What Do You Feed Your Betta?

[nessar]

Well I thought I'd see what you all feed your bettas, as I went to Pets at Home today and they don't sell specific betta food, and suggested I feed normal tropical fish flakes instead.

 

[MewMew42]

JBL novo betta =]

Piccature

 

[keithp]

 

[woodstock]

Not sure on the "non-betta" specific stuff, but I'd still stay away from flakes though? If there's anything else for TROPICAL fish, I guess that'd be the best way. Are you not able to buy stuff online, etc? Or go to another store? I honestly don't like the idea of feeding a betta fish something non-betta specific, lol. Good luck on that.

 

[nessar]

Well yeah I was goin to buy whatever people thought was best on here on ebay there's lots to choose from though

 

[Inchworm]

Ocean Nutrition Brine Shrimp Plus Flakes, frozen bloodworms, live blackworms. This is the same diet that I feed the corys that live in the tanks with them. I also add Hikari Sinking Wafers but I doubt the bettas get a chance to eat much of that.

 

[woodstock]

Well yeah I was goin to buy whatever people thought was best on here on ebay there's lots to choose from though

Ohhhhh, well that makes sense
I feed mine Hikari Bio Gold pellets. This is only the third day I've fed them though, but the color enhancement is no joke. These really are top of the line pellets, so I really recommend these.

For treats, I feed freezedried bloodworms.

 

[Mauricia]

If you order pellets online I wouldn't order Hikari BioGold, I personally don't feed them to my bettas because they changed their recipe and now they contain MSG and fish meal is not the highest ingredient. I use Hikari micro wafers and Attison's Betta Pro (along with f/t bloodworms, daphnia, and brine shrimp). The hikari micro wafers might change but right now they are still good. You don't need something specific to bettas, you just want pellets with high protein content and not to many fillers like wheat products.

 

[woodstock]

I just looked on the back of the ingredients - and there it is. MSG. When did they put this in? I'm not going to stop, however. But in a fish, what would be the negativities in fish? Similar to the ones in humans?

 

[nessar]

Whats MSG? I really should know this because it was banned in the health food shop where I worked before Uni, but I can't remember

 

[nessar]

Dont worry just wiki-ed it. Monosodium glutamate. Non-essential fatty acid. Flavour enhancer.

Occurs naturally in food, but has been isolated and added to many different types of food, especially chinese. Different glutamates don't have the same negative effects as MSG.

Negative effects = higher BMI and asthmatic symptoms, and if there is a sensitivity it can cause one or more of the following for a couple of hours: burning sensations, numbness, tingling, feelings of warmth, facial pressure or tightness, chest pain, headache, nausea, rapid heartbeat, bronchospasm in people with asthma, drowsiness, and weakness.

BUT it only tends to cause these in a small percentage of the population, those that are sensitive to it.

 

[Ethan040]

I fee mine betta bio gold also he seems to love them and twice a week a few bloodworms.

 

[silverrabbit]

I feed Hikari Betta Bio Gold as well, and I do like it. Also recently bought the JBL food MewMew42 uses, but haven't tried it yet. Was just going to supplement the pellets with it for some variety

 

[woodstock]

Well I know MSG is popular in ramen (which I need to stop eating...) but I've never heard it doing anything in fish. It's not really a given that the effects would be the same. It's actually kind of surpring is the MSG really did act as a flavor enhancer. Well, I don't see anything wrong with it though, because I've never heard of any complaints (yet). So we'll see...lol.

 

[Mauricia]

MSG has been linked to problems in studies with humans and rats, but I don't think there have been any studies with fish. I wouldn't worry about it too much, I'm more concerned about the increased number of fillers in the Hikari Bio Gold, this change is pretty recent. Anyway, I'm not saying you shouldn't feed it at all, I'm just saying if you have another option I would buy a better food. Just depends how paranoid you are