Like most aquarium fish, bettas are not particularly whimsical to food, so they can quite successfully eat both live and dry food. But sometimes, a situation may arise when the betta fish completely refuses to eat. There can be many reasons for this phenomenon – from excessive stress caused by a sharp change in the habitat to severe diseases that threaten the life of a fish.
Therefore, both an experienced and a novice aquarist, when raising betta fish, must necessarily be able to distinguish between what causes a sharp change in the behavior of his wards. That’s why the article will provide great detail to determine the problem of both male and female betta fish. This solution helps to determine the health issue of your betta fish.
Improper care:
Among many inexperienced aquarists, there is an opinion that if under natural conditions, the fish lives muddy, dirty and practically not adapted to the everyday existence of water. Then even with its cultural breeding, there is no need to worry too much about the state of the aquarium.
Cultural bettas are born in an environment as close as possible to the ideal. Therefore they often lose their ability to withstand drastic changes. This leads to the emergence of their high susceptibility to the environment & a decrease in the level of immunity.
As a result, non-observance of general rules and hygiene of their maintenance leads to a sharply adverse reaction of the body, often manifesting as a refusal to feed. In this case, the habitat of the fish should be brought to optimal performance as soon as possible since improper care in just a few weeks can lead to severe chronic ailments, up to the death of the betta.
Adaptation period:
It is quite difficult for aquarium fish to tolerate environmental changes. For more than one day, they can live under a specific light regime and constant water temperature.
After moving a fish to a new aquarium, the parameters of their external environment can change dramatically. There can be various purposes for this, but often such changes are different to maintain the aquarium’s life than in a pet store.
In this case, the fish’s body needs a certain period to get used to the new conditions and composition of the water. Unfortunately, this is often accompanied by many changes in their behavior, including refusal to eat.
Food preferences:
In most cases, the betta fish willingly eats any kind of food – both live and dry. But, like any other pet, this fish can get used to a certain diet and its regime. Often, individuals raised in a pet store are fed the same type; to avoid losses, males are fed cheap and often unbalanced universal feeds.
Therefore, after using the new, high-quality and healthy feed, the betta can often reject an unfamiliar diet. However, do not forget that fighting fish respond best to live food (bloodworms, earthworms, daphnia, brine shrimp, etc.), which is why they can’t ignore dry food, regardless of price and quality.
