On 1/06/09, Phebe wrote:
> My betta has not been able grasp his food, for several
> weeks. He is hungry and very responsive, but very rarely
> gets a bit; perhaps one every 3 or 4 days. He used to always
> enthusiastically and proudly snatch his food, swim away
> chomping on it and then be back for more. Now he tries, but
> the pellet just floats away, when he tries to grasp it. I
> have switched from his usual Biogold to 2 other betta
> pellets, peas which he really wants, but has the same
> problem with, dried shrimp and Daphnia (sp?) - which
> disintegrates, as soon as it melts. His water and every
> other aspect has been checked. We will get some live blood
> worms, or what ever the pet shop thinks is best, asap.
> Swishy always comes to greet me. I see no signs of trouble
> anywhere on him. Help?

Hi! My betta has recovered! My computer crashed and I lost
all my data, or I would have re-contacted someone in Hawaii,
that wrote me, with the same problem. Even though the freeze
dried Daphnia(?) disintegrated, it may have helped, as I left
his water, dirtied with it, for 2 or 3 hours, a couple of
different times. Perhaps enough got into his system, to start
clearing him out. I believe that his problem may have been
from ingesting fuzz-type bits, from the surface of his water.
(The top of his bowl is now loosely covered, in case that had
been the problem). Swishy started eating again, when I started
squeezing up all the pellets from around the edge of the
water, and his pea bits off of the bottom, with a turkey
baster and then squooshing them back out, into the water. He
got all excited and immediately attacked a piece, and gobbled
it up! For many days, he had not seemed to be able to grasp
food, though he tried, but with out energy. Now, every 2 days,
I take out his "plant" and rock, to give him lots of room, put
in an assortment of food and suck it up with the turkey baster
and then squeeze it out. He loves it! There will be several
bits swirling around for him to pick from, and he will
vigorously snatch one, and chomp. Then after a couple of
minutes, and after he has taken a gulp of air from the top,
which he has always done between bites, I do the turkey baster
routine again, and again he eats!
After about 5 times, he slows down and has obviously lost
interest, so then I just use the baster to remove all the left
over bits,(betta food and pea bits) and replace the water with
fresh (treated) water, at the same temperature - which is kept
on the same heating pad, as his bowl is now. His water
temperature stays around 75F. The fresh water in the separate
container is often not the same temp, so I just run the
outside of the jug under hot or cold water and it very quickly
will change the temp. I have been using a digital meat
thermometer to check.
I use the interior of frozen, thawed peas that have soaked in
a bit of his own water. Swishy has always loved the inside of
peas and as they have kept him eating when other things
haven't, I will keep them, in the things that I offer to him.
Just wanted to offer up all this info, in case it can help
another Betta owner in distress!

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