Weird problem spitting food parts

[unoriginalNemo]

I have a question about my Dory, he started eating and I feed Bio-Gold and Betta Bites (haven't given him any treats yet but will once he starts eating regularly). He takes the pellet in his mouth and then seems like he has to work really hard to swallow it, meanwhile little wispy parts of the food come back out of his mouth or gills. It worries me that he seems to be having so much trouble eating - and that maybe he's not even getting any of the food into his stomach. Should I soak the pellets first? Could he have something wrong with his mouth or throat? Any thoughts on this would be so appreciated, thanks!

[mandymarie]

I had the same problems with my Charlie I cut the pelletts up very small in about 4 smaller pieces and gave it to him one at a time. Its nothing guaranteed but Charlies eating again and has been improving nicely. Just an idea.

[Jenny]

I think Mandy's idea is a good one. It is not too likely that he has damge to his mouth, but more likely that he is just not used to eating pellets, or that he is too small to eat full sized ones. I find that a nail clippers works well for cutting pellets up.

One thing to look out for is if there are cottony white bits coming out of the mouth with the bits of pellets. If they are there, it could be that he has internal fungus. This irritates the mouth and throat and makes the betta spit up the food, along with bits of scraped off fungus. Look carefully at the food though, because sometimes it looks sort of like fungus, and you don't want to medicate if not necessary. It may help for you to tell the difference if you leave a pellet to soak, then break it up so you can see what it looks like.

[unoriginalNemo]

Ok, I'm pretty worried now because he is soooo trying to eat, keeps spitting out the BioGold but will keep trying. And when it's broken up into smaller pieces he's even trying to eat those, scavenging them off the bottom, and he spits those out too and keeps trying again and again. The Betta Bites are smaller but not great for him because he doesn't ever get the food on the first try so it sinks immediately after he "bumps" it. I tried flakes but he just sniffed and moved on. Maybe I'm just paranoid but his gills look like they could be a bit swollen, but he's very active and flares a lot at Nemo, and his own reflection in the glass of the tank so he seems pretty healthy other than this eating thing.

[ACKislander]

This is "THE Pah-TOOie EFFECT" It's very common and is not a sign of distress. It is a sign of fishie not liking his food. Many bettas don't like or will outright refuse pellets and flakes. After all, this is nothing like what they would choose to eat if it were up to them. Sometimes it takes several days to get them to eat a new type of food. BettaBites are known for causing digestive problems in bettas. They swell a great deal in the betta's stomach and cause blockage. Bio-gold pellets swell less, but still do increase in size in the betta's stomach. You should soak you pellets for 10 minutes in a glass of water before giving it to your betta. It won't help him to like the taste, but it will cut back on the likeness of digestive problems.

If you would like to feed your betta something he will like and will be more nutritious, try Frozen bloodworms or bloodworms in gel, frozen brine shrimp or brine shrimp in gel Frozen or live daphnia or frozen Tubifex (not live, they are notorious for harboring parasites and bacteria). These are all commonly found at LFS stores.

[unoriginalNemo]

Yeah, I guess I've just got another picky eater on my hands. Nemo is too but I've found his likes and dislikes so he really never refuses what I give him. Dory seems to like the Betta Bites but not the Bio-Gold, and also ate the FD shrimp and daphnia. I'm considering some frozen foods to add some more variety for them and will look for the Hikari, thanks.

I also have another question, I know that dry foods would not be what they would choose to eat in the wild, but these pet store bettas have probably only known dry food, right? So if they're so picky, how did they survive long enough to get to the store? Just something I wonder.

[starlight]

>>these pet store bettas have probably only known dry food, right?<<

Not so, breeders of most bettas feed live foods to get the betta to color up and thrive. If the bettas aren't in top condition, the store won't want to buy them. Imo its what happens after the pet shop betta arrives in his new home "the store".

I never met a commerical pet shop betta breeder but it's no different....if the juveniles aren't cared for properly the breeder will suffer massive loses of stock. My guess is that they know how to care and feed them.


I'm trying to transition my 6-week old fry to other betta foods. If it doesn't wiggle or move, they really don't like it. They don't consider it food. I wanted to try this new stuff called "First Bites" by Hikari. It's a fine powder with some good stuff/vitamins in it. They didn't look at it 5 weeks ago when I first tried it. At that stage betta fry spend much time at the top of the water column. I tried to get them to eat it today. They took a few nibbles when I first put in a tiny amount. I thought, this is great since it has other good stuff in it. Then they suddenly stopped, they realized it didn't move. It would have spoiled the water, I removed it with a brine shrimp net. Bettas have to be taught to eat pellets. They learn to eat live food much more readily.

At some point the commercial breeder could have them on commercial betta pellets, perhaps pet stores require them to transition. As mentioned I feed 1 Betta Bite/Bio-Gold as a treat. One of my young males can't get the knack of eating it. He tries, spitting it out repeatedly. I try to feed him a smaller pellet, sometimes he eats it later on the bottom and sometimes I remove it.

[starlight]

>>I also have another question, I know that dry foods would not be what they would choose to eat in the wild, but these pet store bettas have probably only known dry food, right? So if they're so picky, how did they survive long enough to get to the store? Just something I wonder.<<<

This is what betta fry usually eat.

infusoria
vinegar eels
microworms
baby brine shrimp

Up until 4-5 weeks; I feed five times a day. It's a lot of work but this is where many breeders lose fry. Most simply can't feed small amounts that often. Some are not on top of the syphoning-cleaning that this entails.

At four-five weeks I begin to transition them off the BBS and feed.
white worms
grindals.

At six weeks I begin to incorporate the frozen food I feed my adults. I continue to feed the white worms and grindals. The fry are way too small to eat betta bites of any size. As I mentioned they showed no interest in the fine First Bites by Hikari. The fry must recognize what I put in as food.

Here's where my fry are at: 7 weeks:
(1) Love to eat BBS; which I recently stopped feeding.
(2) Love to eat white worms and grindals
(3) Will eat finely chopped frozen gruel (this stuff must taste amazing)
(4) Will eat finely chopped frozen Mysis Shrimp.
(5) Will nibble at chopped frozen bloodworms.
(6) Will not eat Hikari First Bites (made for young fry)