I feed my guy Hikari Betta Bio-Gold. If I presoak the pellets he spits out the soft part but eats the center. If I give it to him straight out of the container he eats them completely. Will it hurt him to not presoak the pellets? Should I give him something else? I also have freeze dried blood worms for him. Is that more of a snack for him?

I also feed Hikari Betta Bio-Gold to my two Bettas and I think they are great.

It does sound strange that he'll eat the hard part but not the soft. Generally speaking it is advisable to pre-soak any pellet in order to soften it slightly, make it easier to eat and digest and to prevent swimbladder/constipation problems.

Personally, and this is only personally so no-one jump on me please, I don't pre-soak this brand before I feed them because they seem to soften very quickly already in my opinion.

What I do is to feed them one at a time and place it well away from the Betta on the other side of the tank, it may just be my Bettas, but they always take a minute or so to find it as they are too busy patrolling and flaring at me and by that time it has softened even more.

I did try pre-soaking the pellets once, but I personally found them to get way too soft too quickly and like you say, they seem to prefer them slightly harder. I've found the way I do it, works for me and my Bettas at the moment, but it won't necessarily work for any other Bettas I get.

It won't necesarily work for every Betta out their either as they are all so different in terms of personality and like all fish some are more prone to swimbladder and constipation problems than others.

So, yes as general rule pre-soak, but if they won't eat that way then you could try putting them directly into the tank using the method I do and place it well away from the Betta - make them work a little for it.

If you don't pre-soak, you do need to be extra vigilant about health problems, but like I said it all depends on the Betta. I know some people on here have lost Bettas before because of these health problems that they directly attribute to not pre-soaking. So it really is up to you and I wouldn't say do or don't.

On the other hand your Betta is quite new isn't he? So maybe just carry on pre-soaking and persevere with it and he may well fully accept it in the end. Bettas can be very finicky when it comes to a new food and eating habits. So they will probably just adjust to what you are doing.

You could of course, if you wish, try another brand of betta pellets or flakes altogether

As for freeze dried Bloodworms these are an excellent nutrious dietry supplement, but they should really be given a few times a week as an extra/ treat and not as their sole staple diet. Pellets or flakes (if they'll have them as some won't touch) are more nutritionally balanced.

These are just my views, hope this helps a bit

Thanks for all the great advice, Mr. B

I had him about 10 days now. I have always presoaked, but he consistently spits out the soft part. Yesterday, he would not even touch any of them, so I gave him three pellets right out of the container, and he liked that. I may try something else, but he seems pretty finicky and stubborn!

As he is new, you could persevere with the pre-soaking just for now, give him a few more weeks to get established onto the pellets and then re-assess it. The pellets very small, so you probably only need to soak them for 30-60 seconds anyway, maybe try to find a compromise between rock hard and soft mush. Best of luck with him!

Should I admit that I didn't presoak for my Betta's either? They would let them sink,and not eat them,.I constantly found the food at the bottom and was always cleaning,so I began to just place them right in.I think more importantly to realize is that most people overfeed their betta's. Their stomach is around the size of their eye,so when feeding pellets and such,remember that those pellets swell once they hit water,and although your Betta will beg like he's starving,it only takes a bit of food to fill up that little belly of his.
My Betta's loved the frozen Bloodworms the best.Their a little messier,and you have to be careful to NOT let the total pkg. completely thaw out,but I find that all my fish prefer the frozen over the freeze-dried.I'm not saying that they wouldn't eat them-just saying that they enjoyed the frozen more.

I do pre-soak my bettas pellets before feeding him. I soak two for just a couple minutes and then splast the top of the water to let him know that its "Chow" time and when he swims up I drop in the pellets and he eats them. Also as Devs remarked, my betta loves the frozen bloodworms. When I take some out for my goldfish I take a few little bits off the cube for my betta. He loves them. He also loves peas and I have seen him picking at the snails food. Come to think of it, I think he loves everything, well except for the snails living with him.

the others have given you very excellent advice. you betta may be like my male. He won't eat it either if it is soggy. He will only eat it if it is crunchy right out of the container. My female will go and eat it right away, but the male waits a couple seconds before he eats it so it is still cruchy. you might try blood worms as a treat a couple times a week , but I would stick with pellets as his staple diet. Since he is kinda new it may take a while for him to adjust. My male would not eat anything but hbh betta bites ( whick sink as soon as you put them in and mess up the tank or bowl) . he would not eat off the surface. I tried a trick someone told me and it worked and now he is eating off the surface the food I chose for him -Hikori betta bio gold. She told me to put the food in and if he does not eat it in 5 mintues you get your net and scoop the food out and not feed him again till the next day and repeat the same thing. Eventually he will learn to eat when the food is put in. It only took Ginseng one day to learn to start eating the hikori bettta gold after I started doing this to him. On the back of the hikori package it says it may take a betta up to 5 days to adjust to a new food. My female was different , she eagerly ate the hikori betta gold the very first night I got her as soon as I put it in the bowl.

My Osamu is always ready to eat when I get up in the morning and turn my computer on. I just love to watch him crunch away at his food. He loves the blood worms too, but I figured that would only be a few times a week and not a daily food. I think I'll try and soak them for 30-60 secs and see if he will still spit out the soft part. Such a brat....

I soaked the pellets for 30 secs this morning. He still managed to spit out the little bit of soft part. Another question I have is, do I feed the blood worms instead of the pellets one day a week, or in addition? Do you guys only feed once a day?

I swear I have never seen him poop either. Is it just a tiny amount, do they go on the bottom of the tank or something?

My daugther took a close look at him the other day and said his face looked ugly. He sure flared up at her! Must have heard her!! My beautiful little man...

that is funny about him flaring at her after she insulted him . I feed twice a day . Once in the morning and once in the evening. You would feed the blood worm instead of the pellets at that feeding, not both.

Oh dear, he is fussy

Maybe try feeding them dry for a while, using the way I said earlier and see how he gets on with that. Monitor him very closly though. The other thing is to just persevere, it can take quite a while for them to get established on any particular food.

Everyone has there own way of doings things with regards to feeding, I feed the staple pellets once everyday, except one day a week when they don't get fed anything at all.

I feed the bloodworms as an additional second feed later in the day a few times a week.

Yeah, it was ages before I noticed my Bettas poop either - it is really teeny weeny poop!

Just monitor his stomach region for swellings and all along his body for bloating or uneven swelling, those are signs of constipation and blockages. If you overfeed a betta you can often visably see the stomach area getting bigger as you feed, so this is a good way of monitoring it

My new betta Acorn is so weird about his food. He will ONLY eat dry hikari pellets. I've tried soaked hikari, hbh, freeze dried bloodworms and even frozen bloodworms. I've never seen a betta that would turn its nose up at frozen bloodworms, but this guy does. I just limit his food and fast him if he starts to look constipated and so far I haven't had any problems.

I really think the way you feed them is a personal preference as long as you're observant and conscientious. Personally, I only feed mine once a day. I try to feed them peas on one day and bloodworms on one day and I fast them every once in a while too.

Since he is so new, try waiting about 3 weeks before introducing any new food. that is how long it took my male ct to accept different food. He would not touch anything other than hbh betta bites but now he readily eats the hikoir betta gold