Halfmoon Not Eating After A Week

[Jenste]

Hey all....as most of u betta lovers saw, last week I bought a halfmoon I fell in love with



The second day of being in the tank (a divided 10 gallon i have had set up for about two years) filtered and heated - he built a bubble nest so I thought he was settling in nicely....i went to feed him a few pellets and he would move them INTO the bubble nest...flare like crazy at them as they fell, then would put them back into the nest....and repeat. he did this for about 10 minutes then became bored with them and the pellets were gobbled up by a peppered cory ... I have now had him a full week (wednesday - wednesday) and he has yet to eat. he bites a pellet, carries it around and then spits it out. The past two days I have tried flakes and he does the same - - sucks it in, swims a bit, then spits out flake crumbs.

I know they "sulk" when in a new tank...but all in all I think he has a fairly nice home!! sand substrate, filtered, heated, a divided in two 10-gallon tank, live plants only (water wisteria) and a cave for him to go in...


anything I can do to entice him to eat....or should I just be patient and he will eat once he gets hungry enough? he is still lively and full of spunk, colors still amazing....I just don't want him to starve himself to death....

 

[LilyRose Tank]

well the only thing i can think of is that he is eating when you aren't watching.
Is that possible...maybe the "crumbs" hes spitting out

maybe he isnt used to eat dried food, have you tried him with frozen bloodworm, frozen daphnia, artemia...the packs in the fish shop come with several different things to try...mosquito larvae too i believe. some breeders raise their fry on live brine shrimp, maybe you need to talk to whom you purchased from to find out what he was fed before.
he could be constipated too......take a cooked pea, deshell it and give the rest to him. also, sometimes they will eat algae wafers...not always, but my fish will.
i hope that helps...good luck. keep an eye out for signs of illness...flicking, shimmying, etc to ensure he is ok
xx

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I hand fed my male for the first few days as he didn't seem to "get" the floating pellets. I have blunted fishing scissors which I use to feed my newts so I used them. He ate blood worms for the first few days then he got pellets after a few days (hand fed) and now he gets really excited when I get the little jar of food out . My girls were hand fed the first feeding; they then realised the food was there and ate it all . It was more about understanding that the food was there and that it could be eaten; once they got that they've been piggies since.