And other small insectivorous fish!
Flakes are generally a poor choice for fish food. This isn’t really about ingredients (although many have a lot of fillers compared to quality commercial food of other types); it’s because they go bad quickly (tons of surface area; use within a month) and they tend be airy and not very concentrated (the opposite of an insectivore’s diet). They also are harder to feed in precise amounts to monitor your fish’s diet, can contribute to algae, and decompose faster than pellets. Since they are airy and float, flakes can contribute to swim bladder disorder from gulping air, so if you must feed them, soak them in dechlorinated water first until soggy and preferably sink them.
Another food to avoid, for similar reasons to flakes. In addition, people can be susceptible to bloodworm dust allergies. If you do feed freeze-dried anything, soak it first.
Pellets (also Crumbles, Granules, Crisps, etc.)
Pellets are the best dry food to choose for your betta. It is still not normal for bettas to eat dry food, however, so it doesn’t hurt to soak the pellets a bit first.
There are vast differences in the quality of pellet out there. Bettas are obligate carnivores, and specifically, they are insectivores.
Look for a food that has named meat meals as the primary ingredients. Named fish meals (salmon, halibut, herring, etc.), and named invertebrate meals (krill, mussels, shrimp, etc.), are what you’ll usually find.
A lot of people wrongly vilify meat meals. Named meat meals are actually good, concentrated sources of protein in dry foods. They are different than by-products.
Note, in dry foods like pellets, if it is a meat ingredient inclusive of water content (just “salmon” instead of “salmon meal”) it would be accurately listed farther down in the ingredients list, possibly bumping up a filler ahead of it! Buyer be aware!
Avoid foods with fillers like wheat flour, soybean meal, and other grains and legumes high in the ingredients list. No betta or insectivore in the wild eats grain, so choose the food with as little as possible.
There are few brands I recommend at this time. Note that I suggest buying them in person if at all possible, because online the labels can be difficult to verify (including expiration dates, formula changes, etc.).
Whole antarctic krill meal, high omega-3 (DHA) herring meal, whole sardine meal, wheat flour, kelp, spirulina, garlic, astaxanthin (haematococcus algae), calcium montmorillonite clay, vitamin A acetate, L-sscorby-2-polyphospate (source of vitamin C), D-activated animal-sterol (D3), DL alphatocopherol (E), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin supplement, niacin, pantothenic acid, thiamine, calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, biotin, choline chloride, cobalt sulfate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, selenium, zinc.
Notes: The ingredients are fairly close to NLS; however they have one appropriate protein source more ahead of wheat flour. In addition, they are the only fish food of this caliber that guarantees ethoxyquin free fish sources. It does, however, contain astaxanthin.
New Life Spectrum Betta Formula
Whole Antarctic krill meal, whole herring meal, whole wheat flour, ulva seaweed, chlorella algae, beta carotene, kelp, garlic, omega-3 fish oil, alfalfa, scallops, spirulina, wakame seaweed, spinosum seaweed, vitamin a acetate, vitamin d supplement, vitamin e supplement, vitamin b12 supplement, niacin, volic acid, biotin, thiamine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, calcium pantothenate, l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (vitamin c), cholin chloride, ethylenediamine dihydroiodide, cobalt sulfate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate.
Notes: Most of the NLS fish formulas are very similar if you check, just different sizes, so if you have a particularly big or small betta, you can just choose a different size pellet. (You can also grind pellets with a mortar and pestle, I do it all the time for my littlest fish.) The filler is wheat flour.
Dried black soldier fly larva, salmon, fish protein concentrate, green peas, potato, wheat, dicalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, DL-methionine, lecithin, choline chloride, L-lysine, vitamin E supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium L-ascorbyl-2-monophoshate, calendula, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, d-calcium pantothenate, vitamin B12 supplement, beta-carotene, rosemary extract, riboflavin, copper sulfate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, inositol, folic acid, vitamin A supplement, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, vitamin D3 supplement
Notes: This is the only pelleted food I’m aware of using insects as a major protein source, which is more appropriate to bettas, as insectivores. The larva and salmon are inclusive of water, and therefore may be lower down in the list. Fish protein concentrate is a highly nutritious, cooked-down source of protein. The food has three fillers – peas, potato, and wheat.
Whole salmon, halibut, shrimp, wheat flour, wheat gluten, fresh kelp astaxanthin, lecithin, l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), natural and artificial colors, vitamin a acetate, vitamin d3 supplement, vitamin e supplement, vitamin b12 supplement, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, folic acid, biotin, inositol, tocopherol (preservative), ethoxyquin (preservative).
