Betta channoides not eating

[Diablofish]

Just bought 2 pairs yesterday. Feed them with dried brine shrimps and bloodworms. They does not show interest in them and keep staying at their hideout. Is this normal since the habitat is new to them? I would prefer not to feed them with livestock. Appreciate your advises and thanks in advance.

[Mudskipper]

Where did you buy them from? Sometimes they won't eat until they are settled. Imagine being forced from your home into another house that you are not familiar with, it's intimidating and you'd probably not be in the mood to eat too. Give them a couple of days to settle.

Make sure that the tank is suited for them, water conditions, ketapang leaves and enough space for them to hide. If you have two pairs together in one tank, they will compete for dominance and the dominant male will eat faster than the others.

If they are wild caught, it's probably best to give them some live brine shrimp for the first few weeks until they are fully settled in and ready to try other foods. That may entice them to eat sooner.

Good luck!

[Diablofish]

Bought it from C328 and according to the seller they are wild caught. How do I know more or less they have settle down? Color? One of it turn maroon this morning while the rest is still in dull grey. Need to further monitor the situation. Bought some frozen bloodworms today hopefully they start to eat a little.

[Mudskipper]

Most of mine also from C328 and they are doing well. Give them a few days, frozen blood worms are probably something they will love. Mine eat that every few days when I don't have live brine shrimp.

What size tank do you have? Is the water aged? What kind of filter do you use? Have you added ketapang leaves? Are there many hiding places?

Sounds the maroon one will end up being the dominant one. I have one that is very coloured too and the others are lighter. Mine are all in two foot tank with tons of hiding places. Some days I see one or two, other days I see more. I seldom see all of them at the same time though. These guys love to hide.

Like I said, give them time.

[Diablofish]

You are right! The maroon one snatched the frozen bloodworm from my tweezer, very aggressive. He ate the most while the rest still very timid but managed to eat some after I placed the food in front of them. What will this so called "the leader" do in my species tank?

Mudskipper, how much did each of your Betta eat for frozen bloodworm? Mine like only one or two worms, ended up throwing the rest of the cube. Wasteful! Due to my busy work schedule, I will prefered dried foods to feed, guess I have to slowly let them get use to it.

No regrets for obtained this 2 pairs. Enjoy watching them especially swimming together side by side.

[Mudskipper]

I must admit that these are my favourite fish. Mine eat and eat...but I usually use one cube of small sized bloodworms for the whole lot. Plus some leftover for the other few loose stragglers. I notice that my channoides all forage all day...looking around for food and eating when they find some. Sounds like you're set.

Enjoy them.

[bettafantastic]

Let them settle down, soon they will eat...
Betta channoides are very beautiful fishes.

[Diablofish]

Some updates:

Feeding frozen bloodworms once daily for the past 3 days. Some of them responded well, snatching from tweezers. Each ate the most 2 worms, not sure if this is too little or sufficient for them. I'm using the 32 cubes from Hikari.

What I did yesterday was to cover up the 3 walls of the tank with cardboard. This was mentioned in some of the thread, hope this will help them to settle down fast.

[johannes]

2-3 worms per fish is ok, once they are used to it, they will eat more. a slight bulge in their tummy indicates that they have had enough. They would definitely prefer live and frozen food to dried food like dried brine shrimp. some wild bettas will accept sinking pellets readily whereas some would need quite some time.