Feeding Bettas
by: William Berg
Knowing the right way to feed your betta is fundamental, becausenot doing it right can have big consequences on your bettas health.Nothing is more stressful than dealing with a sick fish, right? So,let's do it right, and get rid from the calamity!
Here are some golden rules on feeding your betta.
First, select the proper food. Bettas are selective eaters. Abetta specific pellet is ok, but live and frozen foods are preferable.The recommended diet includes frozen brine shrimp and frozenbloodworms.
The next rule is to not overfeed your Bettas. Carefully dosethe meals, because even if the fish ate all you give him, he willproduce so much more waist when overfed and the pollution level of thejar he is in will go beyond safe range, this problem is smaller if youkeep your betta in a larger aquarium. Remember not to leave uneatenfood in the Aquarium! Once your betta and rest of the fish is doneeating, you must remove all uneaten left over food. If you do notremove it, it will punctually rot and cause havoc in the tank.
Bettas prefer to eat from the upper parts of the water column.They don’t really enjoy eating from the bottom of the tank. So beforedropping the food in the tank, make sure you have his attention. Lethim see the food, get it close to his face from the outside of theaquarium, let him check out what it is, and then there you go! Dropfood in front of his nose. The best way is to drop a tiny bit offood--about 6 frozen brine shrimp, watch the bettas eat it all and thenlook at the belly, if it looks the same as it did before you fed, it’sok to give them more, but always watch and make sure to make the secondportion smaller than the first.
Your betta should go for the food right away, but if not, watchwhere the food sinks, and what the betta does. If more than 15 min hehas not eaten the food yet, remove the food. Never let the water gocloudy. If it is already, then change it, as cloudy water will threatenyour betta’s health. Normally, small bowls or containers should bechanged at least twice a week. Larger tank can be changed once a week.And notice if the ammonia and nitrite levels are up the roof, becauseboth are very bad for your Betta. Also be wary of harmful bacteria theycan ruin your fish life, but don’t kill of all bacteria in the aquariumsince a lot of bacteria is essential for a well functioning aquarium.
During the pre-spawning period you can feed a wide variety offood, including blackworms, Grindal worms, fruit flies, brine shrimp,mosquito larvae and frozen blood worms (all are life except the frozenblood worms). During this period the adult fish may be fed 4 times perday or more depending on how close the fish are to being placed intothe spawning tank.
You can start feeding your betta fry, 5 days after thespawning. Feed the fry several times per day, using a variety of foods(infusoria, boiled egg yolk, baby brine shrimp…) made up of smallparticles.
About The Author
William Berg has over 20 years of aquarium experince and runs the website http://www.aquaticcommunity.com and you can find more of his articles on http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/universal.html.
