Did you know a growing number of betta fish owners are underfeeding their pets?
The fear of overfeeding, obesity, and Swim Bladder Disease has led to the exact opposite problem.
A healthy diet means a varied diet, so we put together this list of healthy betta fish treats!
#1 DIY Food Paste
If you want to make your own fish food, a paste is an easy and nutritious way to go!
All you need to do is blend your chosen ingredients and use a syringe to feed it to your betta.
We recommend using garlic combined with shrimp or scallops. Just remember not to use any artificial ingredients.
Any fish you put in must be fresh, unsalted, and uncured.
Some people like to sparingly feed their betta chicken liver or beef heart when they make homemade food.
Betta fish do best on a land meat-free diet, though.
They would never have access to chicken or beef in their natural environment.
While it doesn’t harm them in small doses, you want to avoid it whenever possible.
When feeding your betta homemade paste, barely let the syringe dip into the water.
This prevents the paste from sinking and contaminating the tank water.
You’ll need to clean up any uneaten food quickly.
#2 Homemade Treat Cubes
Making your own frozen treats is a great way to save money on food.
Not only do you get full control over the ingredients and portion sizes. But you get to make a stockpile of treats in the freezer.
All you need is an ice cube tray and fresh ingredients.
If you like making the paste, it’s easy to freeze in cubes.
Cut slices off the cube once frozen or freeze small portion sizes.
Since the ideal water temperature for betta tanks is 78-80°F (27°C), frozen food will soften immediately after it hits the water.
To soften it before it goes in the tank, put a bit of tank water into a small container and let the treat warm up.
Making your own treats is one of the best ways to ensure your betta gets a varied diet!
#3 Blood Worms
Blood Worms are an extremely popular treat for betta fish.
I’ve never met a betta who didn’t love them!
This is precisely the kind of snack they would eat in their natural habitat, which is why they like it so much.
Blood Worms often come freeze-dried or frozen. This is great because they last a long time in the freezer.
Our feeding recommendations for these guys are to add them to the weekly feeding schedule.
Don’t give them to your betta every day.
But feed them a couple of days per week in place of your betta’s evening pellets.
Frozen fish food adds variety to your betta’s diet without making your job harder!
Learn more about bloodworms and betta fish in our complete guide here.
#4 Daphnia
Daphnia is another treat available in frozen options.
You might find it freeze-dried or frozen into the form of cubes.
But daphnia is also a treat your betta can eat live!
Betta fish hunt for insects and small fish in nature, so feeding them live treats is very beneficial.
Daphnia is also an excellent source of both fiber and protein.
As you may already know, protein is the staple of a betta’s regular diet.
But fiber is also essential as it helps prevent constipation, bloating, and Swim Bladder Disease.
While some people feed daphnia daily, we recommend keeping it to just a few days per week.
Because it combats digestion issues, it will act as a laxative if fed too often.
Daphnia is an excellent choice to feed live.
But if you would like to order online, here’s a nice freeze-dried daphnia product available on Amazon.
#5 Brine Shrimp
Brine shrimp are another hit with betta fish!
Some betta fish keepers prefer brine shrimp over blood worms for their fish. This is because the nutritional value is higher.
Think of blood worms as a nice sweet treat for your betta.
Brine shrimp are more of a nutritional meal supplement.
Because of the health benefits, your betta can eat brine shrimp more often than other treats.
Where you might feed blood worms two days per week, brine shrimp are okay to feed three or four times a week.
Like anything, introduce it slowly and make sure your fish tolerates the new food well!
#6 Mosquito Larvae
Mosquito larvae will go almost as soon as it hits the water!
This is a live food, which means it encourages your carnivorous fish to hunt.
These are very small and make great snacks. Only feed a couple at a time to ensure you aren’t overfeeding your betta.
If you use these in place of pellets at mealtime, it’s okay to feed more like 3-5 of them.
These are great nutritious snacks. But be careful how much you feed your betta.
When you feed your betta a wider variety of products, you need to check for digestion or other health issues.
#7 Live Shrimp
Feeding live shrimp is expensive unless you know what to look for.
Instead of feeding cherry or amano shrimp, focus on finding small and inexpensive varieties.
Cherry shrimp are sold as pets.
In fact, most of the time, when a betta eats their owner’s cherry shrimp, it’s a tragic accident.
Amano shrimp are often too big for a betta to fit in their mouth, which is why some people choose them as tank mates.
But if you want a good, cheap shrimp to feed live to your betta, we’ve got some ideas.
For one thing, the freeze-dried brine shrimp we mentioned earlier is also available live.
Make sure you buy baby brine shrimp, though. These are the ideal size for your betta to eat easily.
The next most popular is the Mysis shrimp.
