Bettas are fish species that do not eat plant-based food, earning it the carnivore tag. They eat larvae, insects, small bugs, bloodworms, and other dishes. Their diet strongly influences their health status and their colors.
If you own an aquarium and have Bettas in captivity, you need to feed the Bettas or watch their health status deteriorate. Diets that are rich in protein are necessary because they prefer non-plant-based foods. Some of the meal varieties you can offer your Bettas include live foods, pellets, frozen foods, and flakes.
As you nurse Bettas in your aquarium, ensure you get the essential feeds they need to survive. Feed them with pellets, daphnia, flakes, brine shrimp, and little bloodworms. These are all high-source of protein nutrients necessary for healthy Bettas.
Best Fish Food for Bettas
There is a lot of Betta fish food in the market. When selecting a diet for Bettas, always pick a high-quality protein diet that aligns with their basic nutritional needs. Here are some of the best fish foods for Bettas.
1) TetraPro Betta Crisps
TetraPro Betta Crips have high proteinous nutrients and are the perfect feed for your Bettas. They are well-balanced and keep Bettas in ideal health.
The floating pellets consist of twelve percent crude fat and forty-four percent crude protein. You do not have to worry about fillers; although it has its fair share, they are significantly lesser than its competitors.
The TetraPro Betta Crisp has natural color enhancers that improve the body color of Bettas. An advantage of using this fish food for Bettas is that it leaves little waste behind, thus saving the water from pollution.
Unlike other fish food for Bettas, the small floating pellets float longer on the water surface, providing enough time for your Bettas to devour.
Pros:
- It is a completely balanced diet.
- It boosts the color of Bettas.
- It does not pollute the water.
Cons:
- Contains fillers
2) Omega One Betta Buffet Flakes
The Omega One Betta Buffet Flakes consists of a fresh and rich seafood diet that keeps Bettas healthy and happy. They contain the high protein diets that Bettas require to survive and thrive.
The product is made in the United States of America and tested for its quality. It contains nutritious seafood that your fishes hunt and eat in their natural habitat.
They include popular seafood such as herring, salmon, and shrimps rich in protein and other nutrients.
The Omega One Betta Buffet Flakes contains forty-three percent of crude proteins and are rich in Omega fatty acids. With its salmon diet, which includes the natural beta carotenes, your Betta body color will improve.
When you put the diet in your aquarium, you do not have to worry about polluting the water. It is non-water soluble. The starch content in the flakes is lower than what is obtainable in other fish flakes.
The core components of the flake are wild salmon and few fillers.
Pros:
- It does not use artificial flavors or preservatives.
- It is rich in essential omega fatty acids 3 and 6.
- It is not water-soluble.
- It consists of 43% protein.
- It is rich in fiber and fat.
- It is low in ash.
- It has less starch than other competitors.
- It enhances the color of Bettas with its rich salmon’s natural beta carotenes.
Cons:
- The presence of fillers
3) Omega One Freeze Dried Blood Worms
This fish food for bettas is packing with rich nutrients such as minerals, proteins, fibers, and vitamins. The starch content in the fish food is low, making it suitable for growing healthy Bettas.
The Omega One Freeze Dried Blood Worms helps Bettas maintain optimal health and enhances its colors. It is rich in Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, contributing massively to Betta’s growth and wellbeing.
With its bloodworm content, the fish food is insoluble and stays afloat, preventing the clouding of your water tank.
Pros:
- It is the perfect fish food for Bettas.
- It helps to enhance Bettas’ color.
- It is ideal for tropical fishes.
- It is rich in protein.
- Excellent fish food for the breeding betta.
Cons:
- The smell could be a problem.
- When used excessively, it can alter the temperature and pH in the aquarium.
Buyer’s Guide: Betta Fish’s Balanced Diet
Getting a balanced diet for your Betta fish is essential to keeping them healthy at all times. Failure to correctly balance their diet can lead to health complications in your bettas, such as bloat and constipation.
When choosing fish food for your Bettas, check the ingredients to see if it has the required nutritional content. Check that it is meat-based and has at least forty percent total protein.
A well-balanced diet for your Betta fish should contain foods in fibers and rich-protein content. The key to a healthy and thriving Betta fish lies in the quality of its diet. If you want your Betta fish to live as long as its lifespan, pay close attention to its diet.
A typical Betta fish diet should contain the following nutrients: calcium, carbohydrate, fiber, fat, protein, and vitamins. Meat-based protein should be the top consideration.
