Betta fish are great for amateur aquarists, and these little swimming jewels make beautiful fish if properly cared for. One of the first things you should figure out is how much to feed your new betta fish.
This guide tells you everything you need to know about feeding these feisty, charismatic fish. So stay tuned to help ensure that your new fishy friend thrives!
Key Takeaways
- Overfeeding betta fish can cause health issues like bloating and water pollution; a pinch of food once or twice a day is ample, with one fasting day each week.
- Bettas require a high-protein diet, and the food should be meat-based with a protein content of 40% or higher. Avoid goldfish food or non-betta-specific tropical flakes.
- A feeding schedule including a variety of foods such as pellets and live, frozen, or freeze-dried meals should be followed to keep your betta healthy, removing any uneaten food to maintain water quality.
Why It Matters
One of the most common causes of ill health and mortality in captive bettas is incorrect feeding. Feeding your betta too much food can lead to bloating, which could be fatal.
In addition, uneaten food in the tank will ultimately finish up in the substrate, where it will eventually decompose, polluting the water and endangering your pet.
How Much Should a Betta Fish Eat in a Day?
A Betta fish’s stomach is roughly the same size as its eye – tiny, right?!
For this reason, betta fish generally don’t eat a huge amount, and just a pinch of food once or twice a day will be enough to keep them happy and healthy.
In the wild, their food sources aren’t hugely abundant, and they also have to chase and hunt their live prey – something they don’t typically need to do in the confines of a fish tank.
Can You Overfeed a Betta Fish?
Yes. Betta fish will eat food whenever they come across it in the wild, so they can very easily overeat when kept in captivity and offered food in abundance.
This can lead to your fish becoming bloated, constipated, or obese, and if they do leave any leftovers, this can go bad and begin rotting in the tank, causing the water to become dirty and built up with toxins, which can be harmful, even deadly to your fish.
To prevent this from occurring, only feed your fish the recommended daily amount, and clean out any leftovers.
I’ve kept betta fish for over 40 years, and I always incorporate one fasting day into my fish’s weekly feeding routine. That mimics the uncertainty of food availability in the fish’s natural environment and can help prevent health conditions like bloat, constipation, and swim bladder issues from developing. In theory, bettas can go without food for a week or more without suffering, especially if algae is growing in your tank for your fish to graze on.
Daily Feeding Amounts for Betta Fish
Although fish food containers all show recommended feeding amounts, it’s usually best to disregard these, as they can be very misleading.
If you overfeed your betta fish, you could cause health problems and issues with the water quality in your tank. Always have an alternative option in case your fish develops a medical condition.
Therefore, you should ignore typical feeding instructions that tell you to give your fish as much as he will eat in five minutes or feed him a few times a day in amounts that he will consume within three minutes.
Bettas can be quite greedy, and it’s therefore easy to overfeed them. However, overfeeding can cause serious health problems, including obesity, bloating, swim bladder problems, and constipation.
Also, uneaten food sinks into the substrate, where it decomposes, damaging the water quality and potentially harboring bacteria that could cause disease.
We recommend that you feed adult bettas once daily. Betta fry (babies) can be fed twice per day. Although that doesn’t seem like much, many betta pellets expand to over twice their size when exposed to water.
To put that into perspective, a betta fish’s stomach is roughly the same size as its eye! In other words, it’s tiny!
Suggested Betta Fish Feeding Schedule
For a beginner, it can be confusing when deciding how much and what to feed your betta fish. To help you, we’ve devised a simple feeding schedule that you can use to keep your betta fish in tip-top health!
- Monday: 2 – 4 betta fish pellets 1 to 2 times daily
- Tuesday: 2 – 3 pieces of live, frozen, or freeze-dried food 1 to 2 times daily
- Wednesday: 2 – 4 betta fish pellets 1 to 2 times daily
- Thursday: 2 – 4 betta fish pellets 1 to 2 times daily
- Friday: 2 – 3 pieces of live, frozen, or freeze-dried food 1 to 2 times daily
- Saturday: 2 – 4 betta fish pellets 1 to 2 times daily
On Sunday, don’t feed your betta.
One fast day per week allows your betta’s digestive system to process food fully and can limit issues associated with overeating, such as bloating, swim bladder problems, and constipation.
If you’re likely to be away for a day or two, don’t worry about your betta; he won’t starve, and the fast will be good for his system. Don’t give your betta extra food to try to make up for those days you missed feeding him.
A wild betta can survive without food for up to 14 days, so a day or two missed won’t harm your fish.
Be sure to remove any uneaten food from the bottom of the tank with a special tank vacuum or designated turkey baster. That will prevent the build-up of ammonia, damaging your tank’s water quality.
What Do Betta Fish Eat?
Wild bettas are omnivorous, enjoying a varied diet that comprises mainly insects, insect larvae, and vegetation. That said, bettas are primarily meat-eaters, meaning that they need a high-protein diet.
