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How Often Do You Feed a Betta Fish? This is the question that bothers almost everyone who is thinking to bring a pretty betta fish at home or may already have one. Feeding correctly is one of the most important things to keep your fish healthy. Feeding with correct nutrition is a major factor an individual should focus on.
Now you may be wondering how can you identify the correct way to feed your fish? Well, this is the article that is going to help you out. So, if you are willing to learn about feeding your betta fish then just stick to the end of this article. Here you will get a complete guide that will give you enough knowledge about feeding betta fish. So, let’s get straight to the point.
How Often Do You Feed a Betta Fish?
A lot of pet owners feed their fish as much as they can eat. But it is not the right technique because overfeeding can lead to some very serious health problems such as swim bladder problems, bloating, constipation and obesity.
Feeding too often to your fish could introduce waste to the aquarium and can also affect the filtration of the system. The food left by your fish will get decay and the water will become dirtier in a very short time. In this case, you will have to change the water more frequently because the impured water can cause sickness to your sweet betta fish.
So, how often do you feed a betta fish? Feeding once or twice a day once in the morning and once in the evening will be a perfect fit. You should offer him food to the last of a minute. This is one of the most effective ways to avoid overfeeding.
Feeding once or two times a day is the ideal frequency for both younger and adult bettas. You can also skip a meal for an evening or a day. It could be very beneficial for your betta fish. Keep in mind that you should never skip a day too much oftentimes otherwise your fish would go starve. Always get straight back to the routine after skipping a meal.
How Much Should You Feed Your Betta Fish?
Knowing how much to feed your betta fish is equally important as how often do you feed a betta fish. Over and under feeding can produce a lot of health problems and that’s why feeding the right amount is the most major factor that you should never ignore. Otherwise, if you ignore this, your fish will be facing some serious health issues.
- If you have kept your betta fish alone then you should let your fish eat the food for a minute as much as he wants to eat.
- If you have kept your betta fish in a tank then here is what you can do:
Having a tank full of fishes? Then you should feed your fish as much they can eat within 2 minutes. If you have kept betta fish with other species then make sure that you are feeding enough to every fish.
If your betta fish is bullying other fishes, move it aside with the help of a net and feed the other fishes.
If you are feeding your fish with a pelleted food, 2-3 pellets per feeding for fish will be perfect. By feeding this food, you will not get to see a build-up of waste food.
If you are feeding bloodworm and fish brine shrimp then 3 individual pieces per betta fish will be absolute.
What Your Betta Fish Can Eat?
The wild betta fish mostly eats meat such as water-bound insects and insect worms that they will get from the surface of the water. But they also eat plant matter in a small quantity. Always keep in mind that a betta fish demands a diet that is high in protein and solely tropical flakes won’t be able to provide that type of nutritional balance. Here are a few things to consider:
Pick Up The Floating Pellets
A betta fish has a mouth that is upturned and filled with small white teeth you can also take a look at them. Those sharp teeth help the betta fish in grabbing an insect. It also works as equipment that helps them to eat on the water surface.
So, always ensure that you are picking up the floating pellets that are particularly made for the surface feeders.
Check Out The Ingredients Of Product
While buying pellet betta food and flake, always remember to take a look at the ingredients of the food’s packet. Here are the two things that you should acknowledge:
- Protein in the food should be 40% or more than it.
- The top ingredients should be meat-based.
Always Avoid The Fillers
Feeding fillers to your betta fish can bring health problems such as constipation and bloat. Fishes find it quite difficult to digest the fillers because they are high in fiber. These product doesn’t have any type of important nutritional content. So, always avoid food that is containing high fibers.
Various Kind Of Betta Foods
Here is the list of a wide variety of betta foods. These are the foods that can provide a nutritious and well-balanced diet to your betta fish.
1. Baby Pallets
Baby pallets are one of the most perfect foods. They are specially made while keeping the betta fishes in the mind. It contains the nutrients and all the protein that is literally a great thing that fish needs to have a healthy life. They also include the color-improving that helps to pop-out the color of your betta fish.
