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Foods For Bettas

Bettas are carnivores that is they eat almost exclusively animal proteins. This said, what you can feed them is really only limited to how squeamish you are. Most people are surprised by the sheer variety of things that I have fed my bettas on occasion ham and american sheese are among them although I wouldn't necessarily recommend them. Here are some that are pretty good Ideas.

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Flake food

This is what most people think of as fish food. Although it's okay as a betta food but If you are at all interested in breeding or taking really good care of your bettas, you should really branch out a bit more. I've never used betta bits bites or anything along those lines. I still don't think they would be very good for conditioning for breeding.

Freeze dried foods

This is 'the next level' in food quality overall. Freeze dried Blood worms(Often called Red grubs) are a good food for bettas. They are actually the larva of some sort of gnat or midge. If you have ever been mcuking around in a creek you can't miss them they are bright red because of the hemoglobin they contain. They are a very good staple for bettas.Unfortunately I am allergic to them. Wierd huh?

Tubifex worms are another larval stage of something. They are typical of polluted waters and are sold in freeze dried cubes which makes them less suitable for bettas in jars.

There are other freeze dried foods such as daphnia and brine shrimp but I haven't had much luck with them.

Frozen foods

These are about as close to live foods without culturing or catching them yourself. Kind of expensive though. Glass and blood worms are best in this category.

Live foods

There are three ways to get live foods: culture, catch or buy. I have had nothing but bad luck culturing live foods. Opportunities to buy live foods are limited and they are often very expensive. My favorite option is to catch my own.

Earthworms
Go out after a rain and pick up some earthworms. If you aren't too dqueamish cut them into little bits and feed them to your bettas-They will love you for it :)
Mosquito larvae
A betta's natural food. In most areas all you need to do is set out a jar or bucket full of water and you will eventually get some mosquito larvae. Net or pour into your betta's jar and he/she will be exstatic.
Baby fish
One way to get these is to go out to a creek and seine out some newly hatched fry of one of the common species chubs etc. Of course you could always just buy a female guppy or three and feed the babies to your bettas. Some might consider this cruel but in nature most baby fish get eaten anyway.
Grasshopper/fish eggs
This is a weird one but the fish absolutely love them. In the fall when the grasshoppers are laying their eggs catch a few cut them open and feed them to your bettas. If you are fishing in the spring and you are filleting you catch and you find a bunch of eggs don't throw them away, feed them to your fish.

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