What to feed baby fighting fish

What Do Baby Betta Fish Eat?

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You’re not alone if you’re wondering what betta fish food is or how much and when to feed them. Surprisingly, one of the most frequent inquiries on first-time betta keeping is about overfeeding! It’s not always correct to take your pet’s needs into account when making a purchase. For example, you should never trust the information from pet stores or food package labels.

Bettas are picky eaters and will typically select food on the surface of a tank’s water rather than in the substrate. Because bettas are primarily carnivores, they require a well-balanced diet that is high in protein. It’s not true that bettas can live on the roots of plants alone.

Many betta keepers prefer feeding pellets since they are easy to use and have a high success rate. Because pellets make less mess, they may be portioned out for feedings with ease. Frozen or live feed can also be used as rewards or included in their daily diet.

To keep your betta healthy and happy, follow the food and feeding instructions below since they may literally be the difference between life and death for your fish.

What Do Baby Betta Fish Eat?

Baby bettas generally hatch in 24 to 48 hours after being fertilized. The baby fish will absorb the rest of their yolk sac for three to four days once they have hatched.

During this period, the baby betta fish will get nutrients by absorbing the yolk from their sac. Thus, at this point, you won’t be required to feed them anything extra.

Hard-boiling an egg and placing a tiny portion of cooked yolk in a jar of water will ensure that your fry has something to eat if they want it. Pour some of the water from above into your baby betta fish tank after shaking the jar thoroughly to dissolve the yolk. The fry will be ready to accept small live foods when they become free-swimming.

I

nfusoria

Infusoria are a specific kind of fry food in liquid form. It is frequently used to feed baby betta fish. Infusoria are tiny enough to be consumed by newborn betta fish, making this sort of diet particularly appropriate for them.

Infusoria, like other food sources for baby fish, are attractive to young fish. You can cultivate your own infusoria from culture or buy them online and in some pet shops.

Simply collect some infusoria from the container you bought them in, or from your culture tank if you produced them yourself, using an eyedropper, and squirt them into your betta aquarium directly above your baby betta fish to feed them to your betta fish.

Brine Shrimp Nauplii

Your baby betta fish should be able to handle somewhat larger foods after a few days of eating infusoria. Baby brine shrimp, also known as nauplii, is a special food source that fir the needs of baby betta fish. This is mainly because of their high-protein tendencies that the betta can consume easily.

Brine shrimp nauplii can be purchased online or in pet shops and fed to baby betta fish in the same manner as infusoria. Take an eyedropper full of water from the brine shrimp container and squeeze it straight into the betta tank, capturing as many of the brine shrimp nauplii as possible.

Larger Foods

Your baby betta fish will be able to consume a variety of live and frozen feed at three to four weeks of age in addition to standard betta pellets. Additionally, you can also consider continuing feeding your baby betta fish with brine shrimp alongside its current diet. However, you should start adding frozen and freeze-dried foods like daphnia, bloodworms, and micro-worms to it. Make sure they are crushed properly to make it easier for your pet fish to consume.

Mealworms

Frozen and dehydrated foods should be chosen with caution. When selecting frozen or freeze-dried meals, choose carefully because they are prone to parasites and germs that can prove to be detrimental for your betta fish. You can look up online to search for reputable pet shops that sell authentic frozen-dried foods. You may also try sprinkling a little betta food into the tank once in a while to test if the fry will accept it. If you want to offer your betta fish some processed foods on occasion, grind up betta pellets or granules and sprinkle a very tiny quantity in the aquarium.

What Do Baby Betta Fish Eat in The Wild?

Betta fish in the wild are insectivores, or more accurately, carnivorous insects. They also consume a variety of tiny invertebrates and larvae on occasion. Betta fish originate from Asia, and they would naturally be native to the region. They’re also high in nutrients like protein, which is important for wild and captive betta fish.

Insect Larvae

What Do Baby Beta Fish Eat in Aquariums or Fish Bowls?

While Bettas are often portrayed as living happily alone in a tiny fishbowl munching on the roots of plants, this is untrue. While Bettas may consume vegetation from time to time, they are carnivores that require a high-protein diet.

It’s important to feed your Betta appropriately, especially since replicating their natural diet is nearly impossible. Specialized Betta pellets are perfect for ensuring that your Bettas get all of the nutrients they need. If you want to keep your Betta healthy, don’t give it food made for other tropical fish. If you offer pellets, soak them in water for 5 to 10 minutes before feeding them to your baby betta fish.

How To Take Care of Baby Betta Fish? Betta Fish

The first month of your baby betta fish’s life is critical. The only way to keep it alive and healthy is to feed your baby betta fish with special food items that have a high protein ratio. In addition, you will also need to maintain your aquarium or water tank to ensure that it grows quickly without any issues.

Step 1

A sponge filter in your baby betta tank will help to keep the water clean. A sponge filter is a unique invention that helps to filter out the water without actually disturbing its flow. Anything that may disturb the flow of the water can essentially harm newly hatched betta fish.

Step 2

Set your aquarium heater’s thermostat to keep the water at a steady temperature of 74 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. If the temperature in your baby betta tank fluctuates too much, it might have a detrimental impact on its health and development.