2. Fish Flakes
You should always avoid feeding your betta fish with goldfish or regular tropical fish flakes. Those products don’t have enough protein that your betta demands. So, make sure that you look for the flakes that are specially created while keeping the betta fish’s requirements in the mind.
Here are a few drawbacks of this food:
- May some betta fishes don’t eat this food at all.
- The food may get sink after getting wet.
3. Betta Pellets
Betta pellets are one of the most fantabulous food that is easily available in reliable fish stores. This food is made for floating on the water surface but soaking the pellets before offering them to your pet can be a great thing because here you can correctly measure the food’s volume that your betta is getting, it helps in blocking the overeating.
4. Frozen Food
If you want to introduce a food to your betta fish that contains high quality of protein then frozen food is the best one to add to the diet. There is a broad variety of frozen food available, including mosquito larvae, brine shrimp, bloodworms, daphnia, and tubifex worm, all of these will be a great fit for your betta.
5. Freeze-Dried Food
Freeze-dried food is the best food product food if you don’t want to feed live foods to your betta. But, there is also a major disadvantage in feeding your fish this food which is that it is stripped of moisture. There is also a possibility that it may contain stabilizing additives too. So, here is what you can do in this case:
- Take a small amount of tank water and soak the freeze-dried food in it. It will help in increasing the moisture in the food and decrease the risk of bloating.
Always keep in mind that freeze-dried foods are a great meal for your fish but they should not be the main food of your fish’s diet because they won’t be able to provide enough amount of nutrition and can also lead to bloating if you fed it in a huge quantity.
6. Live Foods
In nature, the largest number of betta fishes contains live foods such as insects in their diets. You can easily get live foods from the fish stores and you can also grow them at your home.
7. BloodWorms
Bloodworms are not really worms but are the midge fly larvae. You should include them as a treat in the diet of your betta fish instead of the main food because bloodworms are rich in iron.
8. Wingless Fruit Flies
If you want to feed wingless fruit flies to your betta then you can grow them at your home. You can grow them simply by breeding them in a small size of the container. Remember, you should completely avoid taking flies from nature because there is a possibility that they may be suffering from any diseases and it can harm your betta.
9. Mosquito Larvae
Mosquito Larvae is one of the most lovable food by the wild betta fish and your betta fish will like it too. Mosquito larvae can be easily grown at home just by using a culture kit.
10. Mysis Shrimp
Mysis shrimp is one of the best food for your betta. The exoskeleton of the shrimp carries a lot of fiber which is very beneficial in the digestion of protein. One more thing, this food also contains moisture and amino acids and both are very essential for a betta fish.
11. Brine Shrimp
You can grow brine shrimp at home in a DIY brine shrimp hatchery. All these Curstanceas contain proteins, vitamins, and vital amino acids which gives your fish lots of important nutrition.
What To Do When You are Going Away From Home?
When people go away from their homes for a certain period, they get worried that their betta fish may die because of not getting food. Well, this is quite true to the extent of a point but if you are going away for short weekends then you don’t have to worry because betta fish can easily survive without food for a short period. Especially when you keep your betta fish in a planted tank that contains lots of aquarium plants. A planted tank with natural organic matters will constantly provide natural food to your betta fish.
If you haven’t kept your betta in a planted tank then still there is no need to worry. A betta fish has the ability to survive for up to 2 weeks without eating. But we would never suggest you leave your betta for that long time. Just keep in mind that if you go out for a weekend, your fish will be completely okay.
If you plan to go out for more than 4 days you should get an automatic fish feeder. It will slowly release the amount of food needed and it would be much healthier for your fish.
Bottom Line
So, this was the article on how often do you feed a betta fish. Keep in mind that you should always buy high-quality food and feed it in the right amount. Now I hope that this article was helpful to you and you have got the information that you were looking for.
Thanks for reading!
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