That’s important to know because it means that although standard tropical fish flakes may be fine for your betta’s tank mates in a community tank, flakes do not fulfill all the nutritional requirements of your betta fish’s diet.
So, when buying any form of a pellet or flake food for your betta, always check the list of ingredients and make sure that the first few ingredients are meat-based, and the overall protein percentage is 40% or greater.
As we mentioned previously, bettas are surface feeders. So, always check that any pellet food you buy is not designed exclusively for mid-water or bottom feeders.
Although bettas will catch a few stray sinking pellets, they won’t eat any that land on the bottom of the tank. For that reason, always choose floating pellets or flakes formulated specifically for bettas.
What Ingredients Should Your Betta’s Food Contain?
Betta fish have a short digestive tract and can’t process filler products, such as wheat and corn. Unfortunately, these fillers are contained in many flake and pellet foods, leading to bloat and other digestive issues, including constipation.
Fillers have no nutritional value for your betta, and fish foods that are high in these padding products should be avoided.
The Ideal Nutritional Content of Your Betta’s Diet
A balanced diet that will ensure your betta is healthy and thrives should include the following:
- Protein
- Fat
- Fiber
- Phosphorus
- Carbohydrate
- Calcium
- Vitamins A, D3, E, K, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12, C, H, M.
The ideal food for your betta should contain no filler products and must have meat-based protein as the first ingredient shown in the list of ingredients on the container.
Do not feed your betta fish goldfish food or tropical fish flakes that are not betta-specific. These foods do not contain the nutrients your betta needs and could make him sick.
Types of Betta Food
In this section of our comprehensive guide, we take a look at what kinds of food you can give to your betta.
To help you make the best choice, we’ve included handy in-text links to suitable products you can buy online. Simply click the link to check out more product information and place your order.
Betta fish can be picky eaters, so providing your pet with a varied diet is important to keep him satisfied and ensure that he eats enough to help him thrive.
Freeze-Dried Betta Food
Freeze-dried food is a brilliant addition to your betta fish’s diet, enabling you to introduce some of your betta’s natural food into his captive diet.
However, freeze-dried foods have been stripped of their moisture, and fillers are added to keep the products stable.
I recommend that you soak freeze-dried food in tank water to rehydrate it before you feed it to your betta. That increases the moisture content in the food, helping to prevent bloating.
Always use tank water to pre-soak freeze-dried food rather than tap water containing harmful chemicals.
However, you should know that feeding your betta a diet that consists exclusively of freeze-dried food is not good for your fish, as that can lead to constipation and bloating issues.
One major benefit of freeze-dried foods is that they are free from the parasites and bacteria that can sometimes be found in live food.
Also, freeze-dried foods are easily available from your local fish store and online and are relatively inexpensive to buy. Freeze-dried food keeps well and usually comes in a typical fish food container for convenience.
Here are some of the best freeze-dried foods that are suitable for betta fish:
Betta Fish Flakes
You can buy flakes that are specifically formulated for betta fish. Never feed your betta ordinary tropical fish flakes, as they do not contain the protein requirements that betta fish need.
Also, if you choose to feed flakes to your betta, remember to remove excess or sunken flakes right after feeding your fish. You may also find that some betta fish will not eat flaked food.
One of the best flake foods that you can give to your betta fish is:
Live and Frozen Betta Food
Wild betta fish eat a varied diet that consists primarily of live food. You can replicate that to some extent by adding some live or frozen foods to your betta’s diet.
However, we have a word of warning for you. Be very careful where you source your live foods, as they could be contaminated with diseases or parasites that could harm your fish.
Never feed anything to your betta that you caught yourself, either. Frozen foods provide a great alternative to living food without the risk of introducing parasites or disease to your betta’s habitat.
Also, frozen food can be kept in your home freezer until you are ready to feed it to your fish.
Take only as much food as you need out of your freezer for each feed, and never refreeze any food that has been thawed, as that could allow contamination by bacteria.
Before feeding frozen food to your betta, let it thaw out completely first. You can raise your own live betta food if you have the time and facilities.
Many Reddit contributors feed their betta fish a mix of live and frozen foods, which I can recommend. Bettas love meaty proteins and can do extremely well on frozen insect larvae, as mentioned above. I find that feeding too much dried food tends to cause digestive problems in my fish. Including regular portions of frozen meaty foods is an excellent way of keeping things moving and preventing conditions such as constipation and bloating.
The following live/frozen foods make great additions to your betta’s diet and are sure to be well-received:
Mosquito Larvae
Mosquito larvae are a staple food in the wild betta’s diet and make an excellent option for your captive betta. You can purchase a starter culture and breed mosquito larvae or find a reputable online or local store that sells them.
Brine Shrimp
Brine shrimp are a betta favorite. These tiny, aquatic crustaceans are packed with everything your betta fish needs to thrive, including proteins, vitamins, and amino acids.
Brine shrimp are super-easy to breed and raise too. You can find brine shrimp at most local fish stores.
