my new betta fish is so timid.

Discussion in 'More Freshwater Aquarium Topics' started by ILikeFishies, Dec 7, 2012.

  1. ILikeFishiesValued MemberMember

    Well, my mum went to the fish shop the other day to get a replacement bulb for 4 gallon tank, then she saw a pretty betta for RM2 and bought it ($0.60). pretty cheap i'd say, i named him little mermaid :p. sadly i didnt have any extra tanks for it, so i placed him in my community tank.. but since i had a red platy inside there ( my betta is red) i was afraid he would be attacking my platy, fortunately, he doesnt even bother o-o. All he does is just swim around for awhile. and sits on my flame moss carpet. then swims around again, then sits on the gravel..then swims around again and sits on the flamemoss attached to some driftwood, i've even once found him sitting on my water wisteria. he was just sitting on all the bushy parts(i thought he was stuck, till i noticed him moving his head around and just observing things.

    He is sooo timid that during feeding times..all he does is try to get some of the food but since i have guppies platies and swordtails, you know how they eat xD, they rush for all the food, so my betta is just there trying to eat..then then retreating to the water wisteria and observes as everyone eats then i got quite worried. so i scooped him out into a little container to feed him. and he eats.. quite alot infact, he'd gobble up the pellets and i just found out today that bettas hate flakes (he would gobble them and spit them out right away) so i tried feeding him some hikari mini algae wafers( i just broke off some crumbs for him to eat ( he gobbled them too)

    Just wanted to ask a few things

    Are bettas usually that timid? or could something be wrong with little mermaid :O?
    Do they really hate flakes?
    Is it fine to feed them ordinary pellets that i feed my other fish?
    Is it fine for them to eat tubifex worms :O?
    and lastly is it safe for him to eat the hikari tropical mini algae wafers :O?

    sorry for all the questions xD
  2. TerraWell Known MemberMember

    He could be overwhelmed going from a tiny cup to a large tank with all kinds of other fish. He could be tired and hiding from the water flow on your filter or air stones... he's probably a weak swimmer having been in a cup. He could be sick from something that affected him while still at the store. He could be just getting to know his surroundings and taking stock of who he needs to kill first to get some peace and quiet around his new domain. My Grumpy hid from me the first day I got him home.. flared and hid and flared and hid lol. He's now all over the tank and in my face... just took him a couple days to adjust.

    Neither of my bettas will eat anything but betta pellets and even then only the good stuff. Razormane spit out 3 different brands of betta pellets before I found one he liked the taste of - Omega One Betta Buffet Pellets was the winner. Bettas are notoriously snobs at eating, they will let you know when they don't like something and may even hold a grudge against you for deeming them so lowly as to eat something gross :p

    Algae isn't gonna do anything for your betta, he needs protein found in meat. Their natural diet in the wild is mosquito larva. I don't think any veggies/greens do anything for them, but I could be wrong. Tropical fish flakes/granules/bites/pellets are designed for omnivores, betta are carnivores. While I doubt the flakes and such will hurt them, it surely wouldn't provide the nutrients they ideally want or need.

    I give my guys the betta pellets 5 days a week, frozen (thawed) blood worms 1 day a week, and fast them on the 7th. I also have a bottle of freeze dried blood worms I toss them 1 or 2 of occassionally as a treat.

  3. ILikeFishiesValued MemberMember

    ooo i see, but i've had my little mermaid for about 4 days now he just loooves hanging out by the drift wood. And he doesnt even flare at all o_O not at me, not at my fish..he does enjoy hanging around the filter too. its like the water is falling right at that spot, and he would be there and the water would be falling onto his face xD? and he would just continue doing that swimming against the current, till he gets tired i guess , then he retreats to his 'spots'.i will post pics of him doing that when i can xD. But its a little troublesome during feeding time though =/. i have to take him out of the tank isolate him for awhile till hes done eating then put him back into the tank. i dont mind doing the work, but just afraid something might be wrong with him >_<.

    and btw terra, my little mermaid looks alot like the betta fish in your display pic! just that hes a more darker red

    also, do you think its better for me to go out and buy some betta pellets? would any type from any brand be ok :eek:? or does it have to be those super expensive ones >_< i've seen some at the pet shop, its a very tiny bottle, and its like RM8 ($2.50-$3) its quite costly for a teeny tiny bottle o.o.

    And i've also been thinking of getting some frozen brine shrimp , since its quite a hassle to hatch your own live brineshrimp. I've already got frozen blood worms, freeze dried brine shrimp and freeze dried tubifex, would feeding him those be fine too :eek:?

  4. TerraWell Known MemberMember

    They are costly at $3 for a tiny bottle, but they last forever. Judging from what I've already fed my 2 bettas, that bottle is gonna last me a minimum of 6 months. $3 is a tiny price to pay for good health and quality for for your new friend.

    Try putting a baffle over your filter, I made one with a 2 liter soda bottle. Just cut the top and bottom off it, then slide it down the side so that it's a curvy piece of plastic. Cut again to fit the width of your filter output, and slide it over. It'll make the waterfall from the filter go out the sides instead, and are much more gentle. Your little mermaid could be hiding due to the water tossing him around when he isn't.