Types of Bettas Food
Bettas are available in different types: flakes, live foods, pellets, and freeze-dried food.
1) Flakes
Flakes are a popular staple among aquarium owners for feeding Bettas for the simple reason that they provide a rich nutritional value to your Bettas. When choosing flakes, select those that contain the rich ingredients specially designed for feeding Bettas. High-protein content is a must to find in flakes.
However, note that flakes are not the best option for Bettas. They are the right supplements and provide high-protein content, but they have fewer nutrients than live or fresh foods.
Avoid using flakes as the primary food source for your Bettas—alternative between flakes, live foods, and other food types for best results.
The biggest challenge to using flakes to feed your Bettas is that it is hard to control the quantity they consume; flakes are hard to measure and quantify.
Also, flakes are water-soluble and quickly sink to the bottom of the tank. Cleaning tanks of flakes is problematic because it sinks to the bottom. It is not uncommon for Bettas to ignore flakes, thinking they are debris.
When pouring flakes to feed your Bettas, use a moderate quantity that they can consume. Avoid overfeeding them as this could cause complications to their health. After feeding Bettas, immediately cleanse the tank of excess or sunken flakes.
2) Pellets
Pellets are another popular fish food for Bettas that is readily available in the market. There are different grades of pellets in the market.
Choose a grade that has at least a crude animal-based protein percentage of thirty percent or more. Select one that has a low amount of fillers.
Pellets are a cheap and quick food option for Bettas. They are available in different colors and sizes. Unlike Flakes, pellets are not water-soluble and do not create a mess. Betta keepers find it easy to clean them away from the tank.
3) Live Foods
Live food is the best food type for Bettas. They are raw, fresh, and contain all the necessary dietary needs for your Bettas’ strong health.
With live foods, you do not have to worry about bloating or constipation. Your Bettas will experience a more extended life span. Live foods are entirely natural options for Bettas, similar to what they find in their natural habitat.
There are numerous live food options available for Betta keepers. They include brine shrimp, daphnia, and mosquito larvae. Bloodworms, when used moderately, are also viable live food. If used excessively, it will harm Betta’s health due to bloodworms are high in fat.
While live food is the top choice recommended by nutritionists and experts, there are reasons why it is not widely adopted. The first reason is its price; they are more expensive than other options.
The second reason is its availability; it is not as readily available in the market as other Betta food types. Finding where to buy them can be a challenge and involve extra costs.
Maintaining the live food requires extra costs such as buying storage facilities and additional related costs.
When buying live foods, carefully select a trusted supplier with a track record. Hunting for live foods yourself and feeding it to your Betta is not advisable. There can be parasites in your catch that can affect your Betta’s health.
4) Freeze-Dried Foods
It refers to foods for Bettas that are rich in protein. Add them to the feed of your Bettas for better-balanced dieting.
Freeze-dried foods have a higher protein nutritional content than both pellets and flakes. They are almost as nutritious as fresh or live foods because they haven’t gone through processing.
The core reason why frozen-dried foods have lower nutritional contents than live foods is the absence of moisture.
You can get back most of the lost moisture with this simple hack. Take the freeze-dried foods and soak them in water, preferably tank water, before you give them to your Bettas to eat. This hack will increase the moisture of freeze-dried foods.
The danger of feeding your Bettas freeze-dried foods without soaking is that it can cause bloating. You can combine freeze-dried foods with pellets to boost the quality of nutrients your Bettas are getting.
5) Frozen Foods
The difference between live food and frozen food is that frozen food is live food in a frozen form. Freezing your live food makes it easier to store and maintain.
Frozen foods help preserve live food and keep them fresh, saving it from decay or harmful organisms penetrating it. However, frozen food does not have the high nutritional content of live foods.
The most significant advantage of frozen food over live food is that they are inexpensive and readily available in the market.
Before feeding your Betta with frozen food, defrost it. If you feed it directly, they will struggle to eat it, and they can hurt themselves in the process.
Foods to Avoid Feeding Your Bettas
1) Filler
The filler is bad food to feed your Bettas. They have a short digestive tract that makes it difficult for them to process filler such as wheat and corn. Providing them with filler-rich food will cause serious harm to their body.
2) Plant-Based Foods
Bettas are carnivores; their digestive system is not built for plant-related foods.
Keeping Your Bettas Healthy Through Feeding
Betta keepers are responsible for keeping their Bettas in optimal health at all times. One way to achieve this is to feed them meat-based protein foods.
While feeding, remember to gauge what they are consuming to avoid dire consequences such as bloating and other health complications.