Step 3

Wait for your baby betta fish to finish absorbing their yolk sacs. The parent betta fish will do everything to protect their younglings until they are able to fully absorb the yolks from their sacs and are able to swim independently. After an incubation period of up to 16 days, mouth-brooding betta fish will release the fully developed fry.

Step 4

Feed your young froglets tiny amounts of infusoria several times a day after they’ve absorbed their yolk sacs. Infusoria is a liquid fry food that may be added directly to the tank with an eyedropper. Find infusoria in stores or raise your own colony from cultures if you can’t find it locally.

Step 5

After a few days of feeding newborn betta fish infusoria, transition them to accepting brine shrimp nauplii. Young bettas will develop swiftly if fed appropriately, and they should be ready to accept larger foods after three to four days.

Step 6

After three to four weeks, offer finely crushed freeze-dried and frozen foods such as bloodworms and daphnia.

Step 7

At 6 weeks, transfer the fry to a 10-gallon grow-out tank. A grow-out tank is simply a bigger tank in which your fish will have more room to develop. If you have a lot of baby bettas, you may want to split them into two separate grow-out tanks.

Step 8

Weekly water changes of 25 percent of the tank volume twice a week are required to keep high water quality in your grow-out tanks. Replace the dirty water that has been drawn from the bottom of the tank with dechlorinated tap water at the same temperature as that in the tank using an aquarium vacuum or a length of airline tubing.

Step 9

Offer a variety of foods to your baby betta fish, offering small amounts of live, frozen, and pellet foods several times a day until they are three-quarters of an inch long.

Step 10

To grow your baby betta fish to maturity, separate them into individual cups or bowls. You should be able to tell the difference between males and females at this age. Male baby betta fish will have longer fins and brighter colors if you can’t tell the difference.

You may separate all of your betta fish or opt to keep the females in one tank while keeping the males in separate cups.

How To Feed Baby Betta Fish? A Beautiful Betta Fish

Place an infusoria culture in a large plastic or glass container filled with water first. Place a few pieces of lettuce into a glass jar, boil them for approximately one or two minutes, and add them to the water as an infusoria food. To keep the lettuce warm, use an aquarium heater.

Wait for a few minutes after feeding the betta fry, after they have hatched, before offering them food. This is when the male betta takes care of the betta fry. The fries do not require any nourishment at this point. Feeding any food to allow their bodies to remain connected to the yolk sac after hatching is not advised.

You can now remove the male betta from the tank once the betta fry has started swimming. It’s simpler to care for the juvenile betta fish reared in a separate aquarium after removing the male betta from the main tank.

The eyedropper is required for extracting infusoria water from the jar and immediately pour it into the baby betta fish tank. It’s important not to siphon any plant life while doing so. Because the infusoria are so tiny, they cannot be absorbed by the juvenile betta soon after hatching. These veggies also move about in the tank, which piques their curiosity.

On average, feed your betta fry an eyedropper of infusoria once a day, within 2 to 3 days. After the fourth day, the betta fry is ready for substantial meals.

Infusoria are also nutritious food for betta fry. The technique for feeding the fry with infusoria is similar to that of brine shrimps. Feed the betta fry every day with tiny quantities of brine shrimp so they may develop properly. Shrimps may be purchased online or from a local store, just as with the infusoria. Alternatively, you can produce your own meal.

What Are The Natural Predators of Baby Betta Fish?

The Siamese fighting fish, often known as betta fish, is lovely to look at, but their beauty hides a ferocious temperament. Understanding the natural predators of this breed can assist you in keeping your pet baby betta fish alive.

Male Bettas

Two male bettas will literally circle around each other, like two rival beauty queens circling one another and planning their rivals’ downfall. The major distinction is that your bettas won’t stop at fin-ripping; they’ll get into a physical altercation. You’ll almost certainly end up burying the loser in a fish burial. It’s preferable to keep two male bettas in separate tanks. Position the tanks next to one another and use two layers of plexiglass to protect them while they posture at each other.

Goldfish

When a betta fish is added to a tank containing a goldfish that is aggressive, the mild-mannered goldfish will take on a defensive posture. That goldfish will shock you by nipping at the betta, and the betta will nip at your goldfish to harm it. Because the betta has tiny teeth, he can really inflict damage on his tank mate. They also prefer water that is cooler than a betta can withstand, making your pet ill. Separate them while you still have time.

Cats

Add cats to the list of a betta fish’s natural predators. Your little pet cat, though she may appear harmless, could be scheming how to gain access to the water and capture that delicious-looking betta for dinner.

If you don’t want your cat to eat your betta fish alive, consider buying a secure lid for your tank; one that will prevent her from opening it. She will certainly attempt, but you’ll be able to relax a bit knowing that you’ve made it very difficult if not impossible for her to break into.

Barb Fish

Another betta fish rival is the barb fish, so he’s not a good betta roommate. While it may be necessary to purchase another tank for other fish breeds, it’s a smart investment, especially if you want to keep all of your fish alive and intact.

They are not afraid to use their tiny, extremely sharp, and pointed teeth in combat with rivals, as they fight and kill them. This is not a pretty sight.

