Betta Fish

[BK_Adores_Chase]

Does anyone have any tips about betta fish - I just got one yesterday.  He spits his food out over and over, is this normal?  I don't want him to starve!  I plan on changing 1/3 of the water once a week and conditioning the replacement water for 12 hours...I've had bad luck with fish and the past and thought I'd give it one more shot!

[mlhnceh]

He's probably just eating a little bit of the food and spitting out a bigger piece.  We had a betta a few years ago.  They are pretty hard to kill. 

[Shahrukhlover]

Mine spits out larger pieces of food because she can't digest those.  I've started crushing the food into smaller pieces.  She eats more now. 

[marieelissa]

Yes it's normal, mine used to do that. I have had two. They lived a long time.

[twol]

Some of them are super picky when it comes to food. Mine right now will only eat betta flakes, frozen blood worms, and frozen brine shrimp. If I try to feed him pellets he just stares at them as they pass by. The first few months he would only eat flakes because that's the only thing the pet store fed him, but he gradually started eating other things. They eat by spitting out their food to make it smaller and waiting for it to soften in the water so its easier to swallow. It's normal.

Tips: give him a wood tunnel or hollow rock to hide in! Mine LOVES his hollow rock, and pokes his head out from the holes and watches me whenever I enter the room. It's pretty cute

[Blugamer44]

My mom used to have one of those betta fish, but then it got some big white cancerous wrt on its tail and died. Good tip is keep them in warm water, not boiling, not hot, but warm water, they're tropical fish after all.

[BK_Adores_Chase]

Thanks for the tip about the rock - I'll have to go get him one today!