# My Betta Has Trouble Eating Sometimes



## PickyPrince (Nov 15, 2014)

This isn't an emergency and he's not sick or anything, but I just wanted to see what ya'll think.

My betta, Prince, has a hard time eating even the smallest pellets. I have noticed recently that he is somewhat smaller than most other bettas and doesn't seem willing (or able) to open his mouth as wide as I've seen other bettas open theirs (possibly a breeding defect?).

He is still very interested in food, he attacks it pretty excitedly, but about half of the pellets I give him just get stuck in his mouth and he struggles to get them down before just spitting them out and watching them sink. If that happens a couple times during a feeding, he will start ignoring any new ones I drop in, which is what makes me worry that it might be hurting his mouth.

I honestly don't think I can get these pellets any smaller than they are without just crushing them into powder and I would like to soak the pellets and see if that helps, but if they are soaked they will sink immediately and he usually gives up on sinking food because he can't keep up with it before it gets lost in the marbles at the bottom.

He has no problem eating things like flakes (which I stopped giving him a long time ago) and the freeze dried blood worms I give him as treats (sometimes more than I probably should since I worry about him struggling with the pellets).

So, I was thinking recently about getting a little food bowl to put in his tank that I can drop soaked pellets in and see if he will eat from that. I've noticed some of the food pellets that land on one of his plants go missing after a little while, I'm hoping that's because he found and ate them, so it made me wonder if he'd be willing to eat from a bowl. I just gotta find something betta fish-friendly and small enough.


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## Cey (Jan 15, 2015)

I'm not sure how other people on the forum feel about it, since most seem to prefer Omega One or NLS brands from what I've read -- but have you tried Tetra's BettaMin Tropical Medley? It has both flakes and freeze-dried shrimp for bettas and he might find it a lot easier to ingest (since you mentioned he is okay with flakes), and should give him a balanced diet in addition to the frozen bloodworms you give him already.

In addition, I have a bottom-feeding betta. I don't know why he prefers to feed from the bottom, but it's certainly possible for a betta to feed from a dish, from my experience. I think it mostly depends on the individual betta, though, since my other betta prefers food that is on the water surface.


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## PickyPrince (Nov 15, 2014)

Cey said:


> I'm not sure how other people on the forum feel about it, since most seem to prefer Omega One or NLS brands from what I've read -- but have you tried Tetra's BettaMin Tropical Medley? It has both flakes and freeze-dried shrimp for bettas and he might find it a lot easier to ingest (since you mentioned he is okay with flakes), and should give him a balanced diet in addition to the frozen bloodworms you give him already.
> 
> In addition, I have a bottom-feeding betta. I don't know why he prefers to feed from the bottom, but it's certainly possible for a betta to feed from a dish, from my experience. I think it mostly depends on the individual betta, though, since my other betta prefers food that is on the water surface.


I actually do have a container of those, they were the first thing he was willing to eat after I got him. I'm not a fan of flakes because they get sucked up into the filter and clog it pretty quickly, and after I read that they can cause digestive problems for bettas I stopped feeding him those completely. I also worry about there not being enough protein in them.

But if he won't eat from a bowl I'll probably have to switch back to those because I can't stand watching him struggle with the pellets.


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## Cey (Jan 15, 2015)

Hmmm, I understand why you stopped them. Perhaps if you have to switch back to them, you can just feed him tiiiiny amounts twice a day? I understand you've been feeding him more trying to get him to eat, I also always end up overfeeding when I'm trying to get a new fish to eat -- which does cloud up the water much faster. Maybe the smaller portions will help the water problem?

Other than thinking of maybe offering him live food, like ghost shrimp, or something smaller, I am not sure of what other options are available to you.


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## VivianKJean (Aug 20, 2013)

Tetra brand of food is really not good at all for him. They are full of fillers. You also should never feed flakes as they lead to constipation and bloating. 

Have you tried Omega One Marine Micro Pellets? They are super super super super tiny. I mean extremely tiny. I feed them to my tiny female because she gets bloated very easily. Maybe try those. The size of the pellets are basically the size of a crumb.


