tropical fish betas?

Question

I just bought a beta at a local pet shop. The person at the shop told me to only feed the fish one to two pellets every 2 days but the label on the container of pellet food that I purchased indicated to feed the fish several times per day. Which one is correct? Any advice is welcome. Thank you.

Answer 1

follow what the per store guy said... plus you have to be careful overfeeding fish...

Answer 2

You can feed a betta several times a day, but that's more likely to kill it than 3 times a week. A betta will eat even when it's full and get bloat. Which can in the end kill the poor thing. Mine love to eat. They tear into their food and beg for food even when they have a full belly.

Remember uneaten food decays, and produces nitrogen waste and is a bacterial breeding ground. Remember that eaten or not the more food you put in the worse your betta's water conditions will get.

Personally I feed 1-2 times a day, skip one day a week, and fed my bettas a shelled cooked pea to break their fast. More importantly every day I take time out to examine each betta. What does it's stomach look like? If it looks like it's bloated (See bettatalk link.) Are there frayed fins? It is active, and alert?

Read the feeding link, and try feeding them once a day until you know exactly how much food they will eat in a couple of minutes, and what a healthy and unhealthy betta belly looks like. Once you've figured out that feel free to feed them a half portion twice a day. Or feed them every other day a double portion.

Answer 3

A couple times per day. However, if you can, clean out the unused food otherwise it will start rotting. Think about if you only ate once every 2 days. I assume you have a small tank so make sure you change the water. Check on how to make your water safe for a water change.

No offense, but beta is spelled B E T T A. Thought you might want to know.

Answer 4

I have a beta I feed it 3 to 5 pellets once a day. They eat what they want that way. If you feed them to much it can kill them or turn the water slimy.

Answer 5

I feed mine about 5 or 6 pellets twice a day, plus a bloodworm or two. On Sundays, he gets shelled peas.

Do what you feel is right. But limit them, as they will always look at you like they're starving. Please do not trust what more pet stores say, as most people that work there are not experienced at what they do.

Answer 6

I have a Betta and some Zebra Danios... I feed them twice a day. I also don't just feed them pellets, but flakes, and freeze-dried food...

Answer 7

i had a betta and i fed it 2 pellets a day around noon and it lived for 5 years!

Answer 8

Well, lets think, A). trust fish store who gets cash based on steady business, by giving customers good advice (most of the time)
b). trust fish food lable, who gets cash based on how much they sell.

You'll find that the fish store, but mostly other experienced hobbyists have way better advice than some products. Examples are any instant cycle product apart from bio-spira ( they get both salt and fresh water bacteria to live in the same bottle, get them to live without food, and somehow get them to live at temps of over 100F sometimes), any filter cartridge (kill off bacteria every 3 weeks by replacing our horribly expensive cartridge please), and things like chemi pure ( http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=145015&hl=chemi-pure )

Answer 9

i have had a beta and i fed him twice a day in the morning and at night before you go to bed. when i did that he lived to be about 6 or 7 years old and that is how long they usauly live.

Answer 10

my betta lives in the fish tank with my goldfish. It eats what the goldfish eat and they get fed once a day. I've had my betta 2 years.

Answer 11

1 pellet a day will do.