The Ultimate Guide to Best Food For Betta Fish

Betta fish are omnivores they can eat both plants and meat, live or frozen. Whatever food you feed your Betta fish, make sure that it has the nutrients and protein required by the Betta fish. However, such food is more useful when the protein content is at least 45%. Some people argue that food with up to 40% protein content is also beneficial for Betta fish. However, I prefer food with at least 45% protein content. These include flakes, pellets, mosquito larvae, shrimp, vegetables, blood, etc. All these foods are protein-enriched.

1. Pellets

Betta fish pellets are an excellent food option for Betta fish. They are easily available in the market. There are some pellets that expand after absorbing water, making it difficult for fish to eat them. Fish can develop gut disorders and constipation. To avoid such problems, it is important to break or crush the pellets into small pieces. This will help your fish to avoid various disorders and it will eat its food completely.

2. Flakes

Flakes are also an important part of the Betta fish’s diet. There are different varieties of flakes available for different fish. similarly, there is a separate variety available for Betta fish. If you want to feed your fish with flakes, then it is important to feed them the same ones that are made for Betta fish. It has often been observed that Betta fish do not like eating flakes very much. If your fish are also showing this behavior, then there is no need to worry. Maybe it likes a different food that it used to consume regularly and it doesn’t want to be transferred to Flakes. So, in such a situation, you can stop the flakes from feeding. Instead, feed them the food that the beta likes.

During flake feeding, it is often observed that the fish cannot eat all of them and some of these uneaten flakes accumulate at the bottom of the tank. Due to this, the tank water also becomes dirty. Ammonia spikes are also produced in the water. So, to avoid this, if you see any uneaten food accumulating at the bottom of the tank, immediately remove it from the water.

3. Vegetables

To protect the fish from digestive problems, stomach disorders, and constipation, it is important to feed them vegetables once or twice a week. You can feed your Betta fish peeled potatoes, cucumbers, etc.

Each Betta fish has its own temperament and preferences. Some Betta fish eat vegetables with gusto, and some do not like them at all. Because vegetables are not included in beta fish’s primary food, it can be seen that your fish may not eat vegetables. In such a situation, you should not feed them vegetables.

4. Live Food

Live foods are the most important part of a Betta fish diet. People prefer live foods for feeding their fish because they contain protein and nutrients. At the same time, live food increases the hunting activities of your Betta fish. Live food includes different types of shrimp, bloodworms, and mosquito larvae. Which can be purchased from the market and can also be cultured at home. It cannot be ignored that live food contains different types of parasites and viruses. Eating them can cause your fish to suffer from various diseases.

5. Mosquito larvae

Mosquito larvae are high in protein and are an excellent diet for your Betta fish. If you don’t have mosquito larvae, you can also add mosquitoes to your fish tank. Mosquitoes are found in large numbers in Asian countries and in hot regions. You can find larvae in boxes and buckets of different types of water at home, and you can also culture them in such places. But if you live in an area where there are no mosquitoes, you can buy mosquito larvae from a fish shop.

6. Ants and flies

Flies and ants are also good choices for feeding your Betta. You may have seen wild tourists eating flies and ants because they are enriched in protein. You can feed them a whole ant, but if your fish is not eating, then you can feed them by dividing them into small pieces. It will help the Betta during the eating and digestion processes.

7. Brine shrimp

Brine shrimp are a favorite food of Betta fish. Small and large-sized brine shrimp are available in the market. You can feed your fish with brine shrimp in frozen or live form. If you are a fish breeder, brine shrimp will be the most useful food for your fish.

8. Live Bloodworms

They are rich in protein and nutrients and meet all the nutritional needs of fish. Also, if you add live bloodworms to your beta’s container, it will increase your beta’s hunting ability. They also play an important role in the coloration of fish.

There are also some drawbacks to live blood worm feeding.

• Live bloodworms can be used for a maximum of two days as they then convert into midge flies. If you don’t use live bloodworms in two to three days, you have to throw them away because you can’t use midge flies for fish feed.
• A live bloodworm has many parasites and bacteria on it that are not visible to the naked eye.
• Apparently, you are feeding live worms to your fish, but the bacteria and parasites present in them also become part of its diet, which causes various diseases in your fish.

9. Frozen worms and shrimp

Frozen worms and shrimp are sold in cubes and do not pose a risk of parasites and bacteria to fish because the bacteria and parasites on their bodies are killed during the freezing process. They also contain more protein and nutrients than dry worms, and you can use them for up to six months.

One of the problems people face when using it is that they don’t know how much to use. If your tank isn’t big enough and doesn’t have enough fish to eat the entire cube, you’ll end up wasting most of the food that spoils and produces ammonia in the aquarium. That will cause the fish to suffer from various diseases. So, it is important to break the cubes into small pieces to avoid the wastage of food.

10. Freeze-dried Worms

Freeze worms are available in the market in boxes of different sizes. Their use is very easy. You just have to soak them in a mixture of water and nitrous for 10 to 15 minutes before feeding them to the fish so that they become soft and swell. And they are also much cheaper than frozen or live worms. Also, there is no chance of them getting rotten, and you can use them for a long time.

They also have some disadvantages, which cannot be ignored. As they are much less nitrous and protein-enriched than live and frozen bloodworms, and if they are fed to the fish without soaking them well, they can expand in the gut of the fish and cause digestive disorders, and the fish can become constipated.

Conclusion

However, none of the feeds listed above can be said to be more useful and better than others. Because every fish has its own likes and dislikes, some fish like to eat flakes and pellets, some like live food, and some like frozen and dried food. By feeding live food, the fish’s physical activity and hunting skills increase. And also, the color of the fish gets brighter and starts glowing. So I would advise you to give first preference to live food for Betta feeding. If you don’t have live food available, then you can go for frozen or dried food. Also be cautious and observe your fish tank or aquarium keenly to avoid the production of ammonia from waste food and avoid different diseases in your Betta fish.