What can you feed baby bettas without culturing it?

Question

I don't know how to culture anything. I did try brine shrimp but my dog knocked the tank on the floor.

Answer 1

Not much, really. They rely on movement to trigger the feeding response.

Even brine shrimp aren't a good first food, since most are the fry won't be large enough to eat it when they are first starting to take food - it usually takes about 3-5 days after they start eating before they're large enough to eat the baby shrimp.

A few things you might try - if you have another tank (or have a friend that does) and there are no parasite, algae, or snail problems, use a turkey baster to pull up some water with the "gunk" at the bottom. There are a lot of microorganisms in this, and that's what the fry can (and do) eat. Add a piece of a lettuce leaf (not iceberg) that you put in the freezer for an hour or pour boiling water on to soften it. This will be food for the microorganisms.

You can do the same to make an infusoria culture. Get a gallon jar and a lettuce leaf and fill with boiling water. Once the water cools, add a squirt of aquarium gunk from the bottom, and sit in a warm sunny place until it gets cloudy. Then use the turkey baster to transfer small amounts of the cloudy water to the tank with fry.

Brine shrimp should only take 2 days to hatch, so depending on the size/age of the fry (or if the eggs have even hatched yet) you could start another batch (somewhere that's off limits to the dog!).

It usually takes a few weeks before fry will show interest in non-moving foods.

Answer 2

There are places that make fish food for babies. Try the site below. I did a search for fry (baby fish) food and these came up. You could also grind up the regular flakes while you are trying to find a good food source. Just don't feed them too much. It could cause diseases and eventual death.