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## Cey (Jan 15, 2015)

Thanks for the info! I'll have to look for those micro-pellets, myself, since I think those might help my other betta from being a bottom feeder (he doesn't like to crunch the current pellets, so he waits until they sink and are soft to start eating them, while my older betta crunches on them furiously without issue). 

Edit: I couldn't find them at Petco when I went just now, so maybe they were sold out.


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## PickyPrince (Nov 15, 2014)

VivianKJean said:


> Tetra brand of food is really not good at all for him. They are full of fillers. You also should never feed flakes as they lead to constipation and bloating.
> 
> Have you tried Omega One Marine Micro Pellets? They are super super super super tiny. I mean extremely tiny. I feed them to my tiny female because she gets bloated very easily. Maybe try those. The size of the pellets are basically the size of a crumb.


Yup, that's why I stopped feeding him flakes and the Tetra brand pellets I had even though I still have the container of for them. Sometimes I pick out one of the little brine shrimp bits out from the flakes for a treat though.

Thank you!

I'll look for those pellets next time to go to Petco, I haven't noticed them there before, but it says they have it online. They're half the size of what I've been feeding him, so hopefully he'll have an easy time with them.

Jeeze, with all the good pellets that're gonna go to waste, and those pretty kings my Petco has, now I'm thinking that I should get another betta. :lol:


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## Cey (Jan 15, 2015)

It WOULD be a shame to let all that food go to waste... :lol:


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## jato (Jan 12, 2015)

PickyPrince said:


> , and those pretty kings my Petco has, now I'm thinking that I should get another betta. :lol:


They are pretty ^^ I just got one. He's quite a character.


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## Greenapp1es (Dec 4, 2014)

It seems my new guy also has a super-tiny mouth. I'll have to pick up some different food for him. Oh well...

Any idea what causes this? Breeding outcome? Fish still young? My guy is a big guy, just with a very small mouth.


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## Greenapp1es (Dec 4, 2014)

(For reference, here is a picture of my guy's tiny, tiny mouth. He's having trouble with Omega One cut in half, so if anyone has any idea what *causes* this it would be appreciated...)


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## Poro (Jan 3, 2015)

Cey said:


> I'm not sure how other people on the forum feel about it, since most seem to prefer Omega One or NLS brands from what I've read -- but have you tried Tetra's BettaMin Tropical Medley? It has both flakes and freeze-dried shrimp for bettas and he might find it a lot easier to ingest (since you mentioned he is okay with flakes), and should give him a balanced diet in addition to the frozen bloodworms you give him already.
> 
> In addition, I have a bottom-feeding betta. I don't know why he prefers to feed from the bottom, but it's certainly possible for a betta to feed from a dish, from my experience. I think it mostly depends on the individual betta, though, since my other betta prefers food that is on the water surface.


I feed my betta those flakes and shrimp. Lol my picky bettas absolutely love the red flakes but are indifferent to the shrimp xD so i handpick only the redflakes for them. Some people here been saying it causes digestive problems.. but idk in all my years with my bettas .. havent had problems with it yet. Though, i do take careful note how much my bettas eat and give them just the right amount. Idk i hope it works out for u =)


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## VivianKJean (Aug 20, 2013)

Greenapp1es said:


> It seems my new guy also has a super-tiny mouth. I'll have to pick up some different food for him. Oh well...
> 
> Any idea what causes this? Breeding outcome? Fish still young? My guy is a big guy, just with a very small mouth.


It's probably a genetic defect from the breeder. Some bettas have more trouble eating pellets than others. There isn't much you can except find the smallest pellets you can.


