# Betta eating the snail food



## RaeRae (Apr 5, 2020)

The relationship is still new, but my mystery snail and betta are getting along better..ish. The fish likes to be by him and is curious, not nipping at him now. However, he is eating anything I put in for the snail, except the blanched spinach which no one in the tank seems to touch. I have put in an algae wafer and sinking shrimp pellets and the betta will rummage for both. I dont want him getting bloated, is there anything I need to do? I feed the snail at night but they have a night light on the tank that makes it lit enough to see. 

I have seen people make a snail penthouse on the side of the tank to keep the snail in but I think the fish would still get the food there, but maybe he will learn that is not his area? I am mostly concerned with the betta getting overfed but I guess the snail eating is important too


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## Rana (Apr 27, 2013)

Do you notice your betta nipping at the snail's food but spitting it out, or is he actually swallowing chunks of it? If the former, no need to worry- the snail may get annoyed at its food being "pre chewed", but your betta isn't likely to get sick from just playing around.

If he is actually eating the pellets, you'll need to keep a close eye on his belly to make sure he's not getting bloated from it, but IMO a single pellet or wafer is probably not going to do too much harm even if he eats most of it.

You can fast him the day after you feed your snail if you think he's looking pretty full, or alternate which days you feed which food- so everyone gets betta food one day, then a shrimp pellet and/or algae wafer the next, to hopefully keep things more balance. I fully admit I've never had a Mystery snail, so I am not sure how often they need to be fed or if too much betta food is bad for them.

Another thing you can try is to feed your betta shortly before you add the snail's food, if his belly is full he will hopefully be less motivated to go after it.

I have also heard that Mystery snails go nuts for cucumber and zucchini, which most bettas will ignore. Possibly give one of those a try if your snail isn't fond of the spinach?


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## RaeRae (Apr 5, 2020)

Rana said:


> I fully admit I've never had a Mystery snail, so I am not sure how often they need to be fed or if too much betta food is bad for them.
> 
> I am still learning too - I have read the zuchini too but I wanted more calcium because my water is low in calcium but I bought cuddlebone to try I was just holding off as it raises pH... I haven't found a good feeding schedule online yet, I have just been feeding daily and removing uneaten which so far is the spinach LOL
> 
> ...


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## Mr Grumpy (Feb 28, 2020)

Hi

Welcome to Betta keeping with tank mates. My advice is to feed the snail after lights out


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Does your tank has a place where you can shove the food for the snail? Some lay the wafers flat on the substrate and push in just a bit so the snail can eat but the Betta can't. You can also feed your Betta on one side of the tank and drop the other food behind him.

I feed my snails pellets with added calcium. I use the food in the link and place one pellet directly in front of the snail.









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## RaeRae (Apr 5, 2020)

awesome thanks! I will check this pellets out! I will feed at night too going forward. He was doing that weird floating at the top thing today. I know there are various reasons they do this but being worried he isn’t eating, I put him in his own cup floating in the tank with food for tonight. 

And bigger concern, I just realized my flourish tablets contains copper which is no good for them. it is very low amount like .001% but still, could this be affecting him and his water quality? if so, he will need his own space. He is closing up tight still when I grab him do that is good right? As if a betta wasn’t enough for me to worry about, I got a snail - live and learn


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

The copper is negligible and won't hurt your snails. There is one that is copper free that I use but even the developer says .001% in his regular ferts is harmless.

The real problem is if you live in an old house with copper pipes.


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