# Betta hogging all the food?



## StrangeDejavu (May 1, 2014)

I have a nerite snail and 3 ghost shrimp in the tank with my EE. I put an algae wafer in the corner so the snail could get it, and I used a turkey baster to spread tropical flake along the gravel so my shrimp could eat. I look in there and he's eaten almost all of the wafer and had completely vacuumed the substrate of all shrimp food. What the heck man, I thought they didn't like tropical flake or plant/algae matter? So much for his fasting day. :-?

How/when do you guys feed your bettas tank mates without the fish being a pig?


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## teresawilliams165 (May 11, 2014)

I'm a new Betta owner and I was thinking about getting a companion for my Crowntail Male Betta (Chester). Did your betta harass or kill the ghost shrimp?


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## StrangeDejavu (May 1, 2014)

Teresa, he did when I first introduced them. He wouldn't rest, only search high and low until he found them. When he found them, he would flare and peck at them. I took them out and tried again the next day, but threw them in while he was eating. Day 1 he bullied them a little but not nearly as much as the first attempt. Day 2 he wouldn't allow them near his "hut" where he sleeps, he would push them away until they were a safe distance then he'd leave them alone. Day 3 and onward he doesn't pay them any mind, even when they're in his hut.

Hope that helps.


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## Rosalinds (Feb 15, 2014)

I had trouble feeding with my community tank when I first started it going too. I use a straw to feed my tetras. First I lure the betta up for his food and slowly drop it in while I lower the straw with pellets for the tetras. I distract the betta with his food while I feed the other fish. Then, I found that when adding wafers, I do it after I feed my betta and after I turn all the lights out. Makes it hard for him to see and I think with a full belly and lights out, he just chills more than hunt food.

Hope this helps you! I know it's tricky with a piggy betta. I had to move my cory cats out of one tank with a different betta because he would eat all the wafers before the cats saw them. The current betta I have in my community is pretty neurotic and busy against the glass. So he's easy to distract and the light's out method seems to help him. But some bettas really are huge pigs and it's hard to manage.


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## Tree (Sep 29, 2013)

GAH I am in the same boat you are. x_x I placed a wafer in the water today for my nerite snails, trying to hide the dang thing and guess what, Sardine found it and started nibbling at it. now he is all bloated. =/ 

I wonder if there is a way to make a little mesh like box or use fabric mesh to place over the wafers? that way the bettas cannot get it and the snails can eat through the wholes. I might try this method out tomorrow.


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## StrangeDejavu (May 1, 2014)

Thanks for the advice guys. After all the flake he stole from his tank mates today, I figured at 9:15pm (lights out) he would be ready to rest like he does every night. This time I crumbled the flake and put it in a bowl of water, sucked it up with a turkey baster and sprayed it all over the corner where the rocks are. He immediately shot out of his hut and began bottom feeding like a cory catfish... I gave up and tossed the shrimp in the tank with my Dad's Oscar, as these were originally bought to be food (I snagged a few). What a little brat my betta is. :roll:

I'll be setting up a planted community tank sometime this year, so i'll try with the shrimp again another time.


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## haveyouhadyourteayet (Jan 14, 2014)

I just cupped the snails with a wafer overnight. Shrimp might be too prissy for that though.


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## Sathori (Jul 7, 2013)

I always feed my bottom feeders when it's lights out. I give Gray his food right before I turn out the lights so that he doesn't see me drop the wafers. I haven't seen him eat a wafer since I started using this method...


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## TenoriTaiga (Mar 27, 2014)

I net my betta to feed him. While he's in the net near the surface eating his food I drop wafers for my loach and cory cat. He's not afraid of the net anymore because of this >_>


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## cousiniguana (Apr 3, 2014)

I use a net on the betta to give a 10 minute eating window for the other tank inhabitants.


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

I feed enough that all the fish fill their bellies, leaving a little left over for the trumpet snails. All the fish eat NLS Thera a so I don't fret over which fish eats which pellet, not do I worry about how much they eat. Dispersing the food throughout the tank by putting it in the filter outflow makes it possible for all the fish to get theirs, IME. Faster, more enthusiastic eaters fill up quick on the easy meals of floating and falling pellets, while the slower eaters can forage on food that's settled around the tank. When mixing varieties of fish, some degree of over feeding is required. Bottom feeders should be fed just like any other fish; they shouldn't rely on other fishs leftovers. And so I have a clean up crew for the "clean up crew" - the trumpet snails.


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## shyanne (Mar 5, 2014)

My female does that to my ghost shrimp.. I use a turkey baster to drop the food in front of the shrimp. Usually she will go try to take the food from them, but they have learnt to dart away. 

I have a snail in my other tank and I take him out to feed him, cause I am cycling the tank and don't want to make the water nasty from the food.


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