marine betta

[keefsama2003]

i got my betta about 1 week ago or so give or take a few days and i havent personally seen him eat but i have thrown pieces of silversides in the tank by where his cave is. but the other fish/inverts grab them also so i was wondering what else could i put in the tank for him. i was thinking about adding mysis to my sump and trying to purchase a det kit with pods and stuff in them as i havent really seen any pods in my tank ... no light to view at night so im not sure if they are or are not there.

any other help would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advanced.
ps the marine betta is such a beautiful and majestic fish its crazy.

mine does come out during the lights on but usually around 4-430pm est.

other than that all we see are glimpses of the spots moving thru the rocks.

 

[Sloeber]

what other kind of fish are in this aquarium with the betta? frozen mysis are an excellent food for bettas, assuming they can out compete their tank mates for the food.

 

[keefsama2003]

i would preffer live mysis so i can add some to my sump so they can also breed on their own but i do have 2 yellow tail chromis a yellow tang a kole tang 2 true percs 1 neon dottyback and 2 dwarf angels

plus the shrimp in the tank.

 

[Sloeber]

what size tank? the 90g in your profile?

you can add live mysis to your system, but it is doubtful your betta will get to them. without sugar-coating the reply, your fish assortment is gonna make it difficult for a betta to receive food. you have extremely active feeders in this aquarium. if you would have asked me prior to purchase i would have said it wouldn't be a wise idea to add a betta. just not a good selection of fish for it to live with. seeing that you already have it, you are pretty much left with 3 options.

1. remove betta
2. remove a few of the aggressviely feeding fish
3. babysit the betta on a daily basis by feeding the main tank heavily, then also offering frozen/thawed mysis behind the rockwork for the betta.

HTH

 

[keefsama2003]

i usually feed the other fish a good amount and also try to put formula1/cyclop-eez/flake food mix behind the rockwork as well by where he is at but i also read that they like peperment shrimp and i have no problem adding pepermints if this will be a good food source i have a source for cheap peppermints so that is no problem what would you say about that.

 

[Sloeber]

small peppermint shrimp do not stand a chance, but my bet is on the dottyback to get to them first. if you add say, 5 at one time, i bet the dottyback gets the majority of them but the betta may find one or two. if you were planning on adding one or two at a time, i'd say it is unlikely the betta will compete with the dottyback. otherwise, ya, peppermint shrimp would be a good food source, though i'd personally perfer to get my fish used to eating prepared foods. i would think feeding a betta one or two peppermints per week would be plenty.

HTH

 

[keefsama2003]

if i propogated mysis shrimp in my sump do you think that would be good also?
and what about pods will the betta eat on the pods?

 

[Sloeber]

every little bit will help. try setting up "pod piles" behind the rockwork, too.

 

[jack fors]

I have a betta that I got about a month ago. I was concerned about him getting enough to eat. He would not come out much at all until a week or so. Then he figured out where food was coming from. He has to compete with yellow tang, foxface, clown,royal gramma, lawnmover blenny. Now he sees me coming with frozen food container and waits. He doesn't move as fast as others however he gets his share. He is an amazing fish. Soon to be upgrading to a 75 rr.

Jack

 

[keefsama2003]

my betta has since been given grass shrimp live and he hunts those as well as all the pods i have in the tank as well as brine/mysis shrimps and he comes out during the day to make his majestic runs. he looks healthy and seems to be getting enough plus i will add a few peppermints in there as well.

 

[cwschoon]

mine eats frozen food. I also put generous amounts of F.D. plankton in on the top and he comes up to the top and picks at it and also gets somewhen it sinks. I have rock all the way up the back of the tank, so he is brave enough to hang around up there at dinner time.