Is it ok to feed tropical fish betta food?
- Thread starter $eaba$$
- Start date
If you do it occasionally, it would be one way of varying the fishes diet (wich, BTW you should be doing). However, I would imagine that you would end up with defeicencies in the diet if it was the only food item.
Um...did you not read DFs post?
If you fed it as a supplement (read: not as the staple food), it should be OK.
If you fed it as a supplement (read: not as the staple food), it should be OK.
$eaba$$, It's OK. I ask a LOT of questions, too, and it bugs my boyfriend so much!
Anyway, betta food is mostly meat and bettas are carnivores (actually insectivores, but insects are a kind of meat). Tropical fish food tends to be more omnivorous, as in it contains some vegetable matter. So giving tropical fish betta food on occasion is fine. Just make sure if you have omnivores (like tetras, guppies, mollies, etc), they get some veggies. But tropical fish food given to bettas long term is not as good. The veggie matter in it can give bettas digestive problems.
Anyway, betta food is mostly meat and bettas are carnivores (actually insectivores, but insects are a kind of meat). Tropical fish food tends to be more omnivorous, as in it contains some vegetable matter. So giving tropical fish betta food on occasion is fine. Just make sure if you have omnivores (like tetras, guppies, mollies, etc), they get some veggies. But tropical fish food given to bettas long term is not as good. The veggie matter in it can give bettas digestive problems.
If that's the case, then I wonder if there would be any problems with what my betta eats. She literally eats every kind of food that I throw in there -- flakes, pellets, sinking pellets, frozen foods. She's also gotten quite fat. =/plah831 said:
blue_soda, she's probably going to be OK because she gets a variety of foods, and not the same wrong food all the time. Many lower-quality betta foods also contain wheat/soy flours. They cannot digest it, and is just cheap filler. So I try to buy betta flakes and pellets that only contain high quality protein and no fillers.
on a side note, that's why one of the stocking considerations should be dietary. It's easier for me to make sure my betta gets the right kind of food because he lives by himself. If you keep insectivores (which is what bettas are classified as) with omnivores (like livebearers, tetras, danios, etc) it's much easier for the betta to ingest more vegetable matter which is not appropriate for its diet.
I'm not saying your tank is stocked badly, though. I think your female betta should be fine.
on a side note, that's why one of the stocking considerations should be dietary. It's easier for me to make sure my betta gets the right kind of food because he lives by himself. If you keep insectivores (which is what bettas are classified as) with omnivores (like livebearers, tetras, danios, etc) it's much easier for the betta to ingest more vegetable matter which is not appropriate for its diet.
I'm not saying your tank is stocked badly, though. I think your female betta should be fine.
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