Betta Smaragdina

[TheHolding]

Hi,

Got a pair of these from a guy from eBay yesterday lovely fish and I will try and get some pics (they are very shy and like to hide in the plants).

They are very young and not showing colours yet, hoping I have a male and female so can possibly breed them at a later date.

I have them in my planted community tank at the moment as they are a peaceful betta.

I'm new to wild betta and I'm not sure what to feed these guys, they don't seem interested in anything I offer!

Have tried flakes, freeze dried brine shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, frozen daphnia etc.

Can anyone help? Are these guys not feeding because they are not comfortable with their new environment yet?

Thanks

 

[walkers101]

give them a few days to settle in

 

[TheHolding]

give them a few days to settle in

Thanks Walkers what would you recommend?

I have ordered some Ocean Nutrition Atisons Betta food, you ever used this?

Still not had much joy!

 

[OohFeeshy]

Try feeding just before you turn the lights off, and don't hang around the tank too much, they'll probably have a scavenge around the substrate when they feel safe and should eventually start feeding in the daytime, especially once they recognise the signs of food.

 

[OldMan47]

Truly live food is often a best bet with wild type fish. Although they can readily live on other foods, a wild type fish will often refuse to try other foods without some training. Training wild fish to eat frozen or freeze dried foods is often a challenge at first. Maybe you could try mixing the frozen foods with live brine shrimp or microworms to get them to try the frozen foods. Even tiny foods like BBS or microworms are tempting enough to get the fish feeding. If they associate the live food with frozen foods, it doesn't take long for them to decide that frozen foods are worth trying. From there, you can gradually get them to try other foods so that you are not relying entirely on a single food. Single foods never are good enough for any fish. Variety is the essence of proper feeding regimes.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi TheHolding

From what I've seen with my B. simplex and B. albimarginata, they are very timid fish. They won't take anything but live blackworms and even then, if I'm anywhere near the tank, they won't go to the feeder. The only time I might catch them actually eating is if I put the worms in, back off about 10 feet or more, and sit very quietly (and patiently) on the floor.

As OldMan47 has said, this is not the ideal diet for any fish but right now I'm happy to see them eat anything.

 

[TheHolding]

Thanks for the advice guys I certainly have variety now!

I have frozen daphinia, baby brine shrimp, freeze dried brine shrimp, flakes, veg flakes and the betta food should be arriving soon.

I will get some live food at the weekend and try mixing it with the frozen.

They are very fussy they are in a tank with endlers when feeding the endlers (who eat anything) they went for some of the flake food only to then spit it out!

The person I bought them from was feeding them the betta pellets I have ordered.

 

[dave_oddballs]

i would personally try live daphnia, not only because it is one of the most readily available live foods, along side bloodworm, but i find fish find it interesting/annoying in the way they just buzz around like underwater bee's! it catches the fish's eyes easily i suspect and their instinct would be to go for it. as opposed to bloodworm which just wriggles around on the floor. i also believe that daphnia would be very similar in both size and type of live food a lot of the bettas would come across and 'hunt' for in the wild.
obviously some of the better prepared foods are incomparable, but until you get to the stage where the fish will take prepared food your main goal is to get them to eat something.
good luck with them, they are a stunning betta.

Dave

 

[TheHolding]

They are eating fine now, the guy I bought them off has sold me the remaining ones as he has new fish coming in, I have 6 for sale which I will be selling next month when they colour up as they are still too young too sex.

Pm if anyone is interested - collection only though (Exeter)

 

[grumpysteve]

don't suppose if you know if they guy you bought them off will have any more? i've been looking for a group of these for ages! gave up looking a little while ago. if i lived closer i'd have a few off you

 

[OohFeeshy]

Have you emailed Wholsesale Tropicals, they've got them listed on TFF (although not on the delivery page at the moment) and can deliver.

 

[grumpysteve]

i haven't called them recently, that site has said they've had them for ages though. last time i called them they said they no longer do delivery, and they weren't sure when they/if they'd have them in again