Bloodworms
Bloodworms, or glycera to give them their scientific name, are the larvae of the midge fly. They are found in ponds and pools of water and form a major part of the wild betta’s diet.
Although captive betta fish love bloodworms and contain a lot of iron, their bright red color, bloodworms shouldn’t form your pet’s entire diet because they lack amino acids.
Wingless Fruit Flies
Fruit flies are also known as vinegar flies. If you’ve ever left fruit out on your kitchen counter and discovered swarms of tiny flies buzzing around, those are fruit flies. Bettas love fruit flies!
However, you shouldn’t catch wild fruit flies and feed them to your fish, as you don’t know what diseases the insects may have picked up during their flight that could affect your fish’s health.
Instead, you can feed your bettas a wingless variety of fruit flies, which you can breed and harvest relatively inexpensively in a small container.
Mysis Shrimp
Mysis shrimp, or opossum shrimp as they’re also known, is another good food source for your betta fish. These shrimp have a hard exoskeleton that’s packed with fiber. The fiber helps the betta’s digestion of the protein-rich foods in his diet.
Many bettas prefer Mysis shrimp over brine shrimp, and these little guys also contain plenty of moisture and amino acids, both of which are essential for a healthy betta fish.
Betta Fish Pellets
Pellets are a popular form of betta fish food that you’ll find in all aquarium supply stores.
Remember to look for pellets that contain plenty of high-quality protein and not much filler. Also, check to see how much the pellets will expand when exposed to water.
If you feed your betta pellets that expand too much when wet, you risk causing bloating and other digestive issues as the pellets will swell in your fish’s stomach.
When you feed your betta, soak the pellets in tank water first to hydrate them, especially if you have a greedy fish that attacks food the instant you put it into his tank.
Baby Pellets
Baby pellets are formulated specifically for feeding betta fish. The pellets contain all the vitamins and nutrients your fish need to stay healthy and a natural color-enhancing additive to make your betta even more stunning.
Also, these pellets are designed to float, minimizing the amount of waste and reducing the amount of uneaten food that collects at the bottom of the tank.
What To Do if Your Betta Fish Won’t Eat
Bettas are notoriously fussy eaters. So, don’t be concerned if your betta fish doesn’t eat or seems uninterested in food.
A poor appetite is often caused by stress. For example, if you’ve recently cleaned your betta’s tank, moved him to a new home, or introduced new tankmates.
Temperature fluctuations within your betta fish’s environment can also cause a loss of appetite. The recommended temperature range for your betta’s tank is between 76- and 81 degrees Fahrenheit.
If the water is cooler than this, your betta’s metabolism will slow down, and he may become lethargic. A slower metabolism means that your fish will need less food over fewer feedings.
Also, as your betta fish becomes older, he will be less active and may need less food.
However, poor appetite can be a sign that your fish is sick. Keep an eye on your betta for signs of disease and sickness, and give your fish appropriate treatment immediately.
Betta Fish Feeding FAQs
What Do Betta Fish Eat In the Wild vs. In a Home Tank?
In the wild, Betta fish are known to be mostly carnivorous but will occasionally eat algae and plants if they can find nothing else.
Their natural diet mostly consists of insects and invertebrates, and they primarily consume mosquito larvae, insects, worms, and small crustaceans.
In captivity, they can also thrive on a diet of freeze-dried foods, pellets, or flakes.
Should I Make My Betta Fast To Avoid Constipation?
Constipation is a common ailment in Betta fish, so knowing how to prevent and treat it can be crucial.
First, you should be certain that it is constipation that your fish is suffering from and not something more serious such as dropsy. If you’re unsure, consult a professional.
The first step you should take to help your fish with his constipation is to fast him for around 2-3 days. This will allow him to digest well without adding more food to the growing problem.
If this doesn’t work, and your fish doesn’t start pooping again, feed him something high in fiber, such as daphnia.
Should I Feed Female Bettas Differently Before Spawning?
You should feed both males and females before spawning, in something we call ‘conditioning’.
This involves feeding both fish a higher-quality diet for one or two weeks before spawning to ensure they’re up to the task of mating.
The pair should be fed small amounts of high-quality foods 2 to 4 times a day.
If you’re already feeding your bettas a very high-quality diet, there may be no need for conditioning, and you can stick to the same feeding pattern.
Final Thoughts
Wild betta fish enjoy a staple diet consisting mainly of insects and insect larvae. By feeding your captive betta a similar diet, you’ll keep him happy and healthy.
Feed your betta foods specifically formulated for betta fish, such as those we’ve provided links to in this guide, including a mixture of freeze-dried, frozen, pellet, and live food.
Be sure to feed your betta once or twice a day, for five or six days per week, and include one fasting day when you don’t feed him. That will help prevent bloating and other health problems associated with overfeeding.
Remove uneaten food from the bottom of your betta’s tank before it has a chance to break down and cause water quality problems in your tank.
Follow these guidelines, and your betta fish will enjoy a happy, healthy life.
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