# Conditioning



## aaronpham (Feb 15, 2015)

Hi guys, I'm in the process of conditioning my bettas, and found online that frozen blood worms should do the job, however from other sources I read that blood worms are low nutrition and should only be fed as snacks. Is there something I'm missing? Why would one want to use a low nutrition food for conditioning? Also, are aqueon pellets good, or should I buy some NLS food? Tia


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

The best thing you can do to 'condition' your bettas is to feed them a diet of varied live food, such as mosquito larvae and daphnia, and live brine shrimp. If that's not possible, a varied diet of frozen foods should do the same.

When people say that bloodworms have low nutrition, they're referring to the freeze-dried ones that are terrible for your fish. Frozen bloodworms are a good food, but they shouldn't be the only thing you feed your Bettas.


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## sharkettelaw1 (Mar 6, 2013)

varied high protein food is good. Keep the water clean, and if you want, add black water extract. It works wonders.


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

I have bred a number of species of fish (including a number of betta species), and I still think the best conditioning tool, is live foods. Nothing gets my fish in breeding condition faster than live blackworms, live white worms, and mosquito larvae.

If I recall, the process of freeze-drying does little to change the nutritional value of foods, so freeze-dried bloodworms should be fairly close nutritionally to the real thing. 

You can use frozen foods. I believe spirulina enriched brine shrimp is supposed to be good. However, you would want to use a combination of frozen foods to ensure your fish is getting a balanced diet and will have the strength and energy necessary for breeding.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

I keep a culture of white worms on hand for feeding in the spawning tank, and feed them a varied frozen food diet the rest of the time. On any given day, they get blood worms, brine shrimp, or mysis shrimp. All adult fish are in breeding condition at all times.

In the spawn tank, they get absolutely stuffed with white worms, and I leave white worms on the floor if they don't eat them right away. The benefit of white worms is that they don't drown right away in the tank - they stay alive for quite a long time - so the fish will eat them when they aren't distracted, or when they get hungry.

Pellets are not good "conditioning" food. I don't even feed my pets pellets, except for when I'm too tired to thaw out their dinner.


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

To my knowledge, ALL worm foods contains more fat than shrimp like foods which contains more protein and calcium. Protein foods is especially good for getting them into shape for shows or appearance. Fatty food is especially good for breeding and growing. Bettas need extra energy (not muscles) both during courtship and egg/fry rearing. Most males would fast during the whole process, some would only eat a few bites.


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