Notes: I am not fond of this food. However, food has come a long way recently, and many of the other foods were not available even a decade ago, and Omega One was a better choice than many. The named protein sources are no doubt high on this list, but one or two may actually be lower than the fillers – wheat flour and wheat gluten in this case – because they are inclusive of water content. In addition, a betta and wild betta breeder I respect very much once told me he had a lot fewer problems once he cut astaxanthin (a color enhancer) out of his fish’s diets, so I avoid it. It’s probably just paranoia, tons of fish keepers use it, but why risk it if I don’t have to? Haha.
The final choice in prepared foods is gel food, which is the best, in my opinion, but like pellets, there are good choices and bad depending on the brand. You can also make gel food yourself. Many goldfish keepers have been making their own gel food for years! Making gel food for an insectivore is super stinky and gross. Haha. I do this.
In terms of commercial gel foods, you can find either powder mixes, or frozen gel foods.
The frozen gel foods tend to have fewer fillers, because they don’t need a powder binder, usually grain-based, to hold them together. In frozen gel foods, it’s usually just gelatin, which is an animal-based protein binder, much more suited to obligate carnivore digestive tracts.
After you prepare a gel food (making it from scratch or from powder) treat it as a fresh food by either keeping it in the fridge or freezing it.
Most gel foods are fed on a flat stone or dish (I know this person who makes aquarium safe dishes *cough*) on the bottom of the tank. For fish that will only feed higher in the water column people use feeding discs to stick it to the side of the tank.
However, for bettas I generally cut it into tiny tinseeh bite sized betta nibbles and feed it as I would pellets, as a way to monitor my fish’s diet and interact with my fish. I usually feed on the end of rounded tweezers or a target feeder.
Be careful not to overfeed your betta with foods like this, a lot of bettas will just gorge as long as there is food.
Some high quality gel foods I’ve come across that would be appropriate for bettas:
Omega One Frozen Freshwater Community Formula
Salmon, Halibut, Pacific Cod, Whole Pink shrimp, Black Cod, Shrimp Eggs, Gel Binder, Vitamins (Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Menadione, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine, Vitamin B12, Ascorbic Acid, Niacin, Pantothenate, Folic Acid, Biotin, Choline, Inositol), Garlic.
Notes: Completely grain free. Advertised as sustainable fish sources. Garlic to make it smell delicious, all named meats (whole is desired since this is a “wet” product). The only problem is that this comes in cubes, and no betta could or should eat a whole cube, even the smaller cube size. You’ll need to thaw a cube, cut off what your fish can eat, and put the rest in the fridge (use within 4-7 days).
Repashy Meat Pie Carnivore Gel Premix
Whole Sardine Meal, Whole Squid Meal, Whole Krill Meal, Pea Protein Isolate, Dried Brewers Yeast, Carrageenan Algae, Konjac, Carob Bean Gum, Dried Kelp, Potassium Citrate, Calcium Propionate, Dicalcium Phosphate,Taurine, Spirulina Algae, Phaffia Rhodozyma Yeast, Paprika Extract, Calendula Flower Powder, Marigold Flower Extract, Rose Hips Powder, Turmeric Root Powder, Malic Acid, Sodium Chloride, Canthaxanthin, Potassium Sorbate, Magnesium Gluconate, Lecithin, Rosemary Extract and Mixed Tocopherols (as preservatives), Vitamins (Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D Supplement, Choline Chloride, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Beta Carotene, Pantothenic Acid, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B-12 Supplement).
Notes: A dried powder, so the named meals are appropriate. Pea protein is a legume filler. Carrageenan and carob bean gum seems to be the gel binding agents in this gel food, which are plant-based. However, it is a high quality, meaty food.
Repashy Bottom Scratcher Invertivore Gel Premix
Krill Meal, Insect Meal, Mussel Meal, Squid Meal, Dried Brewer’s Yeast, Dried Seaweed Meal, Lecithin, Dried Kelp, Locust Bean Gum, Potassium Citrate, Taurine, Watermelon, RoseHips, Hibiscus Flower, Calendula Flower, Marigold Flower, Paprika, Turmeric, Stinging Nettle, Garlic, Salt, Calcium Propionate and Potassium Sorbate (as preservatives), Magnesium Amino Acid Chelate, Zinc Methionine Hydroxy Analogue Chelate, Manganese Methionine Hydroxy Analogue Chelate, Copper Methionine Hydroxy Analogue Chelate, Selenium Yeast. Vitamins: (Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Choline Chloride, Calcium L-Ascorbyl-2-Monophosphate, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Beta Carotene, Pantothenic Acid, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex).
