Why has my betta fish stopped eating?

Question

I have had my betta fish for aobut 3 months now. I used to feed her 3 pellets every morning and night like the directions say. She used to wait for the pellets to drop and eat them immeadietly...now she has eaten only one pellet in the past 3 days. She won't eat her food morning or night. What is going on???

So I tried to look her over to see if anything looked wrong after you said it might be a disease. She is a white betta and I do notice that there is a dark brown/ black color that has outlined her scales. Any ideas? I am going to change the water right now...

Answer 1

All too often when a fish stops eating it's a sign of poor water quality or disease. Check the water or have it checked at a pet store and change it if needed. Do you see anything else about your fish that is unusual? Anything at all that could help point to the cause? I'll watch this question to see if you canthink of anything or notice anything to add.

MM

Answer 2

while 6 pellets a day aren't needed, she should eat more than one pellet in 3 days. she may be depressed. consider these things:

*what size tank is she in? it should be not smaller than 2.5gallons. this is the smallest possible tank to heat, and bettas should be in heated water because they are tropical fish. they like their water at about 78°F to 80°F.
*does she have a filter? if not how often do you clean the tank?
*is there anything in the tank to keep her busy? things like silk plants to swim through and little hideouts

*edit*
thought I had this in here but i guess not... often not eating is an early sign of disease (as MM said). so watch closely for more symptoms.

Answer 3

Test your water. 99% of the time, a sick fish is due to a water quality issue. Your water should test out ammonia-0, nitrites-0, nitrates-less than 20. Anything different from this and you have found your problem. Do a water change. You should be doing them once a week anyway, to keep the water quality good.

Hopefully you have her in a heated, filtered tank of 5 gallons or more. If not, please consider this setup--she will be much happier.

Answer 4

If you got her from the pet store, she may just be getting old and giving up. The average age of a betta is 3 years or up to five for a well kept purebred. At pet store the bettas are already about one to one and a half years old, so they can be sold at the peak of their finage and pigments.

Just feed her one pelt day and night, or try something new. Buy some freeze dried blood worms, or live ones. Bettas like to mix it up, and will get bored of one thing. Some betta like one food while another will spit it out and go from goldfish food! Who knows! Would you like to be fed one thing your whole life?

Answer 5

She might be constipated, or there might be a more serious problem. Give her a tiny bit of shelled pea to see if it can get her systems going again. If not, you might want to take her to a fish specialist.

Once she's feeling better, try cycling pellets and bloodworms, or something similar.

Answer 6

Try feeding your betta blood worms it's like candy for them. My betta didn't really eat much of those pellets because it didn't like it very much after a while you can get blood worms at petco or petsmart or walmart.. walmarts the cheapest

Answer 7

Maybe she doesn't like the food your feeding her. I have a fish and it doesn't like a certin kind of food. If she doesn't eat, she doesn't live. I hate to say that but it's true.

Answer 8

I had a beta, you are only supposed to feed them every three days and then, only a pinch of food. If she's not eating, she's probably not hungry.

Answer 9

She is probally full. I only fed mine once a week. It lived for 3 years.

Answer 10

its okay if they dun eat for 4-5 days.. just monitor... :)