spiff
Junior Bubble Nester
Posts: 228
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Post by spiff on Jan 24, 2004 18:15:12 GMT -5
Joey is still the pickiest of all of my bettas. I give him flakes, and he will swim over and sit underneath them, and then swim away. He refuses to touch them. I tried giving him MicroPellets that I feed to my community tank, and he ate one but spit it back out, and that was that. The only thing he will eat is Bio-Gold pellets, and the occassional bloodworm that I give to him. After reading BR's post about constipation, I am weary about feeding him the pellets exclusively. Right now I feed him once a day, and he gets 3 pellets. After I post this, I might see if live BBS (that I made for my fry) interest him at all.
So my question is, for those of you who have picky eaters, what types of food do they like? I have to buy some more fish food before I go to school next week, so I'd like to know what to look for. Thanks!
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Leigh
Junior Bubble Nester
Posts: 106
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Post by Leigh on Jan 24, 2004 18:18:40 GMT -5
Kaluha's favorites are Betta Bites. He will not touch the Bio Gold.
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spiff
Junior Bubble Nester
Posts: 228
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Post by spiff on Jan 24, 2004 18:55:35 GMT -5
Are those by HBH? How big are they? (I hope they don't smell as bad as the Fry Bites!)
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Leigh
Junior Bubble Nester
Posts: 106
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Post by Leigh on Jan 24, 2004 19:16:28 GMT -5
They do have a slight fish odor to them. I am not sure what the fry bites smell like. I do not find them over powering. Yes, they are by HBH. Without my vernier calipers I can't give you an exact size ;D I would say that they are ~5 times smaller than the BioGold pellets. They do float (not they have very long to do this once Kaluha sees them!).
I sent some to another forum member and her picky Betta ate them. If you would like a sample please PM me with your information and I will mail some out tomorrow.
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Post by Emerson on Jan 24, 2004 19:29:45 GMT -5
HBH Betta Bites are the exact same product as AquaCulture, sold by Mal-Wart. The name is different because of the distribution, but it's made by the same company (HBH Enterprises). So you might save some $$ by going with AquaCulture instead. You might also try Zooplankton for freshwater fish on www.petdiscounters.com. My guys love it, and I feed it a few times a week. It's actually water flea (daphnia) which good for preventing constipation. My guys also like Nature's Delica preserved foods -- bloodworms, brine shrimp and daphnia. PetDiscounters also carries that product. I use it as a treat, though, and not a staple food. A flake that all of my Bettas have enjoyed is Omega One Betta Buffet flakes. You might give that a try, too. If you want a sample, PM me w/ your address and I'll be happy to send you some. Many people have used BioGold pellets with no problem whatsoever, but I've had some bad experiences with it and know several others who have as well. Just feed it sparingly, and try to incorporate as much variety into your Betta's diet as possible.  sef |
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spiff
Junior Bubble Nester
Posts: 228
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Post by spiff on Jan 25, 2004 5:32:46 GMT -5
By the way, I don't really care about the smell of fish food - the only thing I know is that my cat (not my catfish  ) is absolutely obsessed with any fish food ;D. I have to be extremely careful everytime I feed the fish ;D. Most of the fish food smell doesn't bother me...but the fry bites smell horrible, as do the TetraMin flakes, and some betta food sample that came with one of my tanks (which Joey also won't touch, btw). You might also try Zooplankton for freshwater fish on www.petdiscounters.com. My guys love it, and I feed it a few times a week. It's actually water flea (daphnia) which good for preventing constipation. My guys also like Nature's Delica preserved foods -- bloodworms, brine shrimp and daphnia. PetDiscounters also carries that product. I use it as a treat, though, and not a staple food. Many people have used BioGold pellets with no problem whatsoever, but I've had some bad experiences with it and know several others who have as well. Just feed it sparingly, and try to incorporate as much variety into your Betta's diet as possible. sef Thanks for those suggestions...I am probably going to a petstore tomorrow, so I will check out the prices on those foods and probably get some. I have bloodworms right now, but I need to get some more since all of my fish love them and I am almost out. And the lack of variety is why I am worried about Joey -- he has been eating the bio-gold pellets exclusively for 3 weeks now. Hopefully he will like one of the new foods... |
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spiff
Junior Bubble Nester
Posts: 228
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Post by spiff on Feb 2, 2004 19:21:09 GMT -5
Thanks sef and Leigh for the food samples Everyone ate the Betta Bites (except for Marlin, but he's not eating much of anything right now), and Monica, Clay, and Chandler liked the Betta Buffet flakes. I'm going to look for both of those when I go buy my two new bettas tomorrow. I also bought some other types of food... Wardley Total Betta: these are little pellets, like Bio-Gold. Everyone ate these Wardley Premium Betta Food: they seemed to like these, but they had to spit them out a lot to eat them because they are large (about double the size of the Total Betta pellets) NutraFin Max Betta Flakes: the only one who liked these was Monica...the boys just watched as they fell, while Monica was attacking the filter to get the food (one of the flakes floated towards it and got stuck in the section where the water comes out). Next time I try these, I'm going to see if breaking them into little bits makes them any more appealing. I also bought some frozen food...I have bloodworms, brine shrimp, and vegetables. My community tank loves all three but I've only tried the blood worms with the bettas, and they seem to like it. I also saw some betta food by Marineland. I've heard their other food is good, so has anyone tried the betta food? I wanted to get some, but it was $4 for a little jar of the food. I leave for school tomorrow, and I am getting two new bettas for my dorm room...my mom doesn't want to bring my 10 gallon tank up, so I bought a new 5 gallon tank and am just going to buy the bettas up at school so they don't have to travel. I'm going to look for more food when I go to get them. |
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Leigh
Junior Bubble Nester
Posts: 106
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Post by Leigh on Feb 2, 2004 19:48:33 GMT -5
Glad the guys liked the Betta Bites! I believe that you are talking about Bio-Blend by Marineland. (Tiny little jar with a blue top?)
Kaluha loves them. Although they say they are wafers they are really more like BettaBites in size. I really like them becasue the cap is designed to shake out only one or two at a time.
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Post by citybettas on Feb 2, 2004 20:15:46 GMT -5
I have also tried the Bio Blend by Marineland. It is expensive, but seems to be a fairly good food. However, some of my females hav trouble eating them because they are a little larger than some of the other pellet foods.
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spiff
Junior Bubble Nester
Posts: 228
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Post by spiff on Feb 2, 2004 21:20:40 GMT -5
Yes, the Bio-Blend food. I will definitely look for it tomorrow Maybe the Petco by school is cheaper... |
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Post by starlight on Feb 7, 2004 0:08:51 GMT -5
The Hikari Bio-Pure line of frozen food is great. It's treated to ensure no parasites. It's high in protein and close to live. Best of all the bettas love it. I feed Blood Worms, Brine Shrimp and Mysis Shrimp.
You just break off a small piece and defrost it. I use a paper towel to absorb the moisture and feed small amounts. It floats on the surface for about 2 milliseconds and its gone. I'll really help to put your bettas in top condition.
SF brand makes a line of frozen that doesn't compare to Hikari. I get Hikari at Petco.
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I like to feed a variety of food to my bettas. I feed 3 mentioned Hikari frozen foods, grindal worms and white worms. I feed pellets and fd bloodworms when I don't have time or I want to reward them.
Their diet is fairly rich. One day a week I fast them and give them Pepso Food by Jungle. It's just like HBH but prevents internal parasites.
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) is absolutely obsessed with any fish food ;D. I have to be extremely careful everytime I feed the fish ;D.