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## VivianKJean (Aug 20, 2013)

Poro said:


> I feed my betta those flakes and shrimp. Lol my picky bettas absolutely love the red flakes but are indifferent to the shrimp xD so i handpick only the redflakes for them. Some people here been saying it causes digestive problems.. but idk in all my years with my bettas .. havent had problems with it yet. Though, i do take careful note how much my bettas eat and give them just the right amount. Idk i hope it works out for u =)


Besides flakes and freeze dried foods leading to bloating and constipation, the brand is also full of fillers and does not have good nutrition. This means you are not feed your fish a good diet. You want foods that have good ingredients. Tetra uses multiple fillers in their food and fillers are not good for bettas. 

Flakes also damage the water quality much easier then pellets. 

Just because you haven't had a problem yet, doesn't mean you won't.


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## PickyPrince (Nov 15, 2014)

VivianKJean said:


> Greenapp1es said:
> 
> 
> > It seems my new guy also has a super-tiny mouth. I'll have to pick up some different food for him. Oh well...
> ...


I agree, it's a genetic defect, I've seen a lot of people online having the same problem with their petstore bettas.

For Prince, I don't know if it's his mouth being too small (he looks like he has a big enough mouth) I think it's more of a defect in the muscles he uses to open his mouth, I've never seen him open it all the way.
It seems common for people to see their bettas "yawn" like where their mouth is completely open, but that's something I've never seen Prince do. Even when the food gets stuck in his mouth, it seems to be because he doesn't open his mouth as wide as he should be able to, because, just looking at his mouth, it should be big enough if it opened all the way.


Anyway, I just found that food at Petco today, it's a fasting day so I'll be trying it out tomorrow morning, it definitely looks small enough, so hopefully he likes it.


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## PickyPrince (Nov 15, 2014)

He kinda likes it I guess?

I don't know if I like this food for him though because it sinks pretty quickly and gets everywhere, it's a pain trying to suck it all out after a feeding. So, this morning, I ended up putting it in a bowl and soaking it until all the pieces sunk and then putting the bowl in for a while. He ate enough that I felt comfortable taking it out and when he was done, but he left a good amount of it behind, so I think he just doesn't like most of it.

Anyway, since I know he'll eat out of a bowl now, I'm gonna try soaking the pellets he was eating before in the bowl and see if he has an easier time.


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## Greenapp1es (Dec 4, 2014)

I know we don't usually recommend flakes here, but I ended up getting Omega One Buffet Flakes for my guy.

I make a feeding ring out of airline tubing (took a short piece of airline tubing, cut one end at an angle and stuffed it into the other end - it floats at the top of the tank  ) and that prevents the filter from spreading the flakes everywhere. I then take 1-2 flakes and crumble them up into little-bitty-bits into the ring. Stays on the top of the water so I can see what he has or hasn't eaten, stays in place with the ring. Biggest thing is to be very aware of the portion you're feeding so as to not overfeed.


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## PickyPrince (Nov 15, 2014)

Greenapp1es said:


> I know we don't usually recommend flakes here, but I ended up getting Omega One Buffet Flakes for my guy.
> 
> I make a feeding ring out of airline tubing (took a short piece of airline tubing, cut one end at an angle and stuffed it into the other end - it floats at the top of the tank  ) and that prevents the filter from spreading the flakes everywhere. I then take 1-2 flakes and crumble them up into little-bitty-bits into the ring. Stays on the top of the water so I can see what he has or hasn't eaten, stays in place with the ring. Biggest thing is to be very aware of the portion you're feeding so as to not overfeed.


That's a good idea with the ring, I don't plan on feeding him flakes, but I'm gonna keep that ring trick in mind. It could come in handy in the future. 

He's actually doing really well just eating his regular pellets out of the bowl. When they soften up he rips them into little pieces and eats those, but it all stays in the bowl so he can just take his time and not worry about losing any bits. He tends to eat a few and then rest for a bit and then eat a few more. After a couple hours it's usually all gone and I take the bowl back out.

It's a glass bowl so it takes him a few minutes to figure out how to get in there to eat, but he always figures it out eventually. :lol:


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

I guess it's a genetic defect, too. Mine have problems eating the pellets, too, though they will attack a defrosted blood worm and eat it just fine.


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