Weekly Diet Plan: Betta Fish Food and the Role The F-Word Plays

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Can’t seem to figure out how to feed your betta the right way?

Does what constitutes proper betta fish food escape you?

Can’t resist the urge to over feed your fish?

Here’s an idea for feeding betta fish right that might help. Crazy as it sounds it came to me when flipping through a woman’s magazine while waiting to check out at the grocery store. In fact I’ll bet you may have seen those weight loss diet plans that lay things out for you day by day?

Similarly, here’s a sample of a betta’s weekly diet plan that hopefully gives you an idea of the basics of betta fish feeding day by day too. Hint: The key is variety.

Monday’s Flavor of the Day: Freeze dried foods

Let’s start the week off with something freeze dried. The trick when feeding freeze dried foods is to soak the food first in a small amount of tank water for about five minutes. This allows the food to absorb water and rehydrate.

This rehydration is important because you don’t want your betta to have a hard time digesting it once you feed the food to him. Also feeding this type of food can sometimes cause impaction or constipation in your betta and you wouldn’t want that either. Yet be cautious not to soak it for too long since freeze dried foods have a tendency to fall apart if too much water is absorbed. Like Goldilocks, you want it just right.

Tuesday’s Flavor of the Day: Betta fish pellets

When it comes to pellets note the distinction. We’re talking betta fish pellets not ordinary tropical fish pellets. You see betas have specific nutrient requirement that other fish don’t have. Basically they are meat lovers so proper betta fish food must be packed with a variety of protein sources.

The danger with feeding this kind of food though is that many companies are now manufacturing pellets that contain high levels of additives or MSG. Many of them, especially those labeled as “meals” contain fillers, wheat flour for instance, which don’t really give any nutritional benefit to the betta at all.

These are a couple of reasons why pellets should not be a mainstay component of your betta’s diet. Instead they should be fed as part of a total meal plan that varies what is fed day by day.

To prepare betta fish pellets, it’s best if they too are soaked in a scant amount of tank water first so they becomes a bit softened and easier for the fish to munch on.

With any of these foods the timer starts the instant the food hits the water. That means you only want to feed what can be consumed in two or three minutes.

Wednesday’s Flavor of the Day: Live foods

Any of the following, black worms, brine shrimp, wingless fruit flies, mosquito larvae, daphnia, and white worms, will suffice. Although let me hasten to add that bettas naturally take delight in mosquito larvae. Which should come as no surprise given how they relish these in the wild and gulp them down by the thousands – collectively naturally.

Live foods are perhaps the ideal food for your betta since they obviously mimic what bettas naturally eat in the wild. However, live foods too have a catch. They could be sources of bacteria and other microorganisms that can expose your betta to diseases. So making live foods as your betta’s chief dietary source wouldn’t be doing them any favors either.

Here you want to feed a bit at a time. But again no more than can be hunted down in a couple of minutes.

Thursday’s Flavor of the day: Frozen foods

You may find things like daphnia, tubifex worms, brine shrimp, spiralina, bloodworms, watercress, Cyclops in your pet stores frozen food aisle. Much like how you prepare freeze dried betta foods and betta pellets, frozen foods need to be thawed first with a little of tank water. Take note that once you thaw it either the food goes to the fish or any excess must be discarded. Just like it’s not necessarily wise to refreeze those leftover chicken nuggets you had last night, you never want to refreeze betta food either. That’s because it’s highly possible that bacteria may have already developed. Feeding food that’s spoiled wouldn’t be good for your fish.

Friday Flavor of the Day: Betta fish pellets.

It’s been two days since they had any of these. Your betta won’t mind the repeat at this point.

Saturday Flavor of the Day – None.

You read that right. Nothing is on the menu today. It’s a fasting day. Or the F word I alluded to in the title of this article. It’s really clever to allot one day per week for your betta to fast. Nope. You’re not signing up your betta for any far out religious group or anything. It’s just that when it comes to feeding bettas, not feeding them or fasting for a day has its own physiological benefits. What it comes down to is this basically allows your betta to naturally purge itself.

Sunday Flavor of the day: Live Foods

With a cleaned out digestive track, at this time you can go back to feeding some sort of live food to your betta. After his little fast, his enthusiasm meter should be off the charts. No mosquito larvae or baby guppy will last for long. Just watch portion size. These guys can be glutons normally. And all the more gluttonous having found out Meals on Wheels doesn’t come every day. Oh and if you don’t have live foods handy then frozen will do.

So there you go. Basically this is just a simple weekly diet plan for feeding a variety of betta fish food. You may follow this as is or decide to assign these foods to different days of your choosing. All up to you as long as you remember to always vary their diet day by day. And seriously. Can properly feeding your betta be any easier?

About Lucas
Putting a name with a face I'm Lucas Smatana. Like you I'm passionate about betta fish and hope to share my enthusiasm. The idea here is to make sure you get helpful info and useful ideas on betta fish care that really work. To insure your betta keeping experience is a good one both for you and your fish. So that you and your pet enjoy a long, happy and healthy relationship.

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