Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Dear experts-

I have two bettas in a 5-Gallon tank with a divider. The female is small, maybe an inch. The male is fully grown - we have had him for about a year.

My question: how much do you feed your bettas? I am using Betta gold pellets, and it's recommended to feed 2 to 4 pellets 2 or three times a day. I feed my fish once a day only. I give the male 4 to 6 pellets and the female 2 to 4. They always act as if they were starving which is probably just a fish thing anyway. (The female is so after his food she regularly jumps the divider into the male's side while I feed them.)

I do sometimes skip a day and not feed them at all.

Am I doing the right thing or do they need more? I am afraid to overfeed. I always make sure they eat everything up. But I want to also make sure I am not starving them.

Thanks!
Carolin

I don't know about experts, but thanks anyways.

So... you feed them once a day? That's good! Most fish will keep eating until there's no more food so if you keep giving it to them, they can run into some problems.
Just be sure that your female doesn't get injured when she jumps. The males can be quite aggressive.

Skipping a day is perfectly fine. You are not starving them, however, I'm glad you're concerned. Fish can be fasted for up to 5 days surviving on the stored energy in the liver and epidermis.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Thanks for the heads-up. Yes, you are experts. The pet-shop people surely cannot give you much advice. I have found some great answers here.

And yes, you are absolutely right: I need to be very careful. The male goes after her immediately unless there is food to go after first - So much for keeping males and females together which the pet-shop people said was fine!

Fortunately they are so tame, that she swims into my hand and "lets" me put her back right away. So no stressful chasing with the net either. This only happened a couple of times. We now cover her side whenever we open the lid.

Thanks again!
Carolin

Hmm. I know you're trying to help her, but you could be allowing infections in the skin of the fish. I just learned this in ichthyology class. (Don't worry I've made this mistake as well, and sometimes there's nothing you can do to avoid having to touch a fish). So the epidermis (the top layer of skin) of a fish is very very thin, and is easily removed. The epidermis contains the mucous glands which are important for the slime coat that surrounds your fish protecting it from bacterial infections and related illnesses.
I'm not saying you shouldn't try to get your female out of the male's side, but maybe you could put some stress coat/zyme in the tank to keep her from getting infections while her slime coat is repairing. Some melafix might also be beneficial to have on hand in case she gets a bacterial infection.
Thank goodness she has a caring mommy.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Thanks for pointing this out. Makes sense. I will avoid touching her in the future. It was more of a scooping her back to the other side anyway, but still.

Like I said, she hasn't been able to jump out since I started covering her side whenever the lid is open.

I do add stresscoat with every water change. Is that overkill?

Carolin

Like I say, if you need to get her quickly then do so. I was just letting you know, since I didn't know until my class.
You can add it to every water change if you want, but you don't have to. Bettas should be fine without it, but if you have to handle it you should add some just to be safe.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."