# Best pellet food for bettas?



## centaurii (Aug 31, 2015)

Hello all. Currently Omicron eats Hikari Betta Bio-Gold Pellets most days, since they're $2.79 or so a package here. Once a week he gets defrosted frozen brine shrimp.

I read Hikari Betta Bio-Gold as recommended on some betta sites, but the first few ingredients are: fish meal, wheat flour, soybean flour, rice bran... and the crude protein is only 38%.

Is this a satisfactory diet, or are there better pellet formulations out there? I was looking at *Northfin Betta Bits here*, but wasn't sure if they're really that much better than my current food (though the first few ingredients are all fish meals instead of grain filler). Crude protein is at 45%, which sounds better to me.

Basically, what do you all feed your expensive and exquisite gouramis?


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## dannifluff (Jul 5, 2015)

I use the New Life Spectrum 1mm Betta Formula. *looks quickly at packaging* Crude Protein is 37%, ingredients are whole fish, cereals, ulva seaweed, chlorella algae, spirulina, garlic, alfalfa, omega-3 oil, fruit, vegetables. I feed 5 daily over two sittings + 2 frozen bloodworms (this is on the high side but he it seems to be what he needs to maintain a healthy weight), with a detox day of 2-3 frozen daphnia once a week. My fish seems to like these pellets a lot but I prefer to soak them for ten minutes first as they fluff up quite a bit, and he seems to like eating them a little soggy. I don't think you have to do this though.


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## qumaquarist (Aug 21, 2015)

I feed mine Aqueon Better Pellets and he loves them. I got them because they were rated higher Amazon than both Omega and New Life Spectrum. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are nutritionally superior, however, it seems that others have had good experiences with it. Interestingly, Hikari was the highest-rated among the four. I also feed him some freeze-dried bloodworms and shrimp as a treat


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## sailbond (May 18, 2015)

I feed Northfin pellets to my betta and he seems to be doing very well on them. From what I can gather the best brands are New Life Spectrum, Omega One and in Canada Northfin is also good.


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## Mousie (Feb 16, 2015)

New Life Spectrum. Hands down has the best ingredients of any other fish food on the market. All of our tanks, even the saltwater reef tank, get NLS.


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## Chard56 (Jan 22, 2011)

*Betta Pellets*

I've tried a lot of different brands over the last 8 years I've been breeding and raising tropical fish for sale. When you have hundreds of Bettas to take care of, you don't want food that fouls the water and have to make water changes more often. I also want a food that's nutritious and gives them good growth and color. Especially when I enter them in the shows. I exclusively use Ken's Fish Food. 1.0 mm Betta pellet. It's small enough for large juveniles to eat whole, soft enough to crumble for smaller fish and fry and doesn't foul the water like other brands. Kens Premium Betta Pellets 1.0 mm


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## Gariana (Jul 22, 2015)

I feed my boy two kinds of pellets, neither are betta specific: NLS Small Fish Formula (48% protein) and Omega One Color Micro Pellets (42% protein).


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## qumaquarist (Aug 21, 2015)

Does anyone happen to know if pet food manufacturers are legally obligated to list their ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight? The FDA, for instance, has established this standard for food that is made for human consumption.

If not, manufacturers could always list "meatier" items as the first several ingredients to give the perception that their food is higher quality than it really is. 

Just wondering...


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## centaurii (Aug 31, 2015)

Chard56 said:


> I've tried a lot of different brands over the last 8 years I've been breeding and raising tropical fish for sale. When you have hundreds of Bettas to take care of, you don't want food that fouls the water and have to make water changes more often. I also want a food that's nutritious and gives them good growth and color. Especially when I enter them in the shows. I exclusively use Ken's Fish Food. 1.0 mm Betta pellet. It's small enough for large juveniles to eat whole, soft enough to crumble for smaller fish and fry and doesn't foul the water like other brands. Kens Premium Betta Pellets 1.0 mm


Ken's food is super tempting because you can get half a pound for the price of a few grams in other brands.

I think from what I've googled and read here, I might end up going with the Northfin brand. Once I get some other fishy essentials (better ammonia test kit, new filter cartridge) I'll get some Northfin  I appreciate all of you sharing your experiences. The things we do for our small slimy friends.


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## Mousie (Feb 16, 2015)

qumaquarist said:


> Does anyone happen to know if pet food manufacturers are legally obligated to list their ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight? The FDA, for instance, has established this standard for food that is made for human consumption.
> 
> If not, manufacturers could always list "meatier" items as the first several ingredients to give the perception that their food is higher quality than it really is.
> 
> Just wondering...


