how bad is it to not soak betta pellets?

[hurgerburger]

Everywhere i look online and on this forum it says to always soak betta pellets before you feed them. I would do this, however my betta can’t manage to catch sinking pellets, and so i have to scoop them back out with a net every time. I could probably teach him to catch them, but i haven’t gotten around to it. i also want to keep his care as simple as possible, since i’m giving him back to my high school this summer and i don’t want to overwhelm my choir teacher more than i already will (i moved him from an uncycled 2.5 gallon to a planted cycled 5 gallon). How bad is it really to feed pellets dry if i feed him a specific number of pellets so he doesn’t overeat?

 

[Colin_T]

The main problem with dry food is they contain air and can swell up a bit when they absorb water. If you only give the fish 1 or 2 pellets, it is fine and they don't need soaking. If the fish eats a lot of dry food, then the food can swell up inside the fish and cause an upset stomach.

 

[Essjay]

I've had several bettas, one at a time, over the years. I only ever soaked pellets for one betta because he refused to eat hard pellets. All the others were fed unsoaked pellets - some of them refused to eat soggy pellets if they missed one and only found it later.

It's dried bloodworm that does need to be soaked before feeding.