# Can bettas eat ants?



## Ilovebettasbk11 (Nov 12, 2013)

I think ants are much easier for me to collect lol can they eat ants?


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## Littlefin (Oct 18, 2014)

Never heard of it.. i don't recommend it anyways, It's better to stick with worms.


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## Ilovebettasbk11 (Nov 12, 2013)

Littlefin said:


> Never heard of it.. i don't recommend it anyways, It's better to stick with worms.


Haha ok i saw a betta eating one one youtube thought id ask


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

Apparently ants feature in the diet of my wild bettas. We have heaps of small black ants around here, so I caught a couple and put them into my tanks and the fish were not interested. They had a few curious pecks but none of the fish in the tank actually ate the ant. 

So I guess whether or not a betta will eat an ant depends on the individual fish. Also I'm not certain if there are species of ants that may be harmful to your fish if consumed.


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## Ilovebettasbk11 (Nov 12, 2013)

LittleBettaFish said:


> Apparently ants feature in the diet of my wild bettas. We have heaps of small black ants around here, so I caught a couple and put them into my tanks and the fish were not interested. They had a few curious pecks but none of the fish in the tank actually ate the ant.
> 
> So I guess whether or not a betta will eat an ant depends on the individual fish. Also I'm not certain if there are species of ants that may be harmful to your fish if consumed.


Yea i see what you are saying i would find ants that are very small and not sting also free from pastesides


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

It's hard to feed them things from the yard since there can be pesticides and herbicides all over (unless you're away from urban areas).


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

+1, if you know the area is free of pesticides and other chemicals, even some fertilizers can be harmful. But if they're just regular small black ants they should be fine. Larger ants, fire ants, and those of the like probably shouldn't be fed due to larger size = larger pincers and probably other stuff. I'd just be worried about them hurting my fish if they were too big.


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

It's individual. The safest might be those tiny sugar ants. But I sometimes drop a whole nest of tiny black ants (don't know name). Some eat, others don't.

I feed mine ant eggs. . . . I think they are fire ants - rather big red ants that stings. They love them and its said to be full of protein.


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