Siamese Fighting Fish - Betta: how many bloodworms per day?

Question

How many freeze dried bloodworms per day are ok for one betta?
How much brine shrimp?
How many pellets?
What to do with bettas, who refuse to eat pellets - or plain anything else but brine shrimp?

Answer 1

A good rule of thumb is to feed as much as they can eat in 3-5 minutes. If you have them in a small tank less then 5 gallons this is essential because build up of uneaten food can become toxic. As for how many, this can vary from fish to fish, their are some fish I know that are hungry 24/7. They can even eat so much they become ill and die. You have to limit it, I feed my guys 2x a day as much as they will eat in 5 minutes which usually turns out to be about 6-20 blood worms, flakes, etc. Though it depends on the betta and the tank size (I found ones in large tanks eat more then small tanks)

As far as the pellets go, 90% of the time my bettas refuse it, I use them mostly to amuse the bottom feeders. They also aren't fond of flakes, I just take it in stride and feed them a diet consisting of frozen, freezedried, and live items. Bloodworms, blackworms, earthworms, various other bugs (hell even crickets they will eat if they are small enough), I throw in a couple flakes every now an again, and pellets, i found if I only pellet feed once in a while they are ok with eating em.

Answer 2

Brine shrimp is an excellent Betta food. But if supplementing the diet of your fish is what you are looking to do try Atisons Betta pro. pellets. They are much more attractive to Betta's than other pellets.

As far as how many blood worms to feed a Betta at each feeding, it would depend on what you are trying to accomplish. I would not recommend you feed your Betta as other tropical fish are fed by giving him as much as he can eat in 3 to 5 mins. This amount of food would be way out of proportion to what he needs and would be greatly over feeding him, which would at the least cause bloat and would pollute the water of his tank. Most Betta's consume their ration of pellets within a min. of the time they are dropped into the water. Our Betta's are fed 3 times a day. Twice with live or frozen foods and once with pellets. We feed up to 6 times a day the females we are conditioning to spawn. These females are given 5 to 7 whole frozen brine shrimp at a feeding. 9 to 10 blood worms. The fish that are jarred waiting to be shipped we feed 2 to 3 brine shrimp or 4 to 5 blood worms.

A caution when feeding blood worms. By feeding to many you will swell the internal organs of the fish. Blood worms are not passed as easily as other foods and will cause bloat if fed in high numbers.

Answer 3

some of mine eat 6 pellets a day some 2 a day. try feeding them 3 bloodworms as a meal twice a day and see if they take it.

Answer 4

A betta's stomach is as big as his eye. Two bloodworms is plenty, twice a day.

Answer 5

Yeah, 2 bloodworms is plenty. They don't have big stomachs and too much food can lead to bloating. (and even if they are all excited and look hungry, don't give in..mine do that )