One of the most common mistakes people make with their betta is either overfeeding or underfeeding their fish. A betta should be fed every day or nearly every day. (If you keep a betta in the office and you can’t feed him on the weekends, he will be just fine as long as you feed him the other 5 days a week) It takes a betta about 2 weeks to starve to death so if your fish doesn’t eat for a few days due to illness or adjusting to a new home, don’t panic.
A good rule of thumb at feeding time is this… A betta’s stomach is about as big as his eyeball and should not be fed more that amount at a time. This translates to about 3 bloodworms or brine shrimp per feeding. If you feed pellets, this equals about 2-3 soaked pellets per feeding. A betta can be fed this amount once or twice a day.
Fish pellet or flake food containers often say “Feed what your fish will eat in 5 minutes or until he stops eating.” This DOES NOT apply to bettas. In the wild their instinct is to eat as much as possible because they don’t know when their next meal is coming. In a tank, however, we DO know when their next meal is coming. It is up to us to not overfeed our fish. Overfeeding can lead to water quality problems and illness not to mention obesity.
DO NOT OVER FEED
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