Jump to content

Betta hogging all the food.


Recommended Posts

So the information I've been seeing about the betta being a slower fish and being in danger of being underfed when there are faster fish in the tank looks to be the other way around in my tank.

I've said before he seems to be the smartest fish in my (now appears to be fully cycled) tank with corys, black widow tetras and danios, they all generally leave him alone which has been really good, everyone gets along in my tank.

Whenever I put food in the tank, he's almost always the first to see it and he gets there first, he takes big chunks.

I tried hand-feeding them, one hand for the betta and the other hand for the other fish but he'll take huge chunks from my hand and then when he's done he'll rush over to where the other fish are and help himself to more food.

I would place a bigger sized piece of flake directly on the gravel to give the corys a chance but he'll go down and pick up the piece and break it up into little floating pieces for the black widows and himself.

So then I got sinking pellets for the corys but he'll even go down and pick up the whole piece and swim halfway up the tank before dropping it and/or biting a piece of out it.

What to do?

In recent times, by the time the other fish have had a decent feed, the betta has also helped himself to a large portion and I can see the bulge in his stomach which worries me as he's eating way too much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Fist,

Have a think about it, 200 of those blighters in a pond (in a natural Thai circumstance) at some point - there's going to be one, or a handful of survivors..... so one is gunna be a guts, grow faster, and eat his siblings, their food and probably make babies with his sisters

(I'm in Tasmania, I'm thinking about the small genepool thing)

ANYHOO Inappropriate interstate comments asside, you might want to get one of those little isolation boxes they use for guppy breeders - or one of the suction cup betta barracks (they're tiny but good to isolate juvis)

so the other kids can catch up.

Just a thought (on topic)

x

Link to comment
Share on other sites

sarah - I was hoping not to have to remove the little guy, he's sorta happy in there and he's made friends with the corys and enjoys playfully chasing the black widows around occasionally.

melbournebetta - I was starting to think that I might have to do that. I tried crushing the flakes and throwing it into the tank tonight so that it's every fast fish for himself, I was hoping that the betta wouldn't be fast enough to grab all the pieces. While I did that at one end of the tank, I dropped a couple of pellets for the corys at the other end of the tank. The betta ate some of the flakes and then he found the damn pellets and he pretty much ate 1/2 - 3/4 of a pellet himself! His stomach was getting bigger by the minute, I didn't know what to do, I had to leave it in there for the corys to find it, on the other hand, the betta was gorging himself on it. He's seriously going to eat himself to death.

Edited by SiameseFightingFist
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hunger is a great motivator. Once the other fish go without for a few days, the betta had better be quick as they will beat him to the food. Just crush everything up finely and feed the normal amount. He will gorge for a few days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You mean starve the entire tank for a few days? I can't really do that yet, I have an ill cory at the moment, it looks like a lesion that was caused by a physical bump on something (I posted on Aquarium Life forums about this), I've been wanting it to eat as much as it can because it's been a bit slower and less active than the other corys so I hope a bit of food will give it the energy and nutrients it needs to heal.

I've been meaning to ask you guys about this, I've seen lots of different bits of info about feeding fish - the general care advice is to feed them once or twice a day depending on the fish. But on the other hand, other care information says fish can go a week without eating if need be. And other care info says they can be fed once every couple of days. What's AusAqua's general view on this?

Edited by SiameseFightingFist
Link to comment
Share on other sites

haha I noticed the betta was 'sleeping' in its favourite spot behind the filter pump so I managed to sneak in some flake food to a couple of the corys. The black widows and danios started hanging around and got some mouthfuls too.

And then suddenly the betta came on the scene and I stopped feeding. The other fish and I were pretending nothing was going on: whistle1.gifwhistle.gifwhistle.gifwhistle.gifwhistle.gif

After a few minutes the betta went back to his spot but he's now patrolling every ten minutes. <_<

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I ment feed the tank as normal. The other fish that are too slow and miss out will get more hungry as time goes on. Eventually they will recognize the signs of food (you) and all be fighting over it.

I feed six days a week. Some days the betta get two small feeds. Community tank fed once a day. If I am going away, I feed them a bit more for a few days leading up then they can go a week, no worries.

Only ever feed enough that all food is gone in a few minutes. :-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe you could take Ness's advice and consider training this boy at feeding time. Maybe train him to enter a floating container to get food. While he's fed in his own container, feed the other fish in the tank. Once he's done eating, he leaves the container and joins the other (well fed) fish.

Does this sound ridiculous???

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did take Ness' advice, in fact I went out to one of the LFS in my neighbourhood and got a hatchery today. It worked well, thanks Ness. :)

He wasn't a happy chappy though, I'm not sure if he's going to trust me ever again.

For a while there he looked like that same depressed little betta I first saw at the LFS when he was stuck in that little jar:

6253170415_ff76606af3_z.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Incidentally I saw a sorority tank at the LFS today. One of the girls looked like she had a chunk bitten out of her side. Felt sorry for the fish. In a couple of the other tanks there were fish carcasses at the bottom of the tank, in one tank a tiny catfish-type fish was munching on the carcass.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...