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Thread: Betta smaragdina diet

  1. #1
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    Betta smaragdina diet

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    Hey there, got myself a male Betta smaragdina a few days ago.. he however seems excessively shy and has only been eating live tubifex worms and nothing else.

    As i seldom buy live tubifex and usually feed my fish freeze-dried BW and BS, this is worrying me a little Does anyone know how i could perhaps "train" this guy to take freeze-dried food? Also, would the introduction of "dither fish" help make him less shy, as is often done in apisto keeping?

  2. #2
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    training a fish to eat a new food is always touch and go, especially if the fish only eats live food and doubly so if it's a wild fish. 2 methods that i've personally found to work are:

    1. "trick" the fish. find some way to mix the food you want to train them to eat with the old food they're used to eating (e.g. grind the dried food into powder, mix it with water into a paste and coat your tubifex worms with it before feeding) and feed the mixture for some time, perhaps a week or so...this way the fish will be used to the smell/taste of the new food and you can slowly get them to eat the new food exclusively

    2. starve the fish. i personally try to avoid this method, but some people swear by it. don't feed your fish for about 5 days, then feed it with the new food. if the fish isn't too stubborn, it'll eat the new food out of hunger. once that happens, feed exclusively the new food for a week or 2 or your previous efforts might be wasted

    it depends from fish to fish what method works, and for some fussy eaters neither will work and you'll end up either with a starved to death fish, or constantly having to feed it live food

  3. #3
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    Few days only. Mmm.. must be still adapting to new environment. Give them more time, I believe they will try out new food. And could we see some photos? But some bettas are frickle minded. They may show cravings for a particular food and next day might totally ignore it.
    God will make a way, where there seems to be no way

  4. #4
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    Thanks all for the suggestions.. i guess i shall try the starvation method but i shall only starve it for maybe 2 or 3 days.. hopefully it starts to eat then.

    Here are a couple of shots i managed to get of him.. pardon the water spots on the aquarium wall and the water's yellow from the ketapang i've been putting in...
    Last edited by FishSoup; 22nd Jun 2008 at 14:18.

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