Betta And A Peace Lilly

[joloco]

my local lfs told me peace lillies are underwater plants and that betta's happily munch them as a source of food.

what do you think - true or rubbish?

the reason i ask is that a friend has a peace lilly as a house plant on her window cill and its certainly not in water so i'm inclined to think this is rubbish but as happy to be proved wrong on this one...

 

[black angel]

Yes its rubbish. A lot of pet stores sell many terrestrial plants as underwater but they will only last a short time before dying.
As for them using them as a source of food, only partly right. Fish do eat roots but they need other foods as well to get a healthy balanced diet.

 

[bUcky]

thats a negative.

 

[joloco]

good thing i ignored that bit of lfs advice then

 

[lisie]

Bettas are carnivorous. Most, if not all, would die of starvation before they ever ate the roots of a plant. The only plant matter I've ever heard of bettas eating is cooked pea, but none of mine would ever touch them.

 

[33moths]

It's stupid to think ANY fish could live off of one thing in such a small space with dirty water like that.

My betta likes an occasional bit of red bell pepper though.

S'all about variety.

 

[e11cloud]

I wouldn't feed red bell pepper to a betta. I would think something like that would be hard on his little tummy. There's plenty of variety with fish foods, no need for anything like that. Bettas are healthiest in nice, clean water...lots of water changes for bowls, and even in tanks with filtration. Above is correct, I would bet the betta would die before munching the roots...he might chew his fins for food instead! Bettas are much healthier and much more beautiful contained in a "normal" fish atmosphere without a lilly in my opinion anyway. Show off the fish, not the plant!

 

[Himmel]

My fish like peas red pepers and some rice once in awhile, I strongly suggest keeping a betta in no less then 2 l of water with open acess to air and feeding a betta pellet , flake ect as a main diet ..... although newly hatched brine shrimp are a good treat too anyways the betta in a vase with a plant is Cruel to the betta how would you like to be put in such a small area with no food, I hate the way petstores say bettas can be kept
thank you for reasearching it though