, sucking some out with every water change anyhow. I’ve got jars of amphipods that I’ve never dropped food into and they are doing fine eating microscopic algae. That’s another thing you’ll never have to worry about, algae in your aquarium, if you put amphipods in your aquarium. The hardest part is just getting an initial supply of them. Once you have them, you are good to go. They will eat everything decaying or dead, algae, leftover fish food, etc. You shouldn’t ever need to feed them much of anything specifically. They are super easy, dare I say nearly foolproof.

I lost all my amphipods when I moved house and had to move my aquariums. The only other time I lost an amphipod colony was when the container I had them in got knocked over by my dog, and I had to suck them all out of the carpet with a wet vac.

 

[MaloK]

Amphipods are very easy to breed and maintain a colony, especially if you keep it separate from your fish tank. They don’t need anything special. I keep a whole bunch of separate colonies in jars of green water, that I keep on my window ledge. Just in case I have a colony crash. I always have back up colonies. I have a huge colony going in one of my shrimp tanks, but I have to aggressively farm those as they can compete with the shrimp for food. The fish in my other aquariums love to hunt/eat the amphipods and even so, I end up, sucking some out with every water change anyhow. I’ve got jars of amphipods that I’ve never dropped food into and they are doing fine eating microscopic algae. That’s another thing you’ll never have to worry about, algae in your aquarium, if you put amphipods in your aquarium. The hardest part is just getting an initial supply of them. Once you have them, you are good to go. They will eat everything decaying or dead, algae, leftover fish food, etc. You shouldn’t ever need to feed them much of anything specifically. They are super easy, dare I say nearly foolproof.

I lost all my amphipods when I moved house and had to move my aquariums. The only other time I lost an amphipod colony was when the container I had them in got knocked over by my dog, and I had to suck them all out of the carpet with a wet vac.

I'm reading a bit on the subject at the moment... It's a little more difficult to make green water for me this time of the year, but I'm looking whats available and I will probably give it a try next spring.

I thought they needed a good amount of salt in the water to live ?