# My betta flare at me when I feed him?



## cindy1122 (Oct 26, 2013)

I have my betta for a few weeks, and recently I have been feeding him new snacks. I searched and found out that I can feed him tiny bits of shrimp and chicken. I still feed him pellets during his meal times, and he still eat them fine. I decided to give him tiny pieces of new things as snack in the afternoon. 

Yesterday, I gave him tiny piece of shrimp (the size is slightly bigger than his pellet), he ate it aggressively, and that scared him a little. I have never seen him snatched and eaten anything this fast. Usually he would chew his pellet slowly and peacefully. When I was about to feed him the second tiny piece of shrimp, he flared at me... he became more aggressive. I don't understand why he would act like this. Even today when I feed him tiny piece of chicken, he would flare at me although he still aggressive ate the chicken.

Is the food that makes him act this way? Or is other things affecting him? He is a nice, active betta, and I don't want him to be mean...


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## Xeek (Sep 28, 2012)

Chicken? No way, it lacks a lot of stuff that lil fish needs, especially fiber. I have no idea where you got the chicken idea from. Shrimp? What kind of shrimp?

If you feed your fish shrimp use tiny brine shrimp (you can buy it frozen) and that will be very close to what his natural diet would have been (tiny bugs). It has protein and fiber.

It's possible you're completely misinterpreting his behavior. They get extra excited when hungry and will swim around crazily - that's pretty normal, and eventually they'll even do that when they see you and are anxious to get fed. If he flares he's more than likely responding to your presence rather than the foods... in any case you have a mean betta, they are all mean, they are naturally designed to be mean. They're predators.

You might also want to step back and think about it... you really shouldn't impose human emotions to animals. A flaring betta is often a healthy betta. Males especially are aggressive. Females can often learn to be communal but can turn brutal when you don't expect it. It's not "mean," it's natural instincts and they are normal.






cindy1122 said:


> I have my betta for a few weeks, and recently I have been feeding him new snacks. I searched and found out that I can feed him tiny bits of shrimp and chicken. I still feed him pellets during his meal times, and he still eat them fine. I decided to give him tiny pieces of new things as snack in the afternoon.
> 
> Yesterday, I gave him tiny piece of shrimp (the size is slightly bigger than his pellet), he ate it aggressively, and that scared him a little. I have never seen him snatched and eaten anything this fast. Usually he would chew his pellet slowly and peacefully. When I was about to feed him the second tiny piece of shrimp, he flared at me... he became more aggressive. I don't understand why he would act like this. Even today when I feed him tiny piece of chicken, he would flare at me although he still aggressive ate the chicken.
> 
> Is the food that makes him act this way? Or is other things affecting him? He is a nice, active betta, and I don't want him to be mean...


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## cindy1122 (Oct 26, 2013)

I'm new to having a betta pet, so all my information is from browsing the internet including here on bettafish.com. I'm not too worry about his diet because I still feed him his pellets every morning and night, so he is still getting what he needs as mentioned in the thread above. I just want to fresh things out by giving him some snack in the afternoon sometimes. I'm more worried about if the snack I gave him would cause a negative result, if not, then I'll be relieved. 

I guess I can see why you said that I misinterpreted his flaring. I just thought it's a reaction of anger because they flare when others intrude their territories, so I assume that he is angry at me for some reason. I still think he flares at me for the food not for my presence because he doesn't flare when I feed him pellets. He only flares recently when I give him something new.


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## sainthogan (Sep 27, 2012)

My female flares at me whenever she sees me, almost like a greeting. Then she waits at the spot where she gets fed. Looks at me, looks at the surface, looks at me, etc., until I feed her.


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## alyymarie (Oct 17, 2013)

I'm on my 4th betta and still haven't had one flare at me lol, which is weird I think.
It's totally normal for them to flare!  
Especially around food, they are hunters. But on that note, please only feed your betta fish food! There are plenty of different kinds you can get for him if you want to change up his diet (which I definitely encourage).


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## LizzyP (Jun 21, 2012)

Don't feed him chicken. Do bettas eat chicken in the wild? No. In fact, don't feed him any human food. Do you know all the chemicals and hormones are put into human grade beef and chicken? I wouldn't dream of giving that to my fish. They make fish food for a reason. Try frozen brine shrimp, bloodworms, or daphina if you're looking for a treat.

As for the flaring, he's a 2 inch betta. Being aggressive is in his blood. You don't see lions and tigers purring, do you? Plus if he is super aggresive, what could he possibly do?

Not trying to sound rude or anything.


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## cindy1122 (Oct 26, 2013)

haha, I like the responses. thanks everyone for responding. I'll avoid feeding him human food. I also read that I can feed bettas skinned and mashed corn and bean, is that true? I've heard it helps if they have constipation...


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## zombieaddict (Nov 11, 2013)

I've read that you can give your betta a chopped up pea if it's constipated but I don't know about corn or beans.


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## Hallyx (Jun 11, 2011)

Skinned pea is an old-timey treatment for constipation. In the wild, Betta eat "gut-loaded" plant- eating insects and small fish. So a pea won't hurt them. But there are better ways to deal with constipation.


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## scootshoot (Oct 11, 2010)

cindy1122 said:


> I'm new to having a betta pet, so all my information is from browsing the internet including here on bettafish.com. .


Browsing the web is a great start and all you need in terms of proper care. :yourock:


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## Somethingstoofishy (Apr 1, 2013)

yeah i agree with everyone else. my fish are aggressive with their food, probably because they are used to catching live food and so they attack the shrimp and the pellets don't look alive,so they don't have to attack it. You really shouldn't feed them pellets OR chicken because those are human-changed foods. I usually fee mine brine shrimp or bloodworms. Don't get freaked out about him flaring. All males are aggressive. I have two tanks, both holding a male, right next to each other. they used to hate each other, and flare all the time, but they got used to each other. Good Luck


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## Hallyx (Jun 11, 2011)

Perhaps you didn't mean to suggest pellets are not good for Betta. Good quality pellets, like New Life Spectrum and Omega One should be the staple of his diet. Brineshrimp, _frozen_ bloodworms, mosquito larvae are great for occassional treats, and they are high-protein, but pellets provide more of all the dietary requirements, vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc.


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