How to wean marine betta to frozen foods?

[Tripod1404]

Hey Guys,

I recently got a marine betta from Diversden. I assumed they would wean it to prepared foods before selling. I turned out they did not, they said they only wean marine bettas to eat live ghost shrimp. None of the stores near me sell feeder shrimp so that unfortunately is not an option.

I tried frozen mysis and frozen krill. It completely ignores the mysis floating in water. But when I fit the krill on to the tip of a glass pipette and hold it near its cave, it got interested, come really close and nipped at the krill. It didn't get the whole krill but ate the eyes of it . This was the closest I get to feed it frozen food.

Aside from that, I put amphipods that I find in my filter socks near its cave and it immediately dashes out and eats them . I see it attacks some stuff on rocks and sand, but I dont know what they are if it catches anything or not. As a side note, I have seen it pooping, so it seems like it can find something to eat on its own.

I orders hikari jumbo mysis shrimp and I am going to try that on a glass pipette next. I believe krill might be too big for it, so jumbo mysis might work better.

Anyway, do you know any methods that I can use to train it to eat frozen food or have any success stories or advice for weaning marine betta to prepared foods?

 

[180large]

try jumbo or PE mysis soaked in garlic. Mine loves it.

 

[GSMclowns]

What I did was that I put the fish in a small tank like 20 gallons.
Not too bright light with big cave for it to feel at home. Then once it is all settled in, get a small piece of mono fishing line and tie it to a stick. Then take a small piece of cooking shrimp or a small piece of a clam, then stick the mono fishing line into the food. don't tie or anything.. just stick it in so that the food wouldn't fall off and the fish can just eat and pull the food off easily. Then just put the food into the tank and move it around a bit, pretend like it is live food. It took me a week to get my Marine Betta to eat. But once it eats a few time, it is quite easy to get it to eat after that.

 

[Lfunnyfarm]

This reply is a little late but here is my experience with my Marine Betta:
I purchased it from a LFS after witnessing it eat ghost shrimp. It went directly into quarantine. For all of the quarantine period it would only eat ghost shrimp.

When I put it into my display tank, it only ate ghost shrimp. I was very persistent and finally the Betta ate thawed krill and PE mysis. It graduated to pieces of shrimp like what I feed my zebra moray eel. It takes them from my hand but only in certain positions. I use tongs to put the food right in front on it.
It took a long, long time but it now will eat pellets. I stuffed small NLS pellets into pieces of shrimp. I think that eating the two foods together got the Betta used to the taste of pellets.

It can be difficult to feed a Betta when the other fish in your tank are quicker and interested in the Betta's food.

 

[WVfishguy]

The marine betta I had many years ago took a while to wean over to frozen food. I began with baby swordtails and African cichlid fry (I had a lot).

I sucked up the fry in a turkey baster and squirted them out where the betta was hiding. After a while I switched to frozen mysis, etc. It worked well.

More recently, I purchased a marine betta which began eating frozen food right off the bat. He actually loves pellet food as well. Go figure.

 

[Tripod1404]

The marine betta I had many years ago took a while to wean over to frozen food. I began with baby swordtails and African cichlid fry (I had a lot).

I sucked up the fry in a turkey baster and squirted them out where the betta was hiding. After a while I switched to frozen mysis, etc. It worked well.

More recently, I purchased a marine betta which began eating frozen food right off the bat. He actually loves pellet food as well. Go figure.

This reply is a little late but here is my experience with my Marine Betta:
I purchased it from a LFS after witnessing it eat ghost shrimp. It went directly into quarantine. For all of the quarantine period it would only eat ghost shrimp.

When I put it into my display tank, it only ate ghost shrimp. I was very persistent and finally the Betta ate thawed krill and PE mysis. It graduated to pieces of shrimp like what I feed my zebra moray eel. It takes them from my hand but only in certain positions. I use tongs to put the food right in front on it.
It took a long, long time but it now will eat pellets. I stuffed small NLS pellets into pieces of shrimp. I think that eating the two foods together got the Betta used to the taste of pellets.

It can be difficult to feed a Betta when the other fish in your tank are quicker and interested in the Betta's food.

Thanks guys, I eventually weaned it to mysis and after that to pellet foods.

 

[Carolinablue3]

Thanks guys, I eventually weaned it to mysis and after that to pellet foods.

What method did you use to train it on mysis? I received one from divers den a couple of days ago and haven't really seen him much yet. Did you feed at night?

 

[Tripod1404]

What method did you use to train it on mysis? I received one from divers den a couple of days ago and haven't really seen him much yet. Did you feed at night?

I was keeping pieces of hikari jumbo mysis shrimp with a pair of long tweezers near it. It eventually accepted that and now it eats anything that I offer with the tweezers.

 

[R1ant04]

No need to worry about ur Betta..they eat pods and will eventually eat mysis or other frozen foods. Have had several n never trained any of them, jus have to make sure they r given the opportunity to eat when they do decide to. They are not fast or aggressive most of the time.