# API betta pellets have copper in them, just a heads up if you were planning on keepin



## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

I just learned the hard way :/ but it was my fault for not reading the ingredients. 


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

A lot of fish food has some copper in it, the Fluval Bug Bites that I feed contains Copper Sulfate, and the Wardley Shrimp Pellets that I have for my cory cats has both Copper Proteinate and Copper Sulfate. So far my snail population is surviving just fine.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

Rainbo said:


> A lot of fish food has some copper in it, the Fluval Bug Bites that I feed contains Copper Sulfate, and the Wardley Shrimp Pellets that I have for my cory cats has both Copper Proteinate and Copper Sulfate. So far my snail population is surviving just fine.




Ahhhh yikes I have wardley algae wafers that have 2 kinds of copper in it too! Thanks for letting me know! I randomly ordered food without checking and surprisingly the ones I ordered didn't have copper. My snail population doesn't care nor my betta I don't think (or maybe that's why my last 2 bettas lived under a year?) but I did have a couple shrimp deaths. And I have a berried female I'm trying to keep as comfortable as possible and copper definitely isn't apart of that lol 


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

All fish need trace elements of copper. There is a difference between these trace elements and the copper in pipes and different meds. So it should not have contributed to your Bettas' deaths.

Here's an article from our sister site which might help ease your mind. Note Byron's response.

https://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/beginner-freshwater-aquarium/copper-food-112292/


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> All fish need trace elements of copper. There is a difference between these trace elements and the copper in pipes and different meds. So it should not have contributed to your Bettas' deaths.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Thank you! That's good to know about the bettas! Very interesting about Byron's response. I only discovered the copper in the food thing because I went to the breeders page I got the shrimp from looking for something else and it has a bright red copper warning on it which I honestly didn't read when I was ordering them because I know copper is toxic, this time I read it and it was all about copper in fish foods being toxic and what it would be called in the ingredient list. I was like WAT lol. Both of my shrimp deaths happened shortly after I fed the copper food to my betta. Also very interesting I ordered Sakura cherry shrimp and they threw a couple common reds in, from my understanding the common reds are supposed to be much hardier but both of my deaths were common reds, not any of the Sakura. I didn't have any issue finding betta pellets, regular fish flakes or algae pellets that didn't contain copper, looks like most of the omega line doesn't contain copper. I think new life spectrum betta pellets didn't either. So I figured it was more just lower quality foods that contain it? 


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

What ferts do you use? Unless you get shrimp-specific, all have trace elements of copper.

I believe we all have to do what we think best no matter any one else's experience unless they are being told what they want to do is harmful. Otherwise, if a person has the slightest bit concerned it is better to do what one's gut tells one.

As an aside, you may have seen this. I have it bookmarked because I refer to it so often....along with the research on the "fix" meds.

Aquarium Fish Nutrition | Fish Food Information & Aquatic Health


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> What ferts do you use? Unless you get shrimp-specific, all have trace elements of copper.
> 
> I believe we all have to do what we think best no matter any one else's experience unless they are being told what they want to do is harmful. Otherwise, if a person has the slightest bit concerned it is better to do what one's gut tells one.
> 
> ...




Thank you! I don't have time to read the entire thing right now but I skimmed it it looks really informative! I'm going to read it tonight! 

Right now I'm not using any ferts at all. I have used flourish in the past but my dose was literally 2 drops maybe once a month or every other month. and I haven't done that since maybe late August. My reasoning was there's soil and fish poop in the tank, the plants shouldn't need that much of a boost. After that bad experience with excel I don't care for ferts much. 


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