Notes: The best part of this food (and Grub Pie, coming up) is that there’s no fish in the protein sources. We’re pretty sure the “insect meal” is black fly soldier larvae (marked commercially as Phoenix Worms, Calciworms and Repti-Worms by various companies), as that is what they have said is in their Grub Pie mix. I kept accidentally calling this Scraper, not Scratcher. *lol*
Repashy Grub Pie Fish Insectivore Gel Premix
Insect Meal, Dried Seaweed Meal, Coconut Meal, Ground Flaxseed, Stabilized Rice Bran, Dried Brewers Yeast, Lecithin, Dried Kelp, Locust Bean Gum, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Citrate, Salt, Taurine, Watermelon, RoseHips, Hibiscus Flower, Calendula Flower, Marigold Flower, Paprika, Turmeric, Salt, Calcium Propionate and Potassium Sorbate (as preservatives), Magnesium Amino Acid Chelate, Zinc Methionine Hydroxy Analogue Chelate, Manganese Methionine Hydroxy Analogue Chelate, Copper Methionine Hydroxy Analogue Chelate, Selenium Yeast. Vitamins: (Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Choline Chloride, L-Ascorbyl-Polyphosphate, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Beta Carotene, Pantothenic Acid, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex).
Notes: They sell this with fish on one label and lizards on another. I haven’t been able to identify the difference yet. This has more grain fillers than the other two gel foods but still has mostly bugs. “Insects are raised in the USA on high quality ingredients!” The insect meal is reported to be black soldier fly larva meal. Several fillers though; coconut meal, flaxseed, rice bran. And other ingredients our bettas just don’t need. But bettas probably love it!
Making Your Own Insectivore Gel Food
Unlike the rather appetizing goldfish gel food recipes, invertivore and insectivore gel food cooking smells bad and is gross. It’s also very expensive. Why do it? Well, it lets you get more variety into their diet daily, give bettas bugs they normally wouldn’t get because they’re too big (like BFSL and mealworms), and… gives you a sense of accomplishment?
I suggest buying a cheap blender to do it, and molds just for making the gel food in. Heh. I marked my “special blender” with fish stickers so no one would mistakenly use it. (I also have a fish food mortar and pestle and we have a coffee grinder for bugs. Animal people are weird but it’d be weirder if I just used my regular smoothie blender for this.)
You can find a lot of how-tos on making gel food for goldfish and other fish online; you follow the instructions but with different base ingredients. If you know how to make Jell-o (especially Jell-o salad) you’re set.
You do need to purchase a large number of frozen and live bugs to start. The key is variety. Buy every betta-appropriate bug you can find and add it to the soup.
Many frozen foods are already fortified with vitamins. Be careful if you add supplements. Vitamin overdose is a real risk. I don’t add supplements, I just use fortified frozen foods and healthy well-fed bugs.
This information may be somewhat gruesome – from experience, my main problem I’ve had is with… legs. I only use the tiniest crickets now, and stick to inverts without long legs for the most part, because I was having a problem with my blender just not grinding the legs up small enough. Then I’d have trouble chopping up my gel food into betta sized bites when the knife kept hitting dang cricket legs and dragging, and the legs were too big for little betta mouths to handle.
Lesson learned, unless you’re willing to splurge on something like a VitaMix to make your gel food in, still use appropriately sized prey for your fish, because a cheap blender is not going to pulverize it into the tiniest smithereens you want it to.
In addition, collect and save your just molted mealworms (or tiny supers); they do much better in the gel without a hard exoskeleton. Another thing I learned with experience!
Crickets (pinhead)
Mealworms (small, just molted)
Black Soldier Fly Larva
Fruit Flies
Frozen Bloodworms
Frozen Krill
Frozen Brine Shrimp
Frozen Daphnia
Frozen Mysis Shrimp
Frozen Glassworms
Frozen Cyclops
Optional: A tiny bit of fresh garlic.
Any other frozen inverts or soft tiny safe bugs you have access to! I expect soft bugs like silkworms might actually blend down fine despite their size but I have never tried it.
Blend it all together into a horrible, noisome slurry. If necessary, add a tiny bit of water, as little as possible. Add more as needed, but only a teaspoon at a time.
Next, prepare your unflavored plain gelatin. It will come with directions, but basically you mix it with cold water, let it sit, then add hot water. You want your food to be concentrated and the gel to just hold it together. Mix your bugs into the dissolved gelatin.
Mixing by hand supposedly produces a sinking food, while you can producing a floating food if you really whip it up with a blender, but I’ve not experimented with this since I hand feed my tiny gel pieces! So mine is sinking.
Line your mold with plastic wrap. Pour it into your mold. A straight sided rectangle mold is best for cutting it into little cubes, but for large fish and communities sometimes people use shaped silicone molds to make it cute, haha.
Pop it in the fridge to let it set up. I freeze the cubes separate and flat (like on a cookie sheet) before final storage so they don’t stick together. Freeze the extra for up to six months well-sealed.
Every betta I’ve offered this too, with and without garlic, has loved it. So have most community fish.