I don't think it's so much as what is listed where in the list, but more of understanding the label and what is in it in general. This is gone over in the New Life Spectrum - Nutritional Article by Pablo. It's a very good read and I find it to be more comprehensive than any other aquatic food nutritional article out there.

http://nlsfishfood.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=63


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## qumaquarist (Aug 21, 2015)

Mousie said:


> I don't think it's so much as what is listed where in the list, but more of understanding the label and what is in it in general. This is gone over in the New Life Spectrum - Nutritional Article by Pablo. It's a very good read and I find it to be more comprehensive than any other aquatic food nutritional article out there.
> 
> http://nlsfishfood.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=63


That was a *very *informative article. Thanks for sharing. 

He actually answered my question in the section titled "Understanding Labels:"

_"For the most part the fish food industry is self regulated [sic], basically meaning that it is very easy to manipulate an ingredient list to favor your own product." :-?_

He illustrates this point by citing a key example:

_"As an example, if the ash content is quite high in the food, the easiest way for a manufacturer to address that issue is to simply not list the ash content on their label."_

Ironically, Aqueon Betta Food has (conveniently?) omitted the ash content on their label. :evil:


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## Mousie (Feb 16, 2015)

Did you read the bit he mentioned about wheat flour and binding agents? I see a lot of people on here pointing out the first few ingredients and listing wheat flour, but they don't realize why it's in there or that it has to be in there.

This is very similar to making your own body scrub with sugar, coconut oil etc. etc etc. People scream about preservatives in things like that so they make their own. What they don't realize is that without preservatives you risk mold, fungus, and other types of nasty bacteria growing in your home made scrubs. Those preservatives have to be in there unless you make it for a one time use.

Sorry.. off topic, sort of. ;-)


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## qumaquarist (Aug 21, 2015)

Mousie said:


> Did you read the bit he mentioned about wheat flour and binding agents? I see a lot of people on here pointing out the first few ingredients and listing wheat flour, but they don't realize why it's in there or that it has to be in there.


Yes, I found that really interesting. Without it, you'd essentially end up with a container of powder. :lol:



Mousie said:


> This is very similar to making your own body scrub with sugar, coconut oil etc. etc etc. People scream about preservatives in things like that so they make their own. What they don't realize is that without preservatives you risk mold, fungus, and other types of nasty bacteria growing in your home made scrubs. Those preservatives have to be in there unless you make it for a one time use.


Haha. It sounds like you're speaking from personal experience.

"Honey... did you put green sludge in my shea butter sugary coconut body wash?!"


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## Mousie (Feb 16, 2015)

qumaquarist said:


> Haha. It sounds like you're speaking from personal experience.
> 
> "Honey... did you put green sludge in my shea butter sugary coconut body wash?!"



LOL!

When I was researching diy lip balms, I was lucky enough to find an article by Soap Queen that discussed preservatives, so I haven't made that mistake..... yet!


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## qumaquarist (Aug 21, 2015)

Mousie said:


> When I was researching diy lip balms, I was lucky enough to find an article by Soap Queen that discussed preservatives, so I haven't made that mistake..... yet!


I tried making some kava chapstick once in middle school. The objective was to infuse the numbing effect of kava root with the moisturizing effect of chapstick. My tools were a tube of used chapstick, a microwave, and shredded kava root. Needless to say, the project was a failure of epic proportions.


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## Mousie (Feb 16, 2015)

qumaquarist said:


> I tried making some kava chapstick once in middle school. The objective was to infuse the numbing effect of kava root with the moisturizing effect of chapstick. My tools were a tube of used chapstick, a microwave, and shredded kava root. Needless to say, the project was a failure of epic proportions.



Awe! Before we take this train too far off the rails... if you want to talk more about diy health and beauty stuffs I think there's a section of the forum for off topics. Id enjoy that!


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## qumaquarist (Aug 21, 2015)

I just realized how much of a tangent we went on. Sorry centaurii!

By the way, I rescind my vote for Aqueon Betta Food. Their labeling seems to be deceptive and the protein content is only 38%. :|

I'm abroad so I have to make do with what I have at hand. If it were me, I'd probably go for Omega or NLS.


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## centaurii (Aug 31, 2015)

Haha I love discourse of any kind 

After reading that thorough article, I'm convinced to try New Life Spectrum pellets!


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## Tolak (Nov 13, 2012)

qumaquarist said:


> Does anyone happen to know if pet food manufacturers are legally obligated to list their ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight? The FDA, for instance, has established this standard for food that is made for human consumption.
> 
> If not, manufacturers could always list "meatier" items as the first several ingredients to give the perception that their food is higher quality than it really is.
> 
> Just wondering...


