Fighting fish should be fed 3 times a week, otherwise they will become too lazy.
Suitable live food:
There are different experiences with Artemia. Artemia nauplii are suitable as food for juvenile fish, but it is hardly worth the trouble and expense of raising Artemia as food for adult bettas. The fine pond lining that is otherwise often recommended is less suitable.
Larger snails from about 3 to 4 millimeters must be crushed. Snail spawn and smaller piebalds are also eaten uncrushed.
A pair of guppies can be kept together with bettas as a sort of permanent feeder.
If white bloodworms are flushed immediately after purchase, they can be kept in the basement in an old aquarium. Fed with artemia nauplii and the finest pond food, they will keep for several months.
If no live food is available, frozen food can be used. However, live food contains more nutrients than frozen food. In addition, the natural hunting instinct is strengthened by live food. It spreads quickly throughout the tank, so that bettas that are reluctant and too slow to feed also get food.
Many breeders only feed their animals live or frozen food. These fighting fish are not familiar with tablets, sticks or flake food. Specimens that do not eat or spit out dry food should be fed live or frozen food. Then they usually eat.
Freeze-dried red bloodworms are often eaten by.
New bettas eat slowly
New bettas that are slow to feed may not be used to competition for food. You must first learn how to deal with the new competition. If suitable food is given, acclimatization will be quicker.
Betta fish come from waters where there is almost no current. Aquarium filters usually generate stronger currents.
If you are constantly standing in a certain place in the aquarium, it could be that the animal does not feel bothered by a strong current at this point.
Betta also like to stand between the plants or stand on the ground supported on their long pelvic fins. There they look around for everything that is edible.
Fully fed bettas are sluggish
Fully eaten bettas can become very sluggish and just hang around until their stomachs are empty again. They may even stagger around or swim clumsily or unbalanced, as if the swim bladder is defective.
Once the food has been processed and the swim bladder freed up, the animals will behave normally again.
Unusual swimming behavior does not necessarily indicate an illness. You should wait half a day to see if the belly will thin out again and the animal will swim normally again.
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