They’re very high in protein, which is exactly what your beautiful fish needs to keep thriving!
Ghost shrimp are another option for feeding live snacks. But they are a lot less popular than fish food.
This is partly because they make such good pets.
Some people house them with calmer betta fish to help with keeping the environment clean.
Again, feeding baby shrimp is always the way to go. Dwarf varieties are safer as well.
#8 Cyclops
Cyclops are yet another live treat your betta will love!
They are very small and work well as live or freeze-dried food.
We recommend feeding cyclops live as it encourages your betta’s instincts to hunt for their prey.
However, get something simple if you decide to buy prepared cyclops treats.
Here’s a cyclops product we like by the San Francisco Bay brand.
The mark of a good treat is when it has just one ingredient, and this one does.
It comes with a couple of tools to help you feed the powder to your fish. If you don’t like the idea of powder, don’t worry.
Plenty of prepared treats for your betta are made from shrimp or worms. Not very many of them come in this powdery form.
Are you set on feeding your betta cyclops? Get them live! We prefer this feeding method anyway.
#9 Black Worms
Black worms can potentially enrich your betta’s diet quite a bit.
However, it’s important to remain cautious when you buy black worms.
For one thing, we recommend only feeding them live! They are challenging to find in any other form anyway.
When you feed black worms, half the fun for your betta is chasing the thing down.
These guys sink toward the substrate, burrowing under and hiding.
Your betta gets lots of good stimulation by hunting them down.
But black worms must be purchased from a trustworthy seller!
If you get black worms from an unreliable source, they could carry parasites or bacteria into your tank.
This means serious health issues for the betta ingesting the fish.
The worms would contaminate the tank water even if the betta didn’t eat the fish.
Furthermore, it’s essential to be vigilant when feeding black worms.
Only feed one at a time! If it slithers past your betta, it might end up buried in the substrate of your tank for quite a while.
If it died down there and wasn’t eaten, it would add waste to your tank.
Over time, this could alter chemical levels in the aquarium, including increased ammonia.
Watch to make sure your betta is getting the worms you feed.
If one sinks to the bottom and the betta doesn’t hunt it down, you’ll need to find a way to remove it.
Alternatively, you accept the black worms as your new pets and learn to maintain the tank with worms and a betta.
#10 Sun-dried Shrimp
Pre-made shrimp treats are abundant online and in pet stores.
Many of them are labeled as freeze-dried, dehydrated, or sun-dried.
But the more important thing to look at is the ingredients list. Like pellets or other betta fish feed products, the label is not always trustworthy.
Look for something natural and with very few ingredients.
For example, here’s a baby shrimp treat on Amazon.
If you look at the product photos, you’ll see the only ingredient is sun-dried freshwater shrimp.
Other products have more ingredients, not all of which you’ll recognize.
Unless you are specifically recommended these products by someone you trust, stick to the more natural options.
Here is another example of an all-natural product with only one ingredient.
This is another safe option to give your betta. It’s very convenient to order food online and get it by delivery.
Just be sure to check for artificial ingredients before committing to a purchase.
#11 Floating Log
The floating log is an extremely popular treat for betta fish.
Not only is it something they can safely feed on. But it’s also an excellent place for them to play and blow bubble nests.
This isn’t something a betta would find in their natural environment. But it is super fun for them!
They come in different sizes and shapes, too, which means you get to pick the best one for your aquarium.
This is one feeding log on Amazon we like. It looks very natural, and most betta fish seem to love hanging out in it.
The one thing to look out for with floating logs is whether they sink.
Read the instructions to make sure it is positioned correctly in the tank.
If it starts sinking, contact the company for a replacement.
#12 Vacation Feeding Blocks
Vacation feeding blocks are not the most nutritious and delicious snack your betta will find.
We don’t recommend feeding these often or even regularly.
However, they do offer some variety from the usual pellets or flakes.
They also work great if you need to be away for a while. They slowly dissolve and release food into the water.
This means you do not need to be around to feed your betta at mealtimes.
Usually, they are designed to be a strong substitute for betta fish flakes or pellets.
This means they have high protein content to keep your fish nice and healthy.
Often, these block feeders come in a specific flavor that tells you their base ingredient.
Here is a shrimp-flavored one we recommend.
This will keep your fish satisfied for a week or two.
But it’s important to keep offering them variety!
Don’t forget to offer live and frozen treats and prepared betta fish feed like pellets!
Treating Your Betta
We treat our pets to help give them variety and joy. But it’s essential to make the treats your own.
I love the idea of making homemade fish food!
Having the ability to customize your betta’s treats sounds like so much fun!
If you have more feeding questions, read our article on the best foods for betta fish.
And be sure to send this list to a friend whose betta could use a little more variety!
