Daphnia Delights
It can be great fun to unleash some unsuspecting adult brine shrimp or daphnia into your betta’s realm. The stalking, the gulping, the unrelenting pursuit. Your guy can put on quite a show and display skills you may never have realized he had.
However when feeding live food it may take your betta a few seconds, or minutes even, to recognize what’s going on. Which just makes sense if you stop and think about it for a bit. So don’t mistakenly think he’s going to miss out.
For one your blazing crowntail male is probably used to eating pellets off the surface. Having done so most of his adult life.
Two, he sees you, is conditioned to head for the surface to grab the pellets and lunch is on.
Yet with any live foods released in their tank, at first they may not get the general drift, and wonder what’s going on when no pellets land as expected. Just give them a sec. Your intrepid hunter will regroup, recognize that’s it game on, and commence to chow down on his daphnia delights.
That’s EXACTLY what happened with the betta in this video.
Initially you’ll note he’s scouring the surface of his tank in search of his expected pellets – while the daphnia can be seen swimming around below him. Disappointed he figures no food now. Suddenly he spies a daphnia and inhales it.
As you can see once he figured out there was something to hunt down he approached hunting with a lethal vengeance. Even as the daphnia bob and weave to avoid their fate. He became super focused on the task at hand and seemed to relish every second of it. Apparently the presence of live prey arouses long dormant instincts and unleashes the inner hunter in even the most docile betta fish. Even better, in this case guess you could say a good time was had by all, if you ignore the daphnia’s experience in the scenario that played out.
Oh and if you want to see some dancing daphnia up front and personal be sure to check out this brief 30 second clip:
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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