When they list them it is by weight. There's ways to wiggle around that, here's a link to what is probably the best site for explaining what's on the fish food package, and how they can manipulate the ingredients; http://www.oscarfish.com/fish-food-ingredients.html


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## Polkadot (Feb 10, 2013)

NLS betta formula.


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## qumaquarist (Aug 21, 2015)

Tolak said:


> When they list them it is by weight. There's ways to wiggle around that...


Unfortunately, that seems to be of little value given the following:

_"By law, pet food manufactures [sic] are required to list ingredients in order of their weight, meaning the first item listed in the ingredient list should be the largest portion of the product. The second listed ingredient, the second. Etc… But laws do not require the ingredients to be listed in order by their weight in the final product. It only requires them to be listed by their weight as they were introduced into the manufacturing process. This allows pet food manufactures [sic] to manipulate an ingredient list via the ordering of ingredients at their wet weight. As an example, a food manufacturer may list "Whole Salmon" as the primary ingredient. However, once dried, as it must be to create a fish flake or pellet, the product will weigh 80% less than it was as a wet product. End result, it may have been the heaviest ingredient going into the manufacturing process but in the final product its weight is substantially less. Almost certainly not the #1 ingredient content of the food yet it is listed in the ingredient ordering that way."_

Considering the information provided in this and the previous article, it seems that the fish food industry is highly unregulated.

When seeking a quality product, I suppose the best thing would be to rely on the experience of others.


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## Tolak (Nov 13, 2012)

Exactly. That, and product splitting with a less desirable ingredient are a couple of the biggest ones. That's part of deciphering that list. They do, by law, have to work withing a set of rules, and are very good at presenting a product as being more appealing while staying within those rules. It's up to the consumer to educate themselves on how this game is played. It is regulated, but in many ways you could call much of what they do false representation, despite working within those regulations.


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## Aquastar (Jul 17, 2015)

I use NLS, but Omega One is just as good. 
I got Aqueon first (being a new Betta owner, get a cheap food, he's going in a 10gal anyways), so I mixed it in with NLS so they get about 3NLS/1Aqueon on average, it's all random.

NLS

pros:

More in package
Colour inhancing
Smells better?
Better ingredients

Cons:

More expensive
Easy to spill container


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## dominic48 (Sep 7, 2015)

centaurii said:


> Hello all. Currently Omicron eats Hikari Betta Bio-Gold Pellets most days, since they're $2.79 or so a package here. Once a week he gets defrosted frozen brine shrimp.
> 
> I read Hikari Betta Bio-Gold as recommended on some betta sites, but the first few ingredients are: fish meal, wheat flour, soybean flour, rice bran... and the crude protein is only 38%.
> 
> ...


I use omega one , my dominic ( red betta almost a year old ) loves it


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## hgual22 (Jul 18, 2014)

My bettas eat mostly Omega One Betta Buffet, and sometimes New Life Spectrum small fish formula. My Honey Gourami and endlers eat the NLS and love it, but my bettas seem to prefer Omega One.


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## centaurii (Aug 31, 2015)

I ordered some NLS betta formula off eBay, since no fish store within 30 or 40 miles sells it around here, and the seller is the next state over. I paid $7 with free shipping, is that a fair price, or did I get a bit overcharged?


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## qumaquarist (Aug 21, 2015)

centaurii said:


> I ordered some NLS betta formula off eBay, since no fish store within 30 or 40 miles sells it around here, and the seller is the next state over. I paid $7 with free shipping, is that a fair price, or did I get a bit overcharged?


Amazon is currently selling the 50 gram jar for $6.99 (shipping is free with Prime or on orders totaling $35+). They've listed the list price as $10.99. 

I'm not sure what pet/fish stores sell it for but it seems you got a decent price.


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## aqua hero (May 13, 2015)

i feed mine (or should i say my betta is a selfish pig and eats other fish food) hikari betta bio gold , hikari Discuc bio gold, hikari mirco pellets, hikari algae wafer (yes he eats algae wafers thats how much of a pig he is), hikari shrimp pellets and different live food.


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## qumaquarist (Aug 21, 2015)

Yikes! Not all in one serving, I hope. :lol:


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## aqua hero (May 13, 2015)

qumaquarist said:


> Yikes! Not all in one serving, I hope. :lol:


no the only food that was meant for him was the betta bio gold and discus bio gold (swicth it up). but once he finishes them he will search the tank and steal the other food from other fish


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