# betta fish eating other fish



## lucyinthesky (Mar 9, 2010)

Would it be possible for a betta to eat a neon tetra?
if so, would the betta regurgitate anything, or digest everything?


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Yes, bettas can and do eat neon tetras. They digest it just like any other food.


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## bloo97 (Mar 6, 2010)

Ouch, i'm imagining that.
Some lady at Petsmart said they could live together!


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## BettaxFishxCrazy (Sep 5, 2009)

Well it all depends on the betta. But like drama said, they can and do eat them if they feel like it.


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## 1fish2fish (Sep 10, 2009)

It also depends on the size of the fish involved. A little betta could not eat a tetra but a big betta would have no problem. Even if they can't physically fit the tetra into their mouths they may torture it to death.


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

IMO/E-in the proper set up with healthy fish...the betta and neon can coexist without issues, if the tank is too small or the neon is weak or sick the betta can kill it, but in the proper size tank and healthy neons....no way can a betta catch them and kill them.
Neons are fairly large fish and I don't think even a king betta mouth would be big enough to swallow a grown neon tetra, I have kept neon and betta together for years and have never lost one from a betta killing it.
I feed my betta guppy fry and once the fry get to 3 weeks old they are too big and fast for the male betta to catch and swallow, the female can still catch them and tear them up until about 5 weeks.


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## puddin (Apr 5, 2010)

I think it depends on you betta's personality. I have a gorgeous sky blue CT that is very happy with 6 male guppies in my 10 gallon. My other betta has a more aggressive personality so he is on his own in a 3 gallon.


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## lucyinthesky (Mar 9, 2010)

my betta - mr splashy - is completely non agressive - even swims away from himself if you put a mirror near him. 
yet during a water replacement yesterday i mystereously lost a tetra. 
i deffinately didnt 'loose' him anway. 

I keep my fish at work, and so the only way to clean the tank is to put the fish into a holding container - because they were all getting on so well in the tank i naively put them all into the same container - i realise now it would have been too small, even though it was only for 10 minutes or so. 

After putting all the fish back into the tank, i did a count and realised I was one short. there is no other explination for it other than mr splashy swalowing it whole


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

Or the fish in question jumped out at one point....what size tank are you using and why do you remove the fish for water changes?


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## lucyinthesky (Mar 9, 2010)

its a 15 litre tank and i have to take them out because my tank is at work. i leave the fish at my desk in the container, and clean / remove more water in the bathrooms at work. its a health and safety issue at work. 

anyhoo- i found the fish (alive!)

somehow, and i have no idea how on earth this happened... 
i have a biorb tank, and the filter / air pump is all in the one unit, which can be removed / replaced all at once without disturbing the fish.. it has carbon peices in the bottom of the cartridge and sponge filter material in the top half, and then the tube where the air flows up into the tank.

i put the filter / bubble tube into the tank first, then put all the fish into the tank.
then turned the bubbles on. 
anyway... last night when leaving work, i turned the bubbles off so i could feed them all.. and i saw the fish was stuck inside the filter / bubble area.. trapped between the plastic and the foam underneath.... no idea how it got there, 
but i managed to get him out safe and he swam off fine! joined the other group.


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## fishygirl2901 (Apr 7, 2010)

what kind of fish will betta fish eat?


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

Thats pretty funny...fish can get in the strangest places


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## lucyinthesky (Mar 9, 2010)

i know, but it was horrible seeing him stuck underneath the filter plastic staring up out of his little eye  i had to push and twist the filter to un-click it before i could get to him and i was worried i would hurt him  

but, its two days later now, and hes a-okay!


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## lucyinthesky (Mar 9, 2010)

and mr splashy is not the monster i thought he might have been


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## Starbright (Apr 26, 2009)

I thought neons would be fine with my female betta ;_; They were'nt... my girl massacred 4 neons in a few minutes T.T They were too big to swallow so she had them in her mouth and thrashed around. I saw this happening to the last one.. I was too late :[


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## CataclysmKitten (Mar 20, 2010)

oh i'm sorry to hear Starbright, that must have been devastating. Bettas have interesting personalities, some will go nuts while others are docile. My betta is inbetween. He's nice enough to allow a tank mate, Froglok (my ADF) but he'll flare at him and get in his face every once in a while.


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## trumpet4life375 (Jun 8, 2011)

I was changing half the water today in my tank, and My Betta fish Alli and other 2 x-ray tetra were fine. Then i looked back at them a couple hours later and I only had 1 tetra left! I spent 15 minutes looking in my 3.5 gallon tank, so that doesnt leave very many places for the fish to go. He isn't there anywhere . So is it possible that my female betta ate and swallowed my tetra? she chases them around and taunts them every now and again, but i never thought she would do that. I made sure i took out my filter and looked in it, and it is completely clean. No tetra in the filter, but i dont want to think about my betta killing and eating one of my tetras  can someone please help at all?


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## Arashi Takamine (Mar 3, 2011)

Too small a tank for tetra's. Sorry to say your girl might have eaten them.

My BFF used to have a betta in with a pleco and her betta killed the pleco and tore it in HALF and ate part of it. The pleco from what she remembers was bigger then the betta.


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## 1fish2fish (Sep 10, 2009)

Please don't dredge up old threads. Its bad etiquette.

Most likely your female killed and ate the tetra or part of the tetra. I'm sure the other tetra helped out.

Your tank is too small for that many fish. Get rid of the other tetra and leave the betta by herself.


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## TheBlueBettaFish (Jun 30, 2011)

Yes, Bettas can eat anything smaller than them.


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