Very Picky Eater

[LauraFrog]

I brought home a new boy on Friday. He is a stunner, CT with pretty good finnage and great colour. I was wondering why anybody would get rid of a fish like that in a shipment of assorted bettas, which usually means 'anything that can't be fobbed off as something else.' It wouldn't be very hard to up the price for him and sell him as something special cause he is.

To the point: I think I've worked out why. Peas, Hikari bio gold pellets, Wardley's, flake... he won't touch it. I was terrified that he wasn't eating because he was sick and that I'd somehow exposed him to the columnaris I've had floating around killing everything. Not columnaris - supercolumnaris. Kills in 18 hours. Horrible stuff.

So today I said stuff it, I have to get something down him and I found some live mosquito larvae. Well he sure eats those. So I'm forced to the conclusion that he's not sick, he's just really, REALLY fussy. And there's not a hope that I'll be able to keep live mozzie larvae up to him year round. Not a varied diet anyhow, I wouldn't be happy feeding him just those in case he ended up with a vitamin deficiency.

Is there anything anybody recommends that they got a really fussy fish to take? I can get freeze dried bloodworm, it's worth a FORTUNE but so are Hikari pellets. I'll use it for conditioning fish to spawn though even if he won't take it. Worth a try? I haven't tried him on anything frozen yet. I can get live food out of the creek or dam year round but it's kind of last resort stuff. I have no idea what's in there.

 

[Dan-25]

Betta pro

 

[Athena]

I've got a similar problem with my male betta and it drives me potty with worry some days. Very, very fussy about food - I've tried him on flake, pellets, freeze dried everything, jellified brine shrimp, fresh veg, garlic - he won't touch any of it!!

The only things he will eat are frozen foods like bloodworms, daphnia, tubiflex worms (and even then it depends on his mood that day as to whether he'll actually eat any of these) and live brine shrimp.

Sometimes he'll eat a bit of crushed pea but that's it as far as veggies go.

At this moment in time he is on a food strike - not eaten for 2 days but swimming happily around, doing his fishy dance at me etc, so obviously not bothered about being hungry. He refused all food offered to him last night, even the pea. So I'm just going to leave him to fast for another day - maybe by then he will decide to eat something.

Try some of the frozen food on yours - it's not that expensive for a strip of mixed frozen foods (where you get bloodworms, daphnia, tubiflex all on the same strip, two rows of each I think it is). If you have other fish, you can share one cube between them all (defrost in a little of the tank water in a cup and then you can share it out between your tanks with tweezers or spoon). Any leftovers can go in the fridge for the next feed within 24 hrs.

He might just be used to eating the frozen or live foods, like my boy.

Regards - Athena

 

[Honeythorn]

Have you tried baby Daphnia? Live bloodworm, Brineshrimp? Even very young tiny cut up earthworms are snapped up by my mother's betta. If you can get hold of them try some of those. To be fair live foods are more natural for them anyway so the mosquito larvae are all good.

 

[metromyers]

Becareful of using anything out of creeks or streams, you don't know what kind of chemicals or pollutants are in the water. Fred use to be a picky eater. The only thing he would eat was worms. Either live or freeze dried, nothing else would do. Even thought feeding the same thing day after day is not a balanced diet, it's better them starving.

Isn't fun being wrapped around the fins of a little fish?

 

[ReMz]

freeze dried are very lacking in nutrients. try to get frozen blood worms.....


but i doubt picky-ness...... you know bettas.... they are hungry, they will eat. if you have tried that... just wait for them to eat. feed your normal betta pellets every day (if he is not bloated). A betta will not starve if they are healthy and fed.

 

[Amunet]

I wouldn't try freeze-dried foods.
Instead, I would go with frozen foods, such as bloodworm and brineshrimp.
Maybe he'll eventually start taking pellets or whatever else as well once he's settled in more