# picky eater



## squeekee35 (Feb 9, 2010)

two weeks ago i bought a new betta to replace the one that died a while back. so far he hasn't really been eating. he will not touch the pellet food he will sit underneath of it and stare at it but won't eat it. i tried freeze dried brine shrimp...no go...i tried freeze dried tubifix worms...no go. i bought a bunch of frozen stuff and first tried something called mysina shrimp or something like that it looked like white worms. he ate a piece and spit it right out. the next day i tried the frozen blood worms. he gobled those up but over 80 percent of them sunk to the bottom and i had to vacuum out his tank. i am thinking maybe next time using the tweezers and just put one or two worms in at a time. do you think he might like frozen brine shrimp? he seems to like his food floating through the water rather than floating on top. is there any food that i can get for bettas that floats in the water and doesn't sink or float at the top? i suspect maybe he got fed live food before the store picked him up.

thank you
--Angel


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I think there are some "slow-sinking pellets". not as common as sinking or floating ones. Go easy on feeding, betta can get by on one meal a day or even every few days. Tweezers are the way to go with worms, you really don't want to touch them. break off a piece and soak it in tank water and then feed a few and keep the rest in the fridge in water. Keep cleaning up uneaten food, its very easy to foul a betta-sized tank.


----------



## Elliott225 (Jan 9, 2014)

The betta the currently resides here won't touch regular flake but will chow down on brine shrimp flakes.

Tried the tiny betta pellets but they were ignored.


----------



## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

Plecocaine.....


----------



## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

If you have any mosquito larvae outside, he wont refuse that.


----------



## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

mine all eat flakes, maybe try that


----------



## CoryDee (Aug 26, 2014)

You could try soaking the food in a little garlic, not many fish can resist that


----------



## squeekee35 (Feb 9, 2010)

well the tweezers worked well. only a few pieces made it to the bottom of the tank and even then he picked them up off the bottom too. but i found out that there is a bait and tackle place around here that sells live blood worms so i might swing by there tomorrow after work and check them out. i think live would be better as they will swim around in the water column and not sink to the bottom at all. though i might have an issue trying to catch them. i will have to brain storm how to that. i got a baby fish net but i don't know what size of container they come in and if it will fit inside there. maybe i could go back to the baster again i guess. i don't know...i will think of something.

--Angel


----------



## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

a meat baster works pretty good...
just be careful with live foods..very often fish will get used to eating live and will refuse all other foods..and a single food diet is very unhealthy....


----------



## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

I used a regular spoon to scoop up mine 

I agree with Loha. I have a ram that when I got him, he wouldn't take flake so I fed him live food. now he hates all other foods, but I luckily have been able to sort of adapt him to others.


----------



## squeekee35 (Feb 9, 2010)

well live food is out of the question. I went to the bait shop they had "blood worms" but actually they were earth worms so I don't know how they get away with calling blood worms. they were huge too like 4 times the size of my fish. I did try flake food the second day I had him as he didn't eat his pellets but he took a bite and spit it out. so I guess it will be frozen blood worms and frozen brine shrimp.....I can try the freeze dried again and see if he will eat that. and maybe get the flakes that have shrimp in them he might eat that too.


--Angel


----------



## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

Plecocaine........lol


----------