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What To Feed Betta Fry (& How To Feed Them)

For a healthy diet, betta fries require live foods such as worms, protozoans, and baby shrimp, 3-5 times a day. You should provide enough food each session for your Betta to eat for a five-minute period.

If you have a Betta Fry and looking for the best ways to keep them healthy, growing, and thriving, this article is full of interesting tips and recipes to help you out.

Contents

1 What Can I Feed a Betta Fry?
2 How Do You Feed A Baby Betta Fry?
3 Step-By-Step Feeding Guide For Your Baby Betta Fry
4 How to Make Betta Fry Food at Home
5 Check Out The E-Books!
6 Betta Fish Fry Feeding FAQ
7 Recap

What Can I Feed a Betta Fry?

Because Beta Fry fish are carnivores and will only eat moving living foods, they can aggressively hunt down. Because of this, you are wasting your time if you try to feed them any type of fish food or flakes.

Although it may feel like food options are limited when looking for living foods smaller than a beta mouth, there are actually a wide variety of options you can choose from.

Infusoria
Fee-living nematodes such as Vinegar Eels
Microworms
Banana Worms
Walter Worms
Baby Brine Shrimp
Daphnia
Fairy Shrimp,
Grindal Worms

Young Betta Fry will prefer food that is moving. However, as they get older, you may be able to introduce certain pellets into their diet and frozen food options as well.

Preparing the right meals for your betta fry is essential even before they are even born. Why? Because these little fish will begin to feed as soon as they break free of their egg sacs in the tank. This requires fresh, quality food to be readily available at all times.

How Do You Feed A Baby Betta Fry?

There is no need to do anything special when feeding a baby Betta Fry fish. You simply add the food to the tank, and they will go for it once they catch the scent. It is a good idea to keep a bettas food variety mixed up, so they are given plenty of nutrients throughout the week.

The best food options for baby Betta fry fish include nematodes, baby worms, and mosquito larva.

Your baby Betta fries should be fed at least five small meals a day. This pattern will start to change and become less as they grow into adults. A good rule of thumb is to provide enough food that your Betta can eat within a 5-min period at each feeding.

Step-By-Step Feeding Guide For Your Baby Betta Fry

Here is a step-by-step guide to help you get through feeding time with your baby betta, helping them grow to their fullest potential.

1. Straight from the Egg Sac (Hours Old)

Baby Bettas are laid under bubble nests in their egg-sacs. Two to three days after they wiggle their way out of the eggs sac, they are free-swimming and will require tons of protein and fat to survive. You can consider starting with vinegar eels and nematodes; you can also purchase Betta Fry starter food mixes online or at a pet store.

2. Infusoria

Betta Fry will also start eating infusoria, which are single-celled organisms they will find on the leaves and steams of living plants in the tank. The fish will continue to eat off of this their entire lives.

3. Baby Brine Shrimp (3-4 Days Old)

Once your baby Betta hits a few days old, they can upgrade to baby Brine Shrimp. These shrimp are less than 1mm long and full of protein, making them a great meal option for your new Betta Fish babies.

4. Introduce Worms (1 to 1 ½ Months)

You can begin introducing worms into your betta diets around 5-6 weeks after hatching. Live Grindel and blackworms are two perfect choices full of the nutrients your Betta still needs. You can now discontinue nematodes, but baby Brine Shrimp should still be provided.

5. Okay for All Food Types (2 Months Old)

Betta fish are matured at around 8-9 weeks and can now digest just about any Betta food you provide. This can include things like blood worms, frozen food items, and even pellets.

How to Make Betta Fry Food at Home

If you don’t want to purchase your Betta Fry food from the store or you are afraid of the life (or once alive) food not making it long enough before going bad, you can always make your Betta Fry fish food yourself.

Here are a few simple steps to making healthy, hearty betta fish food. (Remember, Betta Fish aren’t big eaters, so making smaller portions is a good idea.)

Gather your materials: You will need one raw shrimp, fish fillet, or redworm, four fresh garlic cloves, and four spinach leaves.
Prepare the shrimp: With a shrimp or pairing knife, cut the shrimp into tiny pieces, then use the side of the knife to squish the shrimp into mush but still leave some bigger chunks.
Prepare the garlic and spinach: Cut up the garlic cloves into tiny little pieces and grind them together with the spinach leaves.
Combine ingredients: Mix all three ingredients until you have a thick green Betta Fry food paste.
Feed You Betta: Put the paste on the top of a spoon and swirl it into the tank until the spoon is clean and the fish paste is floating in the tank for the betta to eat.

This is a great recipe and can be swapped out for many different combinations keeping your Betta healthy while still providing them with a variety of food options.

Remember, you can cut the pieces up to the size of your Bettas mouth. You can also prepare larger batches and store them in flattened freezer bags for long term use)

(Find out how you can make your Betta fry grow faster here.)

Check Out The E-Books!

For a limited time, only you can get both The Complete Guide On Caring For Betta Fish & The Ultimate Betta Tank Mate Guide for just $14.99!

Find Out More Here!

Betta Fish Fry Feeding FAQ

Do you have more questions regarding the Betta Fish Fry feeding topic? Here are a few commonly asked questions with some of the best informative answers we could find.

Will Betta Fish Eat Its Fry?

Instinctually Betta fish are great parents and can be extremely protective of their babies, most of the time not interested in eating them. However, there are times that Bettas have been known to eat their own fry, especially the males in domesticated situations.

While most males are amazing parents taking care of their babies 24/7, there are some bad dads out there who tend to eat them or not care for them at all.

What Foods Shouldn’t You Feed Your Betta Fish?

There are a lot of people who believe healthy human foods are also healthy fish foods, and this simply isn’t true. You should never feed your Betta fish bread, farm-grown meats such as cows and pigs, citrus fruits, and stringy fruits and veggies like bananas and beats.

What Human Foods Can Betta Fish Eat?

There is plenty of human food you can offer your Betta Fish without having to worry about making them sick or keeping them from the nutrients they need. Human foods that are safe for Betta fish include peas, shrimp, mango, tuna, leafy greens, and corn.

Recap

Betta fish are beautiful creatures and very easy to care for, which is why they are such a popular pet for many homes. They thrive the best off of small worms, shrimp, and organisms that are the same size as their mouth or smaller and require plenty of protein to survive.

Food for betta fish

Feeding rules for betta fish

Betta fish (Betta Splenders) is a beautiful and selfish person, whose color is varied and bright, especially in the male. You can admire the cockerel for many years, if you provide the right care. Beginners in the aquarium business are often not aware of how to feed a betta fish: an underwater pet seems to be ready to absorb food without stopping. What if the baby is malnourished? Or do you still believe experienced specialists who say that fish can eat non-stop until it “bursts”?

Mistakes and fantasies

A caring owner who loves his fish often tends to humanize them. He enjoys interacting with pets. It seems that the bettas rejoice during feeding, look forward to the next worm, and even sullenly look through the glass of the aquarium if they are not full. The owner's heart shrinks, and he pours more food. If the fish is healthy, it will eat everything and "ask for more". And so endlessly. In the best case, the cockerel grows fat and almost stops swimming, in the worst case, it dies. And before grabbing his head, a loving owner should remember this fact.

Fish live on instinct. Her eternal search for food is also an instinct, there is no other way to survive in a natural reservoir. In the river, lake, ocean, the cockerel spends a lot of energy looking for food, and any crumb is appreciated. The aquarium fish were lucky: you don’t need to waste your energy on getting food, the owner will present everything “on a silver platter”. And the glass borders of the aquarium make it impossible to go on a long marathon. Therefore, the amount of food for domestic fish should be several times inferior to that required by wild bettas.

Menu for scaly baby

Traditional betta food is granules and flakes, which can be purchased at any pet store. Can such feeding be permanent? Experts convince that the normal life of a cockerel requires not only dry food, but also live food. To understand how to feed a cockerel fish for its absolute happiness, you need to turn to the facts from biology.

Betta fish are not picky eaters. In the wild, she grabs everything that comes in her way. Catches insects crouching on the water surface. Pinch off pieces of plants. Absorbs benthos and small inhabitants of the reservoir. The cockerel mainly acts as a predator, so protein is the predominant food for it: bloodworms, tubules, sometimes even earthworms. Summarizing the above, we will make a useful menu for a pet:

— Dry flakes for fish. Inexpensive, available at any pet store. They are recommended to be given to the fish less often than other "dishes" of the diet.

- Special pellets for males can be given daily.

- Dried and processed tubifex, brine shrimp, bloodworm. You can feed this dry food to fighting fish very often.

- Frozen foods (bloodworm, brine shrimp, daphnia, vitreous worms, tubifex, earthworms, shrimp, beef heart). The owner can catch many of the listed components himself (or buy a small batch from the supplier) and send them to the freezer for freezing. When the time comes for feeding, you just need to chop off the right amount of food from the frozen mass. When defrosting and re-freezing, the food loses its beneficial properties and becomes unusable.

- Live food. Live worms, bloodworms and brine shrimp are an excellent delicacy that can sometimes be pampered with a fish like a cockerel. But the responsibility for the purity of the product lies with the owner. There are many cases when live food turned out to be infected, and the fish died. Therefore, frozen food is preferable for an aquarium.

Feeding questions

How to properly feed the betta fish and how much to feed

Contrary to the beliefs of the fan owners, fish are unable to regulate their own satiety, much less ask for supplements. The serving size for any fish, including bettas, is determined by experiment. The owner remembers how much the pet eats in 2 minutes. Usually it is 3-4 pellets of dry food. If the cockerel eats slowly, it is allowed to wait up to 5 minutes. The rest must be fished out of the water. Otherwise, the remnants of food will sink to the bottom of the aquarium, where they will begin to decompose, poisoning the water with ammonia. In such an environment, the fish will be uncomfortable, and health problems will arise.

For normal life, the betta needs to eat an amount of food equal to 5% of the body weight of the fish. Everything else is just bad.

How many times a day should fish be fed

Aquarium fish do not need much energy, so it is enough to feed them 2 times a day. In addition, experts recommend arranging fasting days for the betta so that the digestive system “rests” and the body of the fish gets rid of harmful toxins. Unloading can be carried out every week, choosing a suitable day.

Does a cockerel need vitamins

If a stressful event occurs in the life of a fish (moving with the owners or moving new inhabitants into the aquarium), the fish organism can react negatively to the situation and get sick. To support your pet, you can purchase special vitamins for fish at the pet store and give them according to the instructions. Such additives are either included directly in the fish menu, or simply added to the water.

Source

Cockerel fish: how to ensure its health?

Among the fish in home aquariums, bettas are almost the most original individuals. They differ from the average fish:

extraordinary appearance;
fighting behavior;
special features of feeding.

To keep them always in a healthy and cheerful state, you need to carefully consider the diet and follow the regime of its use.

What should be in the diet?

A caring and conscientious owner always thinks about how to feed a cockerel fish. When choosing a menu, one should take into account the presence in it:

protein component;
minerals;
vitamins;
carbohydrates;
biologically active substances.

This does not mean that feed should be a lot. It is necessary to organize the diet in such a way that it reasonably combines all the irreplaceable components.

How important is live food?

Being naturally predatory and accustomed to getting their own food, often in battles or hunting, Betta Splenders will not be able to get by on a plant-based diet. For fighting courage and energy, they need meat (live or frozen). Bloodworm, tubifex, brine shrimp are best suited. You can use earthworms. Such pets will not refuse ground beef or ground seafood.

It should be taken into account that the betta's mouth is small, so grinding food requires special attention.

Food must be fresh and clean. Having acquired them from a reliable person, it is worth freezing in reserve and chipping off the right amount at a certain time.

Meat food should be included in the menu 3-4 times a week. It does not need to be mixed with other components, otherwise the fish may develop indigestion.

How to prepare vegetable dishes?

The basis for such dishes may be:

cucumber;
marrow;
nettle;
celery;
cauliflower;
seaweed, etc.

Before feeding, wash the food well, sort it out, select low-quality parts, chop and place in small pieces in the aquarium.

These components are for fish a source of natural minerals, vitamins, irreplaceable valuable biological substances. They are easily digested and almost completely absorbed.

Pre-prepared "salads" can also be stored frozen, divided into small single portions in advance.

What are granules?

For fish , many ready-made foods of synthetic and artificial origin are sold today. One of them is granules. The technology of their preparation provides for maximum preservation of nutritional value with minimal additions of preservatives and stabilizers.

Easy to store, economical and safe.

When choosing granules, it is better to choose a product recommended specifically for males. Their composition is as close as possible to the biological needs of fighting fish.

Using this type of food, it is easy to experimentally determine its amount. Usually it is 2-3 pellets per individual.

Before feeding betta fish pellets, a "trial treat" should be offered. After his positive assessment by the fish itself, you can proceed to the organization of such feedings.

What is cereal?

It is often heard that males need to be fed flakes. Today they are offered by many fish feed manufacturers. Their main advantage is light weight: thin plates float on the surface, allowing the fish that live in the upper and middle layers of the water to get enough.

In addition, they soak quickly and are suitable for individuals with small mouths and fry.

Commercially available flakes come in a variety of colors and sizes. The choice depends on the type of fish living, the composition of the water (especially) and the presence of other components in the diet. If only flakes are used, it is necessary to buy a composition that is recommended for daily use for males. If this is an additional component, it is worth choosing a fortified composition, supplemented with minerals and biologically valuable additives.

Important! When using multi-colored flakes, the water should not be colored. Otherwise, this indicates their low quality and danger to the life of fish.

Should I follow their lead?

Probably, if you ask a cockerel how many times to feed him, he would find it difficult to answer. He is able to eat all the time. Moreover, being constantly in nature in a state of hunting, he eats his prey immediately.

This is not needed in the aquarium. Therefore how many times to feed is a question facing each aquarist individually. It is enough for adults to receive food once, sometimes even using fasting days (when you do not need to feed at all). When placing food in the aquarium, you need to note the time and remove its remains after 10-15 minutes.

Another recommended option is to feed twice. In this case, the time allotted for to feed , needs to give less (approximately two minutes). You don't have to make big portions. They should be eaten as quickly as possible and digested completely.

Signals for overfeeding are:

swollen bellies;
drooping fins and tail;
refusal to eat;
unjustified aggression;
bad mood.

In addition, excess food will cause decay of their remains, bacteriological and chemical pollution of water, undesirable changes in the underwater microclimate.

Even having rationally solved the problem “ cockerel fish: what to feed?” it is necessary to create the right conditions for eating and digesting it. Required for this:

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Food for betta fish

Aquarium betta is a popular type of fish among aquarists. They differ from other inhabitants of an artificial reservoir by their original appearance, lively behavior and feeding habits. To provide these fish with a comfortable life, you need to know not only what kind of food for bettas is best to use, but also the nuances of the feeding regimen.

Portion volume

The first step is to determine the volume of a single portion of feeding for males, as well as the daily number of feedings. This is important because leftover food in the aquarium leads to a deterioration in water quality, which further provokes the development of diseases. Symptoms of overfeeding betta fish are the following signs:

swollen bellies;
drooping, downturned fins and tail;
refusal to eat;
aggression, fits of rage and attacks on other fish;
lack of mood.

Determining the volume of one serving and the daily amount of food is simple - you need to pour dry food into an artificial reservoir, and track how much the fish eat within 2-4 minutes. This will be the appropriate amount of a single serving of food.

Important! Food residues must be removed from the surface of the liquid, otherwise they will rot and poison the water in the pond.

Aquarium betta fish is a species of underwater inhabitants that does not require repeated feeding. It is enough to feed the cockerels two or once a day. If you feed the betta too often, you can harm them. In addition, it would be nice to arrange a fasting day for the inhabitants of the aquarium - this practice will help reboot the digestive system.

Choice of food

The usual food for bettas is special granules and dry flakes, which are easy to buy in a specialized store. However, experienced aquarists recommend feeding bettas not only dry food, but also live food to ensure a complete imitation of life in the wild. For example, daphnia fish food is popular among aquarists.

The following should be present in the diet of aquarium inhabitants:

protein;
minerals;
vitamins;
carbohydrates.

This means that the food should be balanced and, first of all, be useful, and not just satisfy the feeling of hunger. In the wild, the fish feeds on everything that comes in its path: insects, benthos and other small creatures. The cockerel fish is a predator.

Analyzing all of the above, you can accurately determine what to feed the cockerel fish:

dry flakes can be fed to fish, but this should be done as little as possible;
pellets given daily by experienced aquarists;
dried tubifex, brine shrimp and bloodworm dry food can be fed every day;
vegetable food (seaweed, cucumber, algae, zucchini) can be periodically fed to the fish, but it must be well chopped;
live food such as worms, bloodworms and brine shrimp can be pampered 3-4 times a week;
Frozen food (daphnia, worms, tubifex, shrimp) is a better option than feeding betta fish as it contains a lot of protein and is not a source of infections, unlike live food.

This is interesting: for the convenience of the owner, cells from the packaging of tablets or sweets can be used to freeze live food.

Due to the many types of food, attention should also be paid to how to feed the cockerel fish. Variety is welcomed in the diet of mature specimens: you do not need to feed the fish with the same thing for several days. At the same time, you can not mix different types of food in one meal - it is best to alternate them.

Feeding fry

Feeding betta fry differs from that of adult fish. Proper nutrition is very important for them, because only by feeding well, the fry will be able to grow and turn into adults, beautiful fish. After the fry are born, during the first time they will eat the rest of their yolk sac.

To make sure the babies have food, dissolve a small piece of boiled egg yolk in water and then add the solution to the water with the fry.
Feed ciliates or brine shrimp nauplii for the next 3-4 weeks. It should be noted that the frequency of feeding of fry is much higher than for adult males, and is 4–6 times a day.

Infusoria are perfect for newly hatched fry because the organism is small and easy for aquarium fry to handle. The movement of the infusoria is of interest to the cubs, and they are happy to feast on it. You can buy this food in online stores, pet stores, or grow it yourself, and to make it convenient to feed the fry, experts recommend using a pipette.

Artemia nauplii are introduced into the diet as soon as the fry are large enough to feed on larger prey. Nauplii are brine shrimp fry, which contain all the vital substances for small cockerels. They can be purchased at any specialized store.

To feed the fish, you need to collect as many nauplii as possible without eggs and place them in a pond with aquarium fry.

As soon as the male fry reach the age of 3-4 weeks, a wide variety of foods are introduced into the diet: live, frozen or dry. You can also continue feeding nauplii, but be sure to add crushed live food: daphnia or bloodworms. At the same time, you need to make sure that it is not infected with harmful bacteria and parasites.

Having learned what and how to feed a cockerel, it is worth remembering about the care and other rules for keeping fish: check the operation of filters and appliances, clean the aquarium, and, of course, love.

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How to feed the betta fish correctly

Aquarium bettas are a popular type of fish among aquarists. They differ from other inhabitants of an artificial reservoir by their original appearance, lively behavior and feeding habits. To provide these fish with a comfortable life, you need to know not only what kind of food for bettas is best to use, but also the nuances of the feeding regimen.

Portion volume

swollen bellies;
drooping, downturned fins and tail;
refusal to eat;
aggression, fits of rage and attacks on other fish;
lack of mood.

Important! Food residues must be removed from the surface of the liquid, otherwise they will rot and poison the water in the pond.

Choice of food

The following should be present in the diet of aquarium inhabitants:

protein;
minerals;
vitamins;
carbohydrates.

Analyzing all of the above, you can accurately determine what to feed the cockerel fish:

dry flakes can be fed to the fish, but this should be done as rarely as possible;
Granules given daily by experienced aquarists;
dried tubifex, brine shrimp and bloodworm dry food can be fed every day;
vegetable food (seaweed, cucumber, algae, zucchini) can be periodically fed to the fish, but it must be well chopped;
live food such as worms, bloodworms and brine shrimp can be pampered 3-4 times a week;
Frozen food (daphnia, worms, tubifex, shrimp) is a better option than feeding betta fish as it contains a lot of protein and is not a source of infections, unlike live food.

This is interesting: for the convenience of the owner, cells from the packaging of tablets or sweets can be used to freeze live food.

Feeding fry

The diet of betta fry differs from that of adult fish. Proper nutrition is very important for them, because only by feeding well, the fry will be able to grow and turn into adults, beautiful fish. After the fry are born, during the first time they will eat the rest of their yolk sac.

To feed the fish, you need to collect as many nauplii as possible without eggs and place them in a pond with aquarium fry.

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Nevada 1976 0 Comment

The Siamese cockerel is an ornamental type fish from the macropod family, has a stunning corrugated tail and fins, and is distinguished by its rich color. Aquarium fish "cockerels" are called fighting, and for good reason: their males are really belligerent and aggressive towards each other. For this reason, the simultaneous keeping of several males in a home aquarium becomes unacceptable. For these purposes, the owner needs to purchase a large oblong-shaped aquarium so that the “dominants” can painlessly divide the territory.

In nature, the species is distributed in calm and stagnant water bodies of Asia, which are not distinguished by purity and abundance of oxygen. Therefore, fish require traditional atmospheric air to breathe.

Siamese cockerel fish care has some specific details, which we will tell you about in this article. Going to the pet store, you should be prepared in advance for the reception of a new family member in your home. Treat the arrangement of his home with due responsibility.

History

The existence of Siamese bettas was first known around 1800. The inhabitants of Siam noticed small fish that were distinguished by very aggressive character traits, constantly bullying each other. And since there was little entertainment at that time, they began to be used for fun - fish fights. Initially, specimens had shorter fins and an unremarkable brownish body. Ancient breeders, crossing wild organisms, selected the best fighter fish suitable for spectacular fights that were popular at that time. They called this breed "Poster" (Pla Kat), which means a fish that bites.

Starting from the end of 1840, the fish began to explore Europe, thanks to the king of Siam, who presented several collector's items to Dr. Theodor Cantor from Bangkok. After 9 years, Dr. Kantor, improving the characterological features of the obtained fish, assigned them the Latin name Macropodus pugnax.

The Siamese appeared in Paris in 1892, in Germany four years later. Then, in 1910, the Siamese fighters end up in San Francisco, USA. It was in America that Locke received a breeding variety of Betta cambodia, the length of which is within 5 cm. Then he also bred a new color variety of the fighting fish Betta splendens, the color of which varied from gray to light olive, with dark stripes, the location of which is vertical or horizontal, depends on the mood of the fish. The body is covered with cycloid scales, the fins are short, rounded. The abundance of various color and veil variations have gained immense popularity among professional and amateur aquarists.

Outwardly, the Siamese is similar to the common macropod, but exceeds it in brilliance and unusual color. A variety of colors play on the surface of their bodies, depending on the degree of illumination - pink, blue, green, yellow or red highlights shimmer and play like the northern lights.

Males acquire the greatest brightness during the breeding season or when dueling with other males. Female bettas look much more modest compared to males, equipped with small fins.

In recent years, breeders have pleased the appearance of females as attractive as males, with longer fins.

Prominently pronounced stripes of a dark shade, which are characteristic of male Siamese bettas, running along the body, are barely visible in them, and are completely indistinguishable in excellent specimens.

Care

Take care in advance of a worthy arrangement of your future home. In nature, these Asian fish live in rice fields. Therefore, the container should not be too deep, but at the same time spacious. The optimal volume of the aquarium for a cockerel is 25+ liters.

Pay attention to accessories and decorations:

Thermostat. Caring for the fish "Siamese cockerel" involves heating the water to 25-27ºС. If your room is cool, a heating element is literally necessary, otherwise the pet may freeze;
Filter. This is a familiar accessory device with which every aquarium is equipped. Make sure that the filter power is optimal for the selected breed. The cockerel is a fragile creature, so many connoisseurs advise giving preference to sponge filters with protection from damage to the fins;
Water quality. Any owner of fish knows that the quality of water must be at its best. Fighting fish are capricious creatures, and their fins can be damaged even from inadequate habitat quality;
Stones and decorations. Choose aquarium "furniture" with smooth outlines, without sharp corners and protrusions;

Plants. Avoid artificial decorations made of hard plastic to protect the fish from mechanical damage;
Mirrors. They can provoke an increase in the brightness of the color of the fish, since the reflection will be regarded as the appearance of an opponent. However, you need to be careful: such manipulations can lead the pet to stress;
Living flora will be your best choice. Bettas prefer large leaves for sleeping, and live plants oxygenate the water, preserving its beneficial qualities for a long period.

Equip your aquarium with a dividing wall if you plan to have two males. Females of individuals can live together in small groups - up to five representatives. A female and a male cockerel can also demonstrate their fighting abilities to you on each other, so study all the subtleties and aspects of breeding the breed in advance

Breeding

Technically, breeding males is not difficult. But since many forms and colors of the cockerel have been bred, you need to be very careful in choosing pairs. The colors are more or less simple - the harlequin color dominates, the red color and the Cambodia color also dominate. Pure black cockerels are sterile when bred together. With forms more complicated - you should not cross between short-tailed and long-tailed individuals, crown-tailed males and veils, veils and halfmoons, deltas and crown-tails.

In general, it is better to breed cockerels of the same shape among themselves, otherwise you will get something in the middle mixed, such cockerels look unattractive, so it is better to respect the work of the breeder. It is very important not to breed those males that are overly aggressive and kill females during spawning and poorly care for eggs. If a male cockerel eats eggs over and over again instead of caring for them, you should not plant him and raise fry on his own, because this means that his instinctive parental behavior is violated and his descendants may inherit this violation. Do not breed fish with behavioral problems. Pairs must be selected according to color, shape of fins and correct behavior.

For spawning, a pair of fish is placed in a separate aquarium with a volume of 20 liters with shelters and a bunch of floating plants such as naiass or hornwort to shelter the female. You also need a heater. The water should be half fresh, half from an aquarium with bettas, it is advisable to put half an almond leaf. Before spawning, the female and the male are kept separately and fed with live food for two weeks, the age of the cockerels at the time of spawning should be at least 6 months, the female should have a visually swollen belly from caviar.

Fish are not fed in the spawning grounds. The male usually immediately builds a foam nest (from air bubbles and saliva) on the surface of the water or under an almond leaf and invites the female to the nest. Spawning is colorful - the rooster inflates the gills and spreads all the fins, showing off in front of the female, then he hugs her with her fins and bends, squeezes the eggs out of her, simultaneously fertilizing her (males with especially magnificent fins sometimes cannot do this), after which the pale female slowly descends to the bottom, and the male collects eggs and places them in the nest. White caviar.

After spawning, the female must be transplanted, otherwise she may eat the eggs. The male takes care of the eggs and the nest, corrects it, removes spoiled eggs, and in a day transparent larvae with a large yolk sac hatch from the eggs. When in a couple of days the larvae turn dark (or if the parents are light, then the larvae are also light), and switch to a horizontal swim, the male needs to be transplanted, turn on the compressor and start feeding the males. The most suitable for this is a adjustable infusoria - a shoe, after 3 - 5 days they switch to feeding with brine shrimp nuplia, they are easy to remove at home. At this point, you can already change the water, carefully changing it with a narrow hose, trying not to suck the fry into it.

The top-up water must be of the same chemical parameters and temperature. After 2 weeks, you can add a microworm, later microplankton, a grindal worm and a chopped tubifex. In a month and a half, you can give finely crumbled dry food, and then small bloodworms. The fry grow quickly, if they are not sorted, then they themselves destroy the small and weak. On dry food and food such as boiled egg yolk, it is more difficult to raise fry, since water quickly deteriorates from such food, and fry are more likely to eat live food. As soon as it becomes possible to separate the males from the females, they are seated, the females can be raised in one large aquarium, but the males need to be seated in separate glasses with lids. It is better to feed males in such containers with bloodworms, change water daily at 50% of the volume with fresh water of the same parameters and temperature.

Betta fish compatibility

Bettas are lively and cocky pets who find it difficult to get along even with their own kind. The male will never be able to calmly endure the existence of another - constant fights will begin. However, this does not mean that these fighting fish must live alone. Other residents of the spacious aquarium will help to recreate the animal's natural habitat and improve its well-being.

It is very important to choose the right neighbors with whom the cock-fish will easily get along. Species whose representatives are quite peaceful and do not have large (more than 5 cm) body sizes are well compatible with bats. These include guppies, swordtails, neons, gourami, cardinals and speckled catfish.

Do not add fin-pinching fish, such as pygmy tetradons, to bettas. However, the batts themselves do not mind biting off the “robe” of beauty competitors. Aquarium bettas sometimes take veil fish of other species for representatives of their own, so they rush to the attack.

Also, bettas should not be kept together with large predators. Cichlids, astronotuses, polypteruses - they all often take small fish for food, and a small cockerel with its large fins will become the subject of aggression in the first place.

It is best to introduce fish into an aquarium from a young age. In this case, they will be able to get used to each other, there will be much less fights and skirmishes. If the neighbor of a fighting fish dies, you should not add another fish in the near future - the betta can score it.

Two or three females can be shared with one male aquarium betta to make him feel calmer. Make sure they have enough space in their home for bat girls to hide in. The fish will feel at ease in a spacious tank (volume more than 50 liters). If there are a lot of decorations and plants in the aquarium, then there will be no territorial disassembly between its inhabitants.

Feeding

It is not difficult to choose food for betta, these fish have a good appetite. If the bettas are kept in large aquariums, any complete fish food or special betta food will do. Feeds such as Tetra Min, Tetra rubin, Sera san, Tetra Betta are suitable. Also, bettas eat frozen food well - small and medium bloodworms, coretra, daphnia, moina. Chopped seafood is also suitable for them - shrimp, mussels, squid. Wild bettas do not always eat well industrial feeds and it is good to feed them with live feeds - daphnia, bloodworms, koretra and tubifex.

If the betta lives in a small aquarium, then it can be fed with live bloodworms, so it is easier to keep the aquarium clean. For weakened fish, bloodworms are also the ideal food due to their brightness and mobility. Although live foods are best for bettas, they are not easy to feed. First of all, in order to prevent the infection of fish with parasites and not poison them, you need to buy such feed only from trusted sellers, it is important to bring the feed home, keeping it alive, not to freeze or overheat. At home, they need to be washed and stored in special cuvettes with daily water in the refrigerator. If it is impossible to provide all these conditions, then it is better to give preference to frozen feed, not forgetting that during transportation they should not be thawed.

How long they live (disease prevention)

Cockerel fish live relatively short time - 2-4 years. In order for your pet to feel good and look beautiful, you need to pay attention to how the fish feels.