# my betta is starving himself!



## Guest (Aug 9, 2005)

I bought a betta almost a week ago and he refuses to eat anything! I've tried pellets, freeze-dried worms, live food, anything I could think of but he just won't eat. At first he was active and seemed fine but now the lack of food is catching up on him. He just sits at the bottom of his little bowl only coming up for air :sad: any suggestions?


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## lwstinkinsweet (Aug 2, 2005)

have you checked out any disease sites to see if he may have an illness? that could be. i am new to bettas so i dont have any expert advice but that is what i would do. did he eat at first?


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## mel&ned (Jul 26, 2005)

mine's doing that too, i am living in fear that i'm going to come downstairs to a little corpse


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Its common for them to not eat for a week when you get them. He will eat when he's hungry enough.


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## Im totally me (Aug 5, 2005)

I agree, they don't eat when you first have them. They are still in shock from all the changes. I have had Bettas for years, and the fastest I ever got a Betta to eat was within 3 days, another one took 11 days! I have heard that Bettas can live as long as 1 month without food. Whenever I get a new Betta, I make sure the water is the same temp, and put in stress coat medicine. After 1-2 days I check for any signs of disease. If they are sick when they come to you, they will not eat untill they are well. 

What does he look like? Any white specks, cottany patches? Decaying fins? These are things my Bettas have brought home with them, they usually took about a week to cure, and then the fish ate ravenously! My baby Betta took 2 weeks to eat, just because he was mopy from having to leave his siblings, he wasn't much smaller than the others, but he was extremley imature. Maybe yours is a baby???


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## lwstinkinsweet (Aug 2, 2005)

my betta ate as soon as i got him fully acclimated into his cage and got some food in there. i guess that is pretty good then.


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## mel&ned (Jul 26, 2005)

that makes me feel a lot better, my little guy has eaten 1 pellet since sunday!


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## lwstinkinsweet (Aug 2, 2005)

mine wont eat any pellets...he only likes bloodworms. he will let the pellets sit for EVER if he doesnt feel like playing with them


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## mel&ned (Jul 26, 2005)

the darn shop didn't have anything else
i might try elsewhere, i have to say the pellets don't look too good to me either lol
cheers
mel


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## lwstinkinsweet (Aug 2, 2005)

i am trying to get mine to eat more than one food. i dont suggest walmart as a place to get fish, but they do have the same fish food as my lfs and it comes from tetra and stuff so i would look there


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## aaa (Jan 19, 2005)

this really depend on the betta. maybe he is really sick or just the type of betta that won't eat until dying. i never have such a problem before, i don't know any trick to get them to eat. my betta usually eat when they were put into their jar from the shipping box. maybe due to the fish didn't eat for during shipping.


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## maxpayne_lhp (Jan 19, 2005)

leechi said:


> I bought a betta almost a week ago and he refuses to eat anything! I've tried pellets, freeze-dried worms, live food, anything I could think of but he just won't eat. At first he was active and seemed fine but now the lack of food is catching up on him. He just sits at the bottom of his little bowl only coming up for air :sad: any suggestions?


What do you mean by writing 'live food'?


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