Image by Urban Sea Star via Flickr
Today, fish keeping has become one of the favorite hobbies around the world. People are showing interests to keep different kinds of fish in their homes. But most of them are illiterate when it comes to fish keeping. It is true especially when they feed the fish. As a result, either their fish get sick or die.
Fish can be carnivores or omnivores. You should feed them according to their diet. Then only they can enjoy their food and get the required nutrients as well. In this blog post, you will come to know about fighter fish (betta fish) diet.
Fighter fish (popularly known as betta) are carnivores. Most people try to feed betta fish with vegetables. It is a costly mistake. Fighter fish need food rich in protein. Fortunately, there are varieties of food available that you can feed your fighter fish with. Some of those food items can be cultivated at home too.
It is recommended to provide a balanced diet to your fighter fish so it can live stronger and longer. Usually a balanced diet in a day contains 2-3 varieties of food. Below are the different kinds of food which you can feed to your betta.
• Frozen or live daphnia
• Frozen glass worms
• Frozen beef heart
• Live grindal worms
• Frozen tubifex worms*
• Frozen mysis shrimp
• Live white worms
• Frozen or live bloodworms or bloodworms in gel
• Frozen or live brine shrimp or brine shrimp in gel
• Live flightless or wingless fruit flies
• Live black worms
* Avoid feeding live tubifex since they carry parasites or bacteria.
It is advised not to feed freeze-dried foods, flakes or dried pellets often. Fighter fish may suffer from indigestion if you overfeed such kind of foods. These food items absorb water and their size expands to twice or thrice of the original size when your betta consumes them. As a result, your fighter fish may suffer from indigestion, bloating or swim-bladder disease.
You can apply one simple solution to this problem. Just soak the food item in a glass of tank water for about 10 minutes. Here the food item will expand to its full size. Now you can feed the food to your fighter fish.
You have to feed your fighter fish once or twice in a day but not more than that. Otherwise, your fish will suffer from indigestion or other illnesses. You can even put your betta on fast once in a week. Sometimes, fighter fish may not touch food for few days because of illness or new location. In such cases, you need not to worry since bettas can live for 10 – 12 days without any food. It is advised to feed 3 bloodworms or brine shrimps or pellets per feeding.
