New Marine Beta

[musarra]

I just ordered a marine betta online and was wondering about all their feeding habits. I've read they are tough on smaller fish. I just had a few quick questions for people who have owned them:

1) Will they eat large occ. clowns (3-3.5 inch pair), coral beauty (3+inch), or an african wrasse?

2) Will those fish create issues for the beta when it comes to feeding time? (also have large blue hippo, reef lobster that is MIA, starfish, and 2 large (3inch) cleaner shrimp)

3) When I put him in my QT should I start with live feeders or just stick with frozen shrimp first? (this is my 1st predatory fish)

thanks

 

[crobattt]

From what i've seen/heard they just hide most of the time..

 

[SecretiveFish]

1) Will they eat large occ. clowns (3-3.5 inch pair), coral beauty (3+inch), or an african wrasse?

Highly unlikely, they do not have very large mouths. I would personally only worry about fish that could actually fit in their mouth, like very small gobies or small firefish.

2) Will those fish create issues for the beta when it comes to feeding time? (also have large blue hippo, reef lobster that is MIA, starfish, and 2 large (3inch) cleaner shrimp)

The Large hippo may cause problems for feeding as those tend to be aggressive feeders and bettas are timid feeder. Your new betta may eat your cleaner shrimp though. I was never bold enough to try it as multiple sites suggest they may eat decorative shrimp, so I do not have first hand experience. I do have a very large coral banded shrimp in with the betta though and all has been well. Ours is in with two starfish (fromia and a serpent star), and he has never mistaken them for food.

3) When I put him in my QT should I start with live feeders or just stick with frozen shrimp first? (this is my 1st predatory fish)

I would try frozen for a day or two and then if he is not eating I would give him live feeders for awhile. If he is only eating live feeders, I would not move him to your display until he has started eating frozen foods. Ours will only eat frozen mysis and frozen krill, he will not eat pellets or flakes.


If you have any pet bristle worms, you should remove them before you add your new betta to your display tank. We bought a tank infested with bristle worms (the rocks came alive at night with all of their squirming, ewww), and now the only place we have run ins with bristle worms is in the overflow boxes.

As far as hiding, I guess it depends on the fish. We see ours all of the time now, but the first two months we had him he hid a lot. Actually the first week we had him, I was sure he was dead. Called the LFS we bought him from and the employee was like "He just moved into a mansion, give him some time."

Ok, you have probably guessed he is my favorite fish in the tank along with our indigo hamlet.

 

[DoubleM 10]

i have a marine betta. he just had his birthday in my tank this month.

he has finally started to come out when people are around the tank. it took about 4 months to get him on frozen food(all are different this is just my experience)

they are georgous. mine minds his own business. having fast swimming fish will definatly make feeding more difficult. blue tangs swim much better than the betta so the betta will be intimidated. when you fist get him you will not see them very much. i think that is one of the reasons they are not that big in this hobby. they have great colors when they do come out.

they most likely wont eat ur fish. any shrimp will be gone unless the shrimp is large. i have seen mine take a stab at snails. i have seen him suck a hermit out of its shell. i have only seen this once. i would not beleive it if i did not see it myself.

and bristle worms in moderation are ok. they help with detrius and messes at night. great addition to a clean up crew.

good luck! i enjoy mine now that its people friendly

 

[Bayliner]

Mine will only eat frozen or freeze dried Krill and nothing else.

He will only eat it if I feed it to him with my long plastic tongs.

Great fish... He swims in and out of the rocks all day long...

 

[DarkRyok]

My betta has been in with a mandarin, several small gobies, and a few hermits. He hasnt bothered any of them. I did drop a large fire shrimp in with him when I was clearing another tank out, and he immediately went into his hunting position and slowly floated over to the shrimp. I quickly scooped the shrimp out. So your shrimp could be a hit or miss.

Depending where you ordered it from, most places try to wean the fish they get onto frozen before shipping. Try feeding frozen at first, and if he doesnt take it, get some ghost shrimp or another saltwater feeder shrimp and use them. Occasionally try the frozen again and again. Mine ate live ghost shrimp for about two weeks before he decided to pick at a hunk of raw shrimp, and now thats his favorite meal.

They are very beautiful fish though. Ive had mine for about 6 months and hes easily my favorite. He hid nonstop for the first several weeks. He started coming out more, then finally, my 10000k bulbs blew, and it was just running the actinics, and he came out a whole lot more.

 

[musarra]

thanks for all the replies I've had him now for a week and no luck on anything. this is the first carnivore I have had and I know they don't eat as often but should i be worried?

Should I try other foods from market?
Tried:
Brine (frozen)
Mysis (frozen)
Ghost Shrimp (live)
Feeder fish (live)
Flakes

Am I throwing too much at him at a time?

 

[musarra]

edit: (I did not do all that at once but something different every day)