Food Care for Betta Fish – What to Know? (FAQs)

Betta fishes, also known as Siamese fighting fishes, are a vibrantly-colored bunch of fishes.

They can often be seen solo swimming in ornamental vases and brandy sniffers both at someone’s house or office.

First discovered in the SEA region, these guys often make their homes in drainage ditches, rice paddies, as well as the region’s warm flood plains.

As a result, the betta fishes have become quite accustomed to devastating drought as well as frequent flooding.

These guys are truly labyrinthed fishes, as in they have both the ability to take oxygen in from the gills and the ability to get oxygen from the air directly.

Due to the incredibly beautiful color of their bodies, these guys are quite sought-after as pets.

However, while they are indeed a lot easier to manage than other domesticated pets, it is still quite a task for any pet owner to properly raise them up.

Thus, if you are a new betta fish owner, then you may need to learn a thing or two from this guide.

FAQs-Food Care for Betta Fish

What is the diet of Betta fish? What can you feed them?

Betta fishes mainly eat things that are meaty and rich in protein. The best food can be brine shrimp, daphnia, live or frozen bloodworms, and pellets.

You can also feed the bettas tropical fish food flakes. However, these can cause bloating or maybe even swim-bladder disease!

Can I feed my betta fish both tropical and bettamin flake food to vary his diet?

While it is quite great for betta fishes to have a varied menu, I personally do not recommend feeding flakes.

My alternative is pellets. In nature, betta fishes tend to eat fallen larvae and bugs on the water’s surface. Both of those things are more similar in shape with pellets than flakes.

The upturned mouth of betta fish is also great evidence for this diet.

This kind of mouth shape designed solely for bug-eating means that these guys will not handle taking a bite out of something like a flake well enough.

The mouth of the betta fish is more suited to swallowing whole!

However, you should not completely rely upon the pre-packaged and dry food such as flakes or pellets for the diet.

As I have mentioned, betta fishes tend to eat larvae and bugs in nature, so you can emulate this through feeding these guys frozen food!

You can try all kinds of frozen food, which can be found at any store that does sell fishes.

Of course, you should also be careful and pick something that can actually be great for the fishes.

For example, these guys are insectivores, so it will not be beneficial at all to feed them something intended for herbivores.

Read more: The best betta fish food

Are insects better than fish food for betta fish?

In my opinion, insects can be a greater food source for the betta fishes than the manmade foods overall.

The betta fishes can gladly eat anything that is an insect in nature. For example, flour weevils, bean weevils, numerous small species worms, springtails, fruit flies, etc.

The betta fishes will gladly eat both the adult flies as well as their maggots.

In addition, despite the fact that they prefer to be given food on the water surface, betta fishes will not hesitate to dive deep to hunt for bottom-dwelling scuds and have fun doing so.

I believe that this form of action will provide the fishes with a form of enrichment for their environment, which will be quite valuable for these fishes.

You should always keep in mind that betta fishes did not go through an intense evolution process like we all do just to live on some manmade, bone-dry food. These guys need their real animal protein.

In fact, insect exoskeleton is both a dietary roughage form which is far greater for betta fishes as well as a unique kind of protein.

How long can a betta fish go without food?

The time that a betta fish can survive without food is exactly 14 days. You should never pay attention to the instructions given by the food can.

They are more often than not quite misleading and can cause issues for the betta fishes as well as the tank’s water quality.

Read more: The best betta fish tanks

Adult betta fishes should be fed once each day, while babies should be fed twice each day. This might not seem to be enough at first glance.

However, if you are using pellets, then they can almost double their size right after getting wet.

You should also know that the stomach of any betta fish is about the same size as their eyes. Thus, you can see clearly how much they can eat. In addition, betta fishes have a bad habit of overfeeding whenever you let them.

If they are overeating, then your betta can get obesity, bloating, swim bladder issues, constipation, and even some diseases from breaking down the excessive food.

In the case of your betta fish seemingly not interested at all in the food or not eating at all, you should not get too worried. It may mean that the fish is under stress or just not liking food.

How much should I feed my Betta fish?

If you are using pellets, then remember to make sure that you know exactly how big the pellets are and their potential size after expanding while getting wet.

On average, you should be fed about 3 to 6 pellets to a betta fish each time.

You can feed the betta fish that you own about once or twice each day, depending on the needs that your betta fish is showing.

Remember that if the betta fish is getting exercise more, then they will be needing more food.

However, you should always keep in mind that the betta fish should never be fed more than 12 pellets each day for each fish.

The environment is important, too!

As you have seen, it can become quite a tiresome following and raising the betta fishes. However, with their vibrant colors as well as cute nature, I can guarantee that you will surely say that it was all worth it in the end.

Though, you should always remember that one of the most important things in raising these guys is the environment. So, click here for some more information!