Am I Starving My Fish?!?!?!?

Question

Hey! I recently bought my Beta fighting fish, and the shop owner told me to feed it 2 of those little dots of food, every other day. My fish always seemed to be REALLY hungry, so I looked online, and some people say that you should feed them around 2 pellets a day. I then looked at the fish food bag (should've looked when I bought it, but I took the owner's word) and it says to feed it 2-4 pellets 2-3 times DAILY!!!! Who should I listen to?? I have the Betta-Bio Gold fish food.

Answer 1

I feed each of my bettas 5-6 pellets once per day, 6 days a week. However, your feeding schedule sounds fine. Hikari Bio-Gold is a good pellet food for your betta, but you'll want to give him bloodworms and brine or mysis shrimp as treats every once in a while.

Bettas will ALWAYS beg for more food--it's a sign that they're healthy. However, giving in to that begging can quickly kill your fish. Trust me, you're not starving him. :)

Answer 2

You are not starving him, he'll be fine. I once went a month and a half without feeding my beta and he lived. After we realized that this happened we started feeding him often. We'd walk by, and he would beg for food, so we'd feed him. We ended up feeding him about 20 pellets a day and enough bloodworm's to cover the top of his tank. He ended up with a swollen up eye, and we had to buy very expensive fish medication that made the water such a color that you couldn't see him anymore for about a month. He did get better though. That's what happens when you over feed. So trust me, you're doing the right thing. If you want you could probably feed him 2 everyday, but he'll be fine either way. Make sure you give him bloodworms or brine shrimps as treats too.

Answer 3

No, fish rarely starve to death. I often go on 10-14 day vacations without finding any dead fish (& I have a LOT!).. The deaths were likely due to "New Tank Syndrome" I.E. you didn't let the water age. Helpful bacteria need to form in a tank, the easiest way to get it going is to use plenty of water from and established and HEALTHY tank. Putting fish in the new tank adds the bacteria from the bag, but there's no food for them and they take a week or two to get established. As to the pellets, the other answer is right. You need FLAKE food for these fish. But all is not lost, put some of those pellets on paper, then crush them with the bottom of a coffe cup or a glass. Feed them sparingly! Overfeeding is much more worse than not feeding them as excess food rots and can foul a tank. This is why many people add cory catfish (they stay small ~ 2-3 inches & will not bother your neons). The neons will nibble away at the pellets too as they become water logged and soft enough for the neons to pick at and eat. Don't bother with baby brine shrimp, it's a pain, and not worth the price EXCEPT for tiny fry. Good luck

Answer 4

You are not starving your fish. It is very hard to do that. Too much food will kill a fish much faster than too little. Naturally the people that sell the food would tell you to get rid of the food really fast. But don't believe them. I have 8 tanks of various sizes running now and I feed my healthy,long lived fish once a day,and let them fast at least one day every week or two. When we go on vacation I quit feeding 3 days before leaving,and do water changes just before I leave. We've gone for as long as two weeks with no problems or losses. If my fish are in exceptionally good condition this often triggers spawning.
Bottom line,for any fish,clean water is much more important than food. Which,by the way,is much easier to provide if you don't feed too often.

Answer 5

a betta has a really small stomach it can't really handle alot of food and if you don't it in a heated tank ... it can take awhile for it to digest. really I feed my betta 2-3 presoaked pellets (they need to be presoaked in some tank water before giving to the betta) every two or three days... sometimes I will feed one pellet a day at morning and one at night. there is a betta group that you can join to find out all of the nessacery advice... just to go yahoo groups and search for bettasplendens or betta crazy theses are both excellent groups to join.

Answer 6

i have the same food and i feed my betta fish 10 pebbles 2 times a day
-6 in the morning
and
-4 before bed
the reason he prob said that is because betta fish can go a long time without food but if u can feed him then u should.

Answer 7

I just got one of those Beta fighting fish. He's a beautiful blue. I got him last week. The store owner said i can feed him the same as i feed my other fish. I feed them Tropical fish flakes. He's doing just fine. I have him in with Angel fish and Molly's. I feed them once a day.

Answer 8

I feed mine about 6 pellets twice a day, and then after he seems to lose interest, I scoop out the ones that he didn't eat. This makes sure he's full and happy. You can also try putting other foods in his tank, like brine shrimp or tubifex worms. My betta absolutely loves freeze dried bloodworms, and once I grow some brine shrimp I plan to try those out with him. You can try out different fruits and veggies too, just chop them up into small enough pieces that he can eat him.

Answer 9

You want to feed the fish as much as the fish will eat in two minutes twice a day.A hungry fish is actually a healthy fish.

Answer 10

In the morning, try putting in 10 pellets in the tank. Count how many pellets the fish eats in two minutes then scoop out any uneaten food. For an example let's say he ate six pellets. From then on you would want to give him six pellets each time you feed him. I would recommend feeding him two times a day.