Marine betta spitting out food

[drmantistoboggan]

I purchased a marine betta about a week ago. At first it wouldn’t eat frozen at all, now I drop some mysis in the tank, it looks at it and will put it in its mouth but then spit it back out after half a second or so. What should I do to get it to eat? Should I give it live? I don’t want to discourage it from eating the frozen but the spitting out of mysis is odd. Should I try another food?

 

[Biglew11]

Definitely try different foods. My fish will put food in there mouths and if they don't like it will spit it back out.

 

[Goodair]

Live shrimp. If they spit it out, its because the food is too big or they dont like the taste. Betas are pretty finicky eaters. What size is your fish atm?

 

[drmantistoboggan]

Live shrimp. If they spit it out, its because the food is too big or they dont like the taste. Betas are pretty finicky eaters. What size is your fish atm?

He’s small. I’d say 3 inches but a good chunk of that is his tail

 

[Hugh Mann]

Marine Bettas are super finicky eaters.
By that I mean super duper finicky.

Mine took about a month to actually eat frozen foods, survived on pods alone pretty much.

To this day it still spits out mysis if it grabs too big a piece. Try smaller pieces, or different foods.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Mine did that for about two weeks and now cant get enough food !!

 

[drmantistoboggan]

Thank you everyone for your input! I got some brine just so he gets something in his stomach. I’ll start chopping the mysis smaller and see if that helps.

 

[drmantistoboggan]

Mine did that for about two weeks and now cant get enough food !!

Week two. Still spitting it out. Ate some brine but that’s it

 

[lion king]

Week two. Still spitting it out. Ate some brine but that’s it

They do come around if given time, these are another fish that may need live foods to settle in. Don't let him starve before giving him time to acclimate. You may need to give him live ghost shrimp a few feedings, they will also eat guppies. Live black worms if you can get them, I can't get them where I live. Pods and live brine shrimp. If he is taking live brine shrimp, start mixing in mysis and frozen brine with the live. Once they get going, although some are extremely shy, they will start to accept other foods. Mine would eat pe mysis and hikari mega marine, but like all my predators, he also got ghosties. PE mysis is a better choice in mysis, it has a highly protein content and is meatier for predatory fish.

Like with all fish, not eating can also be a sign of internal parasites. Because he is interested it may not be that, and might be because he doesn't recognize what you are feeding as food. That's the real psychology about why some fish need to be started off with live food, they normally don't eat from the water column or recognize what you are feeding.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Lion King mentioned ghost shrimp which should stir interest. Seachem "ENTICE" is also a good additive to put in food as it really does get finicky eaters going on food

 

[drmantistoboggan]

Lion King mentioned ghost shrimp which should stir interest. Seachem "ENTICE" is also a good additive to put in food as it really does get finicky eaters going on food

Never heard of the entire. I’ll give that a shot. I mean he is at least trying the frozen but I’ll see about getting a few ghost shrimp

 

[vetteguy53081]

Never heard of the entire. I’ll give that a shot. I mean he is at least trying the frozen but I’ll see about getting a few ghost shrimp