My New Betta Refuses To Eat Anything!

[Rox]

I bought a female betta 3 days ago to live with my 2 platys and she won't eat the same flakes as they do. She takes a bite and then spits it out. I don't think she's eaten once since I got her. I don't have any pellets but I searched Google and saw people with the same problem, except with pellets and not flakes. So I assume she won't eat pellets either. I might try buying bloodworms. Help please?

 

[Fish Guy]

I have found that some fish need a bit of time to get used to the food you feed them verus the food the LFS feeds them. She should take to bloodworms or brine shrimp, but I think she will take to the flakes as well after a week or so.

 

[loraxchick]

Just keep feeding as normal. She will eat when shes hungry. Fish can go quite some time without food. New bettas are also notorious for not eating straight away when they are new. If she hasnt eaten in a week then Id try some bloodworm, but she will get used to flake-probably just not used to eating them as usually they are fed pellets in the shop before purchase. She eventually will get the hang of the flake food.
all the best!
cheers

 

[mattbleasby]

Some fish tend not too eat when there just placed into a new home. This is why alot of places reccomend not feeding for at-least 3 days when adding fish too and aquarium.

In-time she will come around and eat. Just keep feeding like normal

 

[Rox]

Okay, I couldn't find any bloodworms at the store so I got freeze-dried brine shrimp pellets, Omega One brand. Do you think these will be ok?

 

[Baccus]

An easy to get food that I have never known a fighter (or any fish for that matter) to ignore is mosquito wrigglers. Just leave some water out in the open where it wont get disturbed and mosquitos are almost gaurenteed to lay their raft eggs in it. From there you can either put the floating egg rafts in the tank and let them hatch in the tank (but I bet the platy's will eat them almost immediately) or you can let them hatch in the container and use a fine net to harvest them. The cheapest meal I have ever found for fish and its heaps of fun watching the fighters hunt down and stalk the wrigglers.

 

[Rox]

She died today. She lasted 6 days in my home. I don't understand how she got sick, because my other fish are 100% fine. She wouldn't eat anything and lay on the gravel most of the time. I read that it is very common for bettas to get sick, perhaps I shouldn't buy one again...

 

[seizethecupcake]

I'm very sorry you lost your betta, but I wouldn't necessarily decide against having a betta in the future. I've had bettas in the past and never had a single health problem.