# Feeding Betta every other day?



## ginabean98 (Aug 3, 2015)

I have read in many places on the internet that feeding a Betta fish every other day is healthy and a good schedule for it. What is your opinion on that?


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## VanessaPinTN (Jan 11, 2016)

Really depends on your fish. My previous bettas, bought together from the same store over 10 years ago, ended up bloated with SBD when I tried two smaller feedings per day. They disliked being fed just once a day, so I switched to feeding them every other day and they never had SBD again. My current male gets fed 3 of his New Life Spectrum 1mm pellets in the morning and 2-3 at night. Depending on my work schedule, I may adjust a pellet or two either way. Once every 10 days or so, I'll fast Ollie just to make sure his system cleans itself out properly.

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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

I am so glad you asked. Unfortunately, that's what's wrong with the Internet: People who lack knowledge act as if they do. Argh!

I'm sure you've seen the advice to fast a Betta one day per week? If you feed a high quality food like New Life Spectrum or Omega One you don't need to fast. That all started donkey's years ago when fish food was mostly fillers and people were afraid they weren't being digested properly. So the idea was to fast one day a week to "clean out" the Betta. Now that we have Betta food with real fish as the first ingredients and fewer fillers that's no longer necessary.

I feed my fish and frogs every day.

Edit: This was posted at the same time as the above. Nothing is directed at VanessaPinTN.


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## VanessaPinTN (Jan 11, 2016)

No worries, Russell, I didn't think it was directed at me. I don't really stick to the 10 days religiously, lol, tbh, my memory is so bad, I think I've only missed one feeding and no fastings. Ollie is just so dang cute fluttering up to me lol

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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

VanessaPinTN said:


> No worries, Russell, I didn't think it was directed at me. I don't really stick to the 10 days religiously, lol, tbh, my memory is so bad, I think I've only missed one feeding and no fastings. Ollie is just so dang cute fluttering up to me lol
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk


Whew!


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## BettaBeau (May 14, 2014)

My new betta Sharkie is pretty small, not baby betta small, but smaller than any betta I've purchased before. I have New Life Spectrum pellets, .5mm size, and I've been feeding him 2 in the morning and 2 in the evening. The NLS pellets are great! I think it is better to feed him the smaller amount twice a day, so he is getting enough food but is not overfed at any one time. Plus it lets me interact with Sharkie and play "chase the pellet" twice a day!

(That's my thumb... See how small he is? ❤)


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## ginabean98 (Aug 3, 2015)

Thanks everyone for the input! Right now I don't have the best quality of food- is fish meal okay as a first ingredient? Also, is it okay to rotate types of pellets for variety? Like, one kind one day, then another the next, then brine shrimp the next, and that cycle repeated? Or is it better to keep their diet stable?

And BettaBeau, that's such a cute Betta!


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## BettaBeau (May 14, 2014)

What brand of food do you have? Fish meal is okay, but is one of the first three ingredients some sort of wheat/grain/plant filler? If you have NLS or Omega One pellets, there is no need to rotate foods, unless you want to feed an occasional frozen food like bloodworms. Are the brine shrimp live, frozen, or freeze dried?

Thanks, Sharkie appreciates the compliment! I love the color of your betta as well!


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## ginabean98 (Aug 3, 2015)

BettaBeau said:


> What brand of food do you have? Fish meal is okay, but is one of the first three ingredients some sort of wheat/grain/plant filler? If you have NLS or Omega One pellets, there is no need to rotate foods, unless you want to feed an occasional frozen food like bloodworms. Are the brine shrimp live, frozen, or freeze dried?
> 
> Thanks, Sharkie appreciates the compliment! I love the color of your betta as well!


Right now I have Tetra BettaMin Flakes, Wardley Pellets, and Freeze-dried brine shrimp. For those two foods, the first ingredient is fish meal, but after that is either wheat or dried yeast. :/


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## Hallyx (Jun 11, 2011)

Quality food is not expensive. After clean, warm water, the second most important requirement for healthy fish is quality pellets. New Life Spectrum or Omega One Betta Buffet are the best you can easily find (NorthFin in Canada). That's all they need. Variety is more for the keeper than the fish.

An eyeball-sized portion daily is a good place to start. 

"A hungry fish is a healthy fish." ~~ Byron Hosking, master fish-keeper


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## Witchipoo (Dec 13, 2015)

Fish meal is denser nutrition than "fish". Since meal is made of ground up fish meat with the moisture removed. That said, it should be in the top three ingredients along with two other sources of animal protein that isn't meal. It won't expand in your bettas tummy, but they do need some moisture in their food. Corn, wheat, yeast, rice and other grains have no nutritional value in carnivore food. Neither do artificial colors.or flavors, these inappropriate fillers just cause ill health and shortened lifespans for carnivores.
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