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What to Feed Bettas [ May 9th, 2011 ] Posted in » Bettas

Trying to figure out what to feed your bettas? Today I came across this article by Mischa which talks about the best types of foods to feed betta fish. She discusses both how much to feed betas as well as what to feed betta fish.

She very much stresses the importance of feeding your bettas a variety of different types of foods. Right now in my tank I don’t have any bettas as the female ones I had died a while ago and right now I’ve got an oscar in my tank which would have bettas for breakfast, but when I did have bettas I mostly just fed them flakes. Mischa’s advice is to offer bettas a bigger variety of food.

Here’s the article she wrote:

Feeding Betta Fish

By Mischa Hill

If you are new to Betta fish keeping, feeding them might present a challenge at first. There are so many choices out there and so much conflicting information!

People present all kinds of theories on how often to feed Betta fish, what to feed them, etc. But once you start listening to those with many years of experience, some common themes begin to emerge.

Here are some basic tips for you:

First of all, you need to know that feeding Betta fish the best and most varied diet possible will have a profound effect on its health and longevity. In fact, next to the quality of tank water, it’s the second most important factor in caring for your Betta fish. And the two are very much connected. You will see in a minute, why.

The first question is: How much should I be feeding Betta fish?

Be careful not to overfeed it! That’s the most important thing. We can be very eager to make our Betta happy and full and we often go overboard. Remember, they are tiny creatures, with tiny stomachs (about the size of their eyes) and huge appetites. And they don’t have much will power when it comes to food. Yes, they can be finicky, but they will also eat until their stomachs are bulging, if left to their own devices.

So learn these quick rules:

Feed it only what your Betta will consume right away (in 2 minutes)
Do not leave any uneaten food in the tank (it can be a challenge to pick it all out…)

There are many theories out there, but it’s enough to feed your Betta fish once a day. Pick a time that is convenient for you and stick to it. Bettas like consistency when it comes to feeding time. It’s also perfectly fine to skip a day. In fact, regular “fasts” can do your Betta much good.

Here is a not-so-well-known feeding tip: the best time for feeding your Betta fish is an hour after sunrise or an hour before sunset. In the wild, this is the time when the insects swarm and land in the water for the Bettas to scoop them up.

The second question is: What should I be feeding my Betta fish?

We already mentioned the fact that Bettas are carnivores. A vegetarian diet will not sustain them. The healthiest food for them is called Hikari Bio-Gold. It’s imported from Japan and used by many breeders. Another very good choice for every day is BettaMin.

Since your Bettas need a varied diet, here are some other elements of their weekly menu:

Blood worms – give infrequently
Daphnia (water fleas) – twice per week at the most
White chicken meat
A tiny piece of steak
Vegetables – a cooked and peeled pea, for example

Variety will contribute to a strong immune system in your Betta.

And once again – whatever is not eaten right away, needs to be removed from the tank. Leftover food will rot and produce bacteria and ammonia, making the environment dangerous if not deadly for your Betta.

Bettas make wonderful pets because of the way they tend to bond and interact with their owners. Use your feeding routine to spend time with your Betta and cultivate that bond. You will soon find it most enjoyable!

Mischa Hill is a Betta fish enthusiast. He likes to contribute to the well-being and health of all Bettas by providing information and resources on Betta fish care and breeding Betta fish to Betta fish owners at http://www.betta-fish-care.net/

Find good Betta fish food prices on his site as well.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mischa_Hill

http://EzineArticles.com/?Feeding-Betta-Fish&id=2755954

As you can see she stresses feeding betas a variety of food, not just one type of food. The female bettas I had died from being attacked by other fish, not from a lack of food variety so I can’t really comment on how valid Mischa’s recommendations are.

What do you think?

Do you have bettas? Are you thinking of just sticking with one type of daily food, or are you going to feed them a variety? Leave your comments below and let me know what you think.

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My First Set of Fish

Yesterday I got my 20 Gallon Freshwater Aquarium setup, and today I went to the pet store and picked up the rest of the things I wanted to get to finish my setup and to pickup my initial set of fish.

I need to cycle my water to build up the good bacteria in the aquarium before I can fully stock the tank with all the fish I want in there, so for the time being I just picked up 6 fish for now.

It wasn’t easy picking which fish to get. There are so many cool fish to get out there.

Here’s what I ended up getting. The first two are Tiger Barbs. Here’s a picture of them:

I’ll try to get better pictures of my fish soon. This is the best I could do for now to keep them in proper focus. They are super fast fish and they love to chase each other around the tank. It wasn’t easy to get a fast enough focus on them before they zip out of camera view.

Here’s another shot of them in the corner of the tank:

The next two I picked up are Cherry Barbs. It’s so weird because at the pet store they all looked very similar, but now that I’ve got the two of them in the tank they look totally different. I don’t have a picture of them yet, but one of them turned completely red and the other one has horizontal stripes very similar to the vertical ones that the Tiger Barbs have.

The one Cherry Barb with the stripes follows the Tiger Barbs around almost like it wants to be accepted into their little group. The other red one just swims around by itself like a loner. The other thing that it does that is so funny is that when I turn on the bubble maker, it goes straight for it and swims around in all the bubbles. It totally loves bubbles. Reminds me of that character in Finding Nemo that loves bubbles. It’s so funny to see the personalities these fish display.

The final two fish I got were two female Bettas (Siamese Fighting Fish). The male ones you can only keep one in a tank because they fight, but the females are OK in the same tank together, so I got two females. The funny thing the females do is that they chase each other around and then they eventually face each other and lock lips! It looks like they are kissing, it’s so funny.

I really have to learn how to take better pictures of these fish. The best one I could get of the Betta Fish was this picture here:

So that’s pretty much it for now, I just got six fish for now to get the cycle started in my tank and once everything is running smoothly I’ll start adding in a few more fish.

I took a few more pictures of my setup as it is now: