Wondering how often to feed your betta fish? You can safely feed your Betta 3-4 betta pellets twice daily to meet their nutritional needs and keep them active and healthy.
While this is a simple answer, the amount of food and frequency you feed your betta fish depends on their age, tank environment, and overall health. A betta’s stomach is as small as its eyeball, so you can quickly overfeed them even if you give them small portions.
Creating a feeding schedule and feeding your Betta fish adequate portions is not enough. You also have to consider their nutritional needs and illnesses these fish are prone to, so as to choose the best food for them. What you feed a betta fish will determine their health, lifespan, and behavior. A sign your betta fish is eating well is its bright colors.
This betta fish feeding guide will give you all you need to know about the best betta food, how much and how often to feed them!
How Often Should You Feed a Betta Fish?
Not all betta fish are the same. If you are a first-time betta fish keeper, this betta fish care guide will share the basics of taking care of these beautiful tropical fish! Bettas need to be fed according to their age and size. So if you can, it’s better to feed your adult betta fish two tiny portions in the morning and evening.
Some fish keepers prefer feeding their bettas once a day, but that can be boring to these siamese fighting fish who love to eat. These beautiful fish are smart, so it’s best to feed them twice daily to keep them excited about their next meal or favorite treats.
Spreading your betta’s meals for around five hours is essential because their metabolism can’t handle too much food. In certain instances, when a Female Betta fish is about to breed, you’ll have to feed them close to three times a day and ensure the water is warm to encourage them to spawn baby bettas .
Best Food to Feed a Betta Fish
Bettas, like all other animals, require nutrients to be healthy. The best betta food is one that meets their dietary needs. And being naturally carnivore, it needs to have large amounts of protein. The best way to do this is by checking the product’s ingredients. So don’t expect them to survive if all you give them are plants.
Some nutrients you should ensure your betta gets are fiber, fat, protein, calcium, carbohydrate, and vitamins.
Here are the best foods for your betta fish:
- Live foods like Insects
- Mosquito Larvae
- Pellets
- Betta fish Flakes
Most fish keepers will go with betta fish-specific pellets because they’re very filling to your Betta fish after it has expanded in the water. While treats like freeze-dried foods are great for your betta fish, they shouldn’t comprise their entire diet.
Flakes
Adding flakes to your betta’s diet once in a while is recommended because they also need some variety in their meals. You should give your betta one or two fish flakes per meal.
The flakes should be made specifically for betta fish to eat. As much as fish flakes are good for your Betta once in a while, it’ll be more difficult to measure that amount of flakes. Or whether you’re meeting your Betta fish’s nutritional needs.
Many fish keepers opt for fish pellets over fish flakes for bettas because flakes lose a lot of their nutritional value when in water.
Pellets
Feeding an adult betta fish two to three pellets twice a day is recommended. The pellets will expand once they hit the water, which helps your betta fish feel more full after each meal. If you’re feeding your Betta fish pellets, you must ensure they are very good quality and don’t contain fillers. Fillers in fish food are one of the leading causes of constipation and bloating for these freshwater fish.
Live Foods
Aquarists mostly mean aquatic insects when they talk of live food for their fish. Live foods come in three forms: living, frozen food, or freeze-dried. It’s best to go for frozen or living foods because they are more nutritious than freeze-dried food for your Betta fish.
These live foods are insects, larvae, and insect eggs that your fish would naturally eat in the wild.
But in captivity, you’ll need to substitute their diet with what is readily available to keep them happy. The best way to do this is by feeding them live foods.
Some of the best live foods you can give your betta fish include:
- Daphnia
- Brine shrimp
- Blood worms
Frozen foods: if you want to vary your betta fish’s diet, you can add frozen foods to their diet. These are mostly live foods like larvae that are frozen while still alive so that they can retain all the good nutrients your betta needs. Frozen foods like daphnia, mosquito larvae, and tubifex worms are available at most fish or pet stores.
They’re a great alternative to live foods for this tropical fish. When feeding your Betta fish frozen foods, cut the necessary amount and let it thaw in a cup of aquarium water for around 30 minutes before feeding it to your Betta .
You can give your betta frozen food but not regularly.
Freeze-dried foods: Freeze-dried foods are also great to add to your Betta fish’s menu. When feeding your betta fish freeze-dried food, ensure that you soak it in aquarium water before dropping it into your betta fish tank. If you don’t do this, the food will cause bloating and constipation in your fish.
Although live foods are great for bettas, they can carry some diseases that are fatal to your fish. So be careful where you buy your bettas food and refrigerate them for storage.
How Much Food Should You Feed Your Betta Fish?
You can feed your betta around 1.8 g of food per day. It’s best to measure a portion of food; then, moving forward, you can approximate the amount you’re betta is comfortable eating daily.
You’ll find most betta fish food containers have detailed recommendations on the amount of food you should give your betta . While the instructions are helpful, you must consider your betta fish’s age, gender, and dietary needs.
The best way to tell if your betta is eating enough food is how fast it will eat the pellets or larvae once you drop it in its fish tank. If they take longer than 5 minutes, you gave them too much.
Are there any leftovers? If so, you should remove them from the tank and reduce the food portion in their next meal.
Factors To Consider When Feeding Your Betta Fish
Age
An adult betta fish needs around 1.8 g of food in a day. They can survive longer without food than baby bettas so twice daily is enough. On the other hand, betta fish fry need to eat more to get to adulthood.
Feeding Young Betta Fish Fry
When a betta fish is born, it will stay attached to the yolk for up to three days. For 2-3 days, this is where your Betta fish fry will get all their food and nutrients. So you don’t have to do much at that time. Once they start hunting for food, it’s best to drop small live foods in their tank. This is because they will need to eat more frequently to grow faster and healthier.
Some good examples of live foods for your betta fish fry include:
Baby Brine shrimp
Microworms
Infusora
Live foods are recommended because they are more interesting for your Betta fish fry to hunt. Live foods also contain more nutrients than other food options for your baby betta fish. You can gradually change their diet and increase their portions as they grow older.
Brand of Fish Food
You should also consider the brand of fish food you give to your Betta fish. Some betta pellets will sink to the bottom, while others will keep floating on the water’s surface. You must check the packaging to know whether the pellet will sink or float.
The cost of your better fish pellets or any freeze-dried food depends on the brand of fish you’re buying. Betta pellets can go for five to $10 at pet stores, but you can try buying betta foods wholesale or online for a better deal.
Ingredients in the Fish Food
What ingredients are in your fish food? Betta fish are carnivores, so they prefer more protein in their pellets and food in general. It’s best to feed your Betta fish food containing a minimum of 30% protein as its ingredients. You can find the ingredients of the fish food on the packaging. Most betta fish foods have ingredients like fats, brine shrimp, and krill.
Reasons To Avoid Overfeeding Your Betta Fish
While humans can overeat and recover after a few hours, it’s more dangerous if a betta fish overeats. It’s easy to overfeed your betta because they love to eat and won’t ignore the pellets or live foods you drop in their tanks. Aside from constipation, feeding your betta too much food can cause other physical and health problems.
Here are a couple of reasons why you shouldn’t overfeed your Betta fish:
- Instead of staying calm, your betta can start showing signs of aggression towards other fish.
- The fish’s stomach will get bloated, which leads to constipation, which is uncomfortable for siamese fighting fish.
- A bloated belly can make swimming difficult for a better fish. Severe bloating strains other organs in your betta’s body, causing more health issues.
- Digestive problems like diarrhea can be caused by overfeeding.
- Overfeeding can cause swim bladder disease in Bettas. This disease is severe because swim bladder problems can make swimming difficult for your betta fish. If you’re wondering why your betta’s fins are curling, it could be because of swim bladder disease.
- Overfeeding your Betta fish can disfigure their spine, putting them at risk of illnesses and other health conditions.
- Overfeeding could also mean that there could be a lot of excess food in the tank, which could cause a spike in ammonia levels, leading to poor water quality for your better and any other fish in the tank.
What To Do if Your Betta Fish is Overfed?
If you overfeed your betta fish, you should fast them for a few days, and they’ll be alright. Fasting helps them quickly digest their food before they eat more. You can try changing their diet after this incident to prevent overfeeding.
Ensure the water is also warm at 72-80 degrees Farehnheight. Warm temperatures will promote their metabolism allowing them to digest food faster.
If you stick to a feeding schedule with the right food, it is unlikely that you will overfeed your betta fish. Another way to help your betta fish is to switch up their environment so they can swim more and burn off the excess food.
If none of these options work, you should seek a vet’s opinion to check for other illnesses. Overfeeding could also be the reason why your betta fish isn’t eating. So you need to carefully monitor their behavior to tell if you’ve overfed your fish.
Should You Feed Betta Fish Peas?
Peas aren’t necessary for your betta’s diet, but they come in handy when they are sick or constipated.
The best way to take advantage of this ‘laxative’ is to boil it before peeling the skin off, and then cut it into smaller pieces for your betta to easily digest. If your little fish suffers from constipation, it will take a couple of tries for them to eat the pea, but you’ll have to insist.
Only drop the peas when your betta fish is constipated because they don’t need them in their daily diet. The uneaten piece should be removed from the tank to prevent a buildup of ammonia caused by the excess waste.
FAQs
How long can a betta fish go without eating?
Beta fish can survive 1 to 2 weeks without eating, so if they don’t have an appetite, you shouldn’t be too worried unless there are other concerning symptoms. They could be too full or stressed about their living environment and want to eat. Be careful not to fast are very young betta fish because they need the nutrition to grow. If a baby betta don’t eat for one or three days, getting them back to the regular feeding schedule will be hard.
Should you feed a betta fish every day?
Yes. You should feed your Betta fish at least twice a day, especially if they’re adults and need additional energy to swim the tank.
How many times should you feed a baby betta fish?
Baby bettas should be fed at least 2-3 times a day. This is until they get to 4-6 months of age.
Can I feed a betta fish human food?
Some betta fish keepers might give the fish human food, but it isn’t recommended. This is because some human food may not even provide nutritional value to your betta’s diet. Most human food also has additives and fillers that aren’t healthy for your siamese fighting fish. You shouldn’t consider it a staple in their diet.
What are the best times to feed your betta fish?
The best time to feed your adult betta is in the morning and the evening. Feeding them twice a day is better than just one meal the whole day.
Feeding your Betta Fish
As a betta fish keeper, you should ensure these freshwater fish have a varied yet protein-rich diet to stay healthy and active. You should feed your betta fish small amounts of fish food like pellets and live foods twice daily.
Deciding how much food and how often to feed your Betta fish will be much easier once you consider their age, size, and living environment. What’s most important is not to overfeed these fish; their small bodies can’t handle it.