With more and more people trying their hand at breeding their betta fish, we have noticed a spike in the number of questions that we have seen people asking about taking care of their betta fry.
Without a doubt, the most commonly asked question that we see people asking about time and time again is feeding betta fry correctly to encourage healthy growth rates.
Due to seeing so many people asking so many questions about feeding their betta fry, we have decided to publish this dedicated article going over what you should be feeding your betta fry.
We have also decided to cover the other commonly asked questions that we see people asking about feeding their betta fry too.
Before we go any further though, we just want to say that we are presuming you have already removed the male and female betta from the fry to prevent them from eating their own fry.
We see a number of beginners to breeding betta make this mistake and then wonder what happened to all of their fry. Both the male and female betta will happily eat their own fry if they get the chance.
When Can I Start Feeding My Betta Fry?
You should be providing suitable food sources for your betta fry as soon as they hatch from their eggs. The some of the more popular initial foods for betta fry include Infusoriam, Vinegar Eels, Microworms, Banana Worms, and Walter Worms.
In our opinion, vinegar eels are definitely the best option for the first food for your betta fry due to them being cheap, easy to culture, and easy to feed to your betta fry.
Freshly hatched betta fry tend to love vinegar eels too with them being small enough for your betta fry to eat them for the first three to four days of hatching from their eggs before moving onto other foods.
It is a very common mistake that beginners to breeding betta fish make when they presume that a betta fry will eat its egg sack or get nutrients from a different source.
This is not correct for betta fish and you will have to provide a food source that is small enough for them to eat when they first hatch to help nurish them and provide everything the fry require for healthy growth.
What Should I Feed Betta Fry?
Betta fry grow at a rapid pace and the ideal food options for their size change every few days. From day 1 to 3, vinegar eels are usually the best option then from day 4 to 7 micro worms can be an excellent choice before moving the fry onto baby brine shrimp.
There are a number of other foods that you are able to integrate into the diet of your betta fry but this is our recommended food path.
We already covered the advantages of using vinegar eels as your bett fishes first food and although there are plenty of other options that are small enough for your fry to eat, we really would recommend then.
If you are a beginner they do tend to be the better option due to how easy it is to culture the vinegar eels too.
Once your betta fry are around four days old you should be looking to move them onto a larger food source like micro worms to maintain a healthy growth rate.
Micro worms are also cheap and easy to culture with betta fry absolutely loving them making them an ideal option for the second food source with the worms also being jam packed with vitamins and minerals too.
Once your betta fry are around a week old, you should be looking to move them over to baby brine shrimp and in our opinion, these are the ultimate betta food source.
If you actually get your own brine shrimp hatchery kit then you are able to feed the baby brine shrimp to your betta fry or let them grow for a few days and feed them to adult betta fish too.
This can work out as a very cheap food source for your betta fish and betta fry as the initial hatchery kit is only around $20 with egg packs usually retailing at around a couple of dollars per pack.
Betta fry will happily stay on baby brine shrimp until they are jouvanile betta fish too and then you can integrate betta pellet food while using the brine shrimp as a treat food.
Some people will switch their betta dry over to grindle worms at the two weeks of age mark but this is usually not required for most people.
Betta fry will happily stay on baby brine shrimp and adult brine shrimp until thy become jouvaniles and unless you are caring for a large number of tanks with betta fry in them, grindle worms usually take to much time and effort for most people to culture.
Is Feeding Betta Fry Egg Yolk Worth It?
You are able to use boil egg yolk as a food source for your betta fry but it can be hit and miss with many betta dry simply ignoring it.
You can try your fry with boiled egg yolk to see if they eat it or not but we would usually recommend that you always have an alternative food source available due to so many betta fry not eating it.
A single betta pairing can result in as many as 300 fry to feed too and with many betta fry not eating egg yolk, it should never be relied on as the only available food source for your fry.
Following the path that we laid out earlier in the article of vinegar eels into micro worms into brine shrimp would be our recommendation over egg yolk.
The vast majority of the betta fry you are caring for will happily eat all three food sources when they are large enough for them.
Any betta fry that do not eat them are usually weak or unhealthy and are unlikely to have survived anyway where as trying to only feed your betta fry egg yolk can result in a large number of otherwise healthy betta fry not making it.
How Often Should You Feed Betta Fry?
You should feed your betta fry between three and five small meals each day to optimise their calorie and nutritional intake.
This will help to encourage healthy growth in the betta fry while also giving them all the vitamins and minerals they require to have their colors come in quickly too.
We are fully aware that most of our readers will lead very busy lives and not be able to site at home and fd their betta fry every few hours.
Provided you spread the feeding times out for your bettas across at least three equal meals then your betta fry will usually grow up to be healthy and free from issues.
It is usually professional betta breeders, collectors, and people who breed competitive betta fish for competitions who try to maximise everything for the best possible fish that will take the time to spread the meals over five feeding times.
Although there is plenty of data to back this up to be the best option, the difference between feeding your betta fry three times a day or five times a day is marginal so if you have to be at work for most of the day then aim for three different meals.
How To Make Betta Fry Food At Home!
There are a number of ways that you are able to set up your betta fry feeding cultures at home so you are able to produce the food required for them.
The food sources for the first week are usually better to just order in as your fry only eat them for a few days but a brine shrimp hatchery kit can be a great investment.
This is due to betta fry often eating the baby brine shrimp from your brine shrimp hatchery kit from the one to twelve week mark.
You are then able to adjust the time you have the brine shrimp hatched for to feed them to larger betta fish too allowing you to make betta fry food at home with ease while also being able to use the same system for jouvanile and adult betta fish too.
As we touched on earlier in the article, you will have to purchase brine shrimp egg packs to keep your hatchery kit producing baby brine shrimp but they are only a couple of dollars.
If you are keeping a number of betta fish then you are able to use this investment to provide food for all of them right from the comfort of your own home too.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over feeding betta fry to an end. We hope that you have enjoyed our article and that we have been able to answer your questions about feeding your betta fry to encourage healthy grow from your fry hatching all the way up to them becoming jouvanile betta fish. As we mentioned though, there really are a wide range of great food sources that you are able to use, we have just covered our recommendation as we feel it offers the best balance between cost and nutritional value for your betta fry.
