To keep a strong and healthy betta, you need to feed them at least twice a day, preferably three. There are many foods available at your local pet store for bettas, ranging from flake foods to live brine shrimp. A variety of foods is essential for a strong betta. Your goal is to simmulate the nutritions your betta would get in the wild. A nutritous diet would consist of giving your betta the right amount of fat, minerals, fiber, and vitamins. This will help your betta live a long and healthy life. Here are a few good foods for bettas to eat...

Mealworms: Bettas will eat only small mealworms. They are an excellent food full of nutritious value.

Mosquito larvae: This is a natural betta food that is very good for bettas if you can get it.

Small Black ants: These work well for bettas. They are high in protien. You can usually find these in your backyard.

Baby Shrimp: Tetra's baby shrimp are good for your adult bettas. It is high in crude protein and has a variety of other nutritions that are good for your bettas.

Bettamin: Tetra's flake food for bettas. This is a good food to start with if you don't want to spend a lot of time hassling with different foods. It does not cloud the water at all. This is the flake food that I reccomend for bettas.

Bloodworms: These are a great food for all bettas. They are larvae of midges, which are terrestrial flies. They are a highly nutritious food for bettas. They can be used as a snack for bettas, but don't feed them this at every meal. They come in live form and freeze dried form. I reccomend the freeze dried form because freezing the bloodworms rids them of their bacteria. The only disadvantage is that they can cloud your water if they aren't eaten.

Infusoria: These are microscopic organisms that can be eaten by all betta fry. You can culture these organisms by putting the green,soft lettuce leaves in water from a well estabilished aquarium in a jar. You need to let the organisms develope. Therefore the culture should be started when you begin to condition the pair for breeding (see Breeding for more info on this food).

Microworms: These a very tiny worms that are the best thing you can feed your fry between the age of 3-30 days. You must buy a culture. You can buy a culture in my Store.

White worms: I have never found where to find this food, but I have heard it's a great food for conditioning bettas before breeding them. They can be cultured in gaden soil.

Brine shrimp: Brine shrimp are one of the best foods for bettas. They are a tasty treat for all bettas. There are two main types, one is from San Fransisco and the other is from Salt Lake City. The kind from SLC are generally larger, and the ones from S.F. are smaller. The only set-back is that you have to hatch them from eggs. Here is how to do it...

What you will need:

Brine shrimp eggs
sea salt or non-iodized salt
aerator
thermometer
small siphon and thin cloth
gallon jar

How to hatch brine shrimp:

1. Fill up jar with luke-warm water. Add salt, about three tablespoons. Now put in the aerator and let the tank set for 24 hours. Make sure the tempature stays at 80 degrees.

2. You can put the shrimp eggs in now. If you keep the tempature at a constant 80 degrees the shrimp should hatch in about 24-32 hours.

3. When the eggs hatch you should put the siphon in the middle of the jar. Siphon them through the thin cloth. Now the shrimp should gather in orange masses. You should now rinse the shrimp in tap water. You can now feed the shrimp to the fish.