There are many frozen foods conveniently packaged and available for feeding, and they’re a great, healthy option for bettas. I am a big advocate of rotating a lot of frozen foods in the diet. They aren’t cooked or highly processed, have few, if any fillers, and are usually whole foods. They’re high in protein and far more natural to a betta than a primarily pelleted diet.
Some frozen foods are nearly complete diets in and of themselves.
San Francisco Bay Frozen Freshwater Frenzy
Bloodworms, Brine Shrimp, Water, Cyclops, Daphnia, Watercress, Sodium Alginate, Spirulina Algae, Astaxanthin, Yucca, Vitamin Premix: (Wheat Flour, Vitamin A Acetate, Cholecalciferol (source of Vitamin D3), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Folic Acid, Menadione Sodium Bisulfate Complex, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Biotin, Inositol, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate, Betaine, D-Alpha Mixed Tocopherols (source of Vitamin E)), Garlic and Paprika.
Notes: Small insectivore-based protein sources. This frozen-mix-in-a-cube is sort of in-between a frozen food and a gel food. Sodium alginate is a geling agent but this one has a tendency to fall apart. Your betta doesn’t care of course, it’s just messier. There is probably not much wheat flour in this food. As it is sold in a cube you do run into the problem of wasting a lot if you only have one betta to feed before it goes bad.
Many frozen foods that even consist of a single meat ingredient are fortified with vitamins and minerals. Others are not. As long as you are offering a balanced, varied diet, it is fine to feed the ones that are not fortified.
Great frozen foods for bettas include:
Adding live foods to your betta’s food schedule is both healthy and environmentally enriching for your fish.
Live fruit flies are a really easy option these days, as many pet stores sell flightless or wingless fruit fly cultures. You can also order these online. Tap a few of these into your tank. Sometimes the bettas have a hard time seeing them because they don’t even break the water tension, but once they do, they get so excited!
Pinhead crickets are another option. They are about ant-sized and large bettas can handle these just fine.
You can culture your own brine shrimp, and it can be fun for your fish to hunt the down!
Live blackworms are sold at fish specialty stores. Just make sure you buy them on the day they come in, and rinse them before feeding.
Tiniest just molted mealworms are an option as well! Since I raise my own, I have my pick of sizes to find the perfect size for my fish. I always make sure they’ve just molted before feeding them. (You can always chop them up and feed them with tweezers as well.)
Don’t feed “as much as they can eat in x number of minutes”. These rules are not very useful for most fish, but particularly not with a betta. Most bettas will overeat. There are overweight bettas out there, both from overfeeding and undersized tanks.
Bettas need to eat small meals often. Bettas should be fed almost every day. Feed once in the morning, and once in the evening.
A betta’s stomach is really quite tiny, roughly the size of their eye. It’s difficult to say how much to feed them by numbers because pellet size and prey size vary so much. However, don’t feed more than something equal to their eye size in one sitting.
This comes out to something like “2-3 pellets” for common brands. Or a couple brine shrimp or bloodworms. But it depends! You’ll have to use your judgement, keep an eye on your betta’s stomach (make sure they’re not bloated), and on your betta’s weight overall.
It is not harmful to have a regular fast day for your betta, nor is it harmful to feed every day (both as long as your betta is healthy and a healthy weight).
Some people do regular fast and pea days (fast on Saturday, pea instead of regular food on Sunday, for example), and this is fine as well.
The blanched and skinned green pea bit is (for some reason) loved by most bettas, and used to treat or prevent constipation (and resultant swim bladder disorder).
So if bettas are obligate carnivores, what’s up with the pea?
It’s precisely because they are obligate carnivores that the pea works. Because bettas can’t digest plant matter, the cellulose just moves right through them. Some people prefer to use daphnia because it’s closer to the betta’s natural diet. However, I have found peas work better when I’ve dealt with rescue fish with chronic digestive problems. Feeding bettas peas is like cats eating grass for a tummy upset, so I don’t see a problem with it as long as it doesn’t make up a large part of the diet, or unbalance their nutritional intake.
If you’re feeding a food low in fillers and high in moisture content, such as a mostly frozen and live food diet alternated with pellets that have been soaked, you’re probably less likely to encounter constipation than if you feed all pellets. I do not think the pea day schedule is strictly necessary, but some bettas absolutely love it so their owners indulge them for that reason alone, hehe.
If you are going on a vacation of a week or less, and your betta is healthy and a good weight, I generally advise fasting your betta. They will create less waste (less worry of nitrate build up… or worse, ammonia), and you won’t have the risk of a pet sitter accidentally overfeeding or feeding the wrong food.
Never use a vacation feeder “block”. They foul the water and alter the pH, and contain little actual food. Most fish don’t even recognize them as food.
Haha any excuse to break out my silly old art. Anyway, this is just my experience and opinions, and in the area of animal nutrition we are learning more every day! Many people may have a different way of feeding their bettas, or new insights into their diet.
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