    That's Razormane in my pic, he's much darker red now too, unfortunately my camera broke. I've asked Santa for a new one for Christmas ;)

  5. QQQUUUUAADDDWell Known MemberMember

    What are the ingredients in the food in the tiny bottle? Guaranteed analysis?
  6. ILikeFishiesValued MemberMember

    i dont remember the exact ingredients :(. that shop is near my college so i'll check it out tomorrow after class.
    Any recommended brands i should get for him? or any important ingredients i should be looking for when buying betta pellets?
  7. Lilibeth_SeasongWell Known MemberMember

    You will want at least the first ingredients to be fish based. Bettas are carnivorous and need lots of protein in their diet. If the list of ingredients starts with wheat, soy etc. you'll probably want to skip it. I will need to find some better food for my betta too, because he won't eat the pellets I got him and the flake food I have doesn't seem to have enough fish products for bettas. I also feed him freeze dried blood worms, but I have heard that this can cause constipation. As far as brands go, I have heard that Omega One Betta Buffet Pellets, New Life Spectrum Betta Formula, and Atison Betta Pro are good. I have never used any of them, but maybe you could look up some reviews. :)
  8. ToniaWell Known MemberMember

    My betta, Gabriel is the opposite regarding betta pellets, he loves his betta flakes, freeze dried tubifex worms and even frozen redworms.

    I also feed Omega one flakes that he readily eats.

    But they can be fussy. Maybe my Gabriel has bad memories of pellets in a tiny cup... :;betta2
  9. soltarianknightFishlore VIPMember

    I suggest avoiding freezedried foods and flakes for bettas, they are nothing but trouble with the swim bladder. ANY betta can be convinced to eat pellets.
    In pellets you want to look at the first 3-5 ingriedients on the list, you want to see whole meat products such as:
    Whole cod
    Whole shrimp
    Whole salmon
    Whole flounder

    No Wheat, Soy, Corn or grains. Fish Meal is NOT the same as whole fish, it is the left over bones and scraps put through a grinder.

    Pellet brands that are recommended(in the order from best to worst)
    New Life Spectrum(NLS)- the best on the market
    Omega One
    Kens Betta bites These are all pretty great imo. I feed NLS, Attitsons and frozen brineshrimp

    Brands to avoid
    Hikari-- used to be the best brand, then they changed the recipe.
  10. ILikeFishiesValued MemberMember

    ok guys, i went to the pet shop and looked at the ingredients for all the available betta pellets they had lol, sadly there only had 3 times ._... 1 type, had no brand name, and everything else was in a different language, spanish maybe? then again maybe the brand is there but i missed it lol. As for the other 2. 1 of them is from the brand sanyu and the other from vita gold. As for the ingredients, the ingredients, there was brine shrimp, white fish, yeast? and some other ingredients, but the sanyu brand said its good for colour enhancement and the other says that its a good replacement for live foods and makes your betta more alert and responsive, so i bought the latter and started feeding him that for a few days, and im so happy that he loves it o_O. He's so much more active during feeding time compared to before and even now he's swimming around alot more.

    Also i just separated him yesterday from my main tank because he just looked so sad always staying at the bottom, and i figured out that maybe the other fish might be bullying him? =/. so now he's in a 1 gallon,(i know not big enough) but he definitely looks happier now :D, he's swimming around and he's not always at the bottom anymore. So now im planning to feed him these pellets 4 times a week, frozen blood worms once a week and frozen brine shrimp once a week. Do you think that would work? and maybe fast him for 1 day, (is the fasting necessary?)
  11. soltarianknightFishlore VIPMember

    I want to assume Vita-gold is Bio-gold. Good brand. Up the frozen brine shrimp to 3 times a week imo, it is a good food for them. Fast 1-2 days a week if you feel it. I fast up to 3 days a week.
  12. ILikeFishiesValued MemberMember

    hmm it says vita gold =/. dont know about bio gold. I will get the frozen brine shrimp tomorrow :p. or asap. i was just thining though, unlike blood worms, wouldnt brine shrimp be really messy once it defrosts?
  13. soltarianknightFishlore VIPMember

    Brine shrimp can be because they are softer. Vita and Bio are the same in different languages arn't they?
  14. JoannaBWell Known MemberMember

    I would think that the manufacturers may be different for fish foods in Malaysia versus US. Also I assume that $3 is a lot more money over there than it is here. I know that in the US it would cost more to make homemade betta food than to buy betta pellets, but I wonder whether the same is true in Malaysia?
  15. ILikeFishiesValued MemberMember

    how would we make home made betta food? Because i know that fish need certain nutrients and vitamins :eek: and i have no idea exactly what

    Well lets just say that $3 would be around RM10 in my currency, with RM 10 you could probably have 2 normal meals here :eek:
  16. JoannaBWell Known MemberMember

    What I would do is look online for ingredient lists of beta pellets from different manufacturers. For example, if you look at and expand the product description, they list some ingredients in their betta food, for example this one contains some fish for protein, some seaweed and kelp and such, some garlic, and a fruit and vegetable extract made from a number of different fruits and vegetables. Now this list is fairly long and probably very hard to reproduce exactly, but if instead of adding an extract from many fruits and vegetables you mad homemade food and changed which fruits and vegetables you use as part of your recipe over time then with this variation you could probably achieve a balance of nutrients over time. Commercially prepared foods need to be formulated to have all needed nutrients ideally because many people always serve their fish the same fish food, but if you were to make homemade food instead of packing all nutrients into every meal, you could vary it. The important thing is that bettas do need lots of protein, so you would need to include that and figure out what would be your economically viable and easily digestible source of protein you could add to your betta's food.

    Edit: I would think that the secret to making this effordable would be to use as many as possible of same ingredients as possible for betta food and also for one's own meal.
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2012
  17. ILikeFishiesValued MemberMember

    i see :p. I don't know if this a good sign, but i did read somewhere that male bettas usually make a bubble next when they have been fed good food and when they are healthy. I came home today to see quite a bubble next in his tank xD . It's all spread out though. Is this a good thing?
  18. soltarianknightFishlore VIPMember

    Bubble nesting has nothing to do with care, male will bubble nest went they want to breed.
  19. ILikeFishiesValued MemberMember

    oh :eek:. So little mermaid wants to breed? lol
  20. soltarianknightFishlore VIPMember

    Yups. He'll get over it.

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