Betta fish are very commonly kept by people as their pets. The reason behind preferring betta fish to be stored as pets is that they can survive in small water tanks and are easy to maintain. Moreover, their beauty or attractive contrasting colors make them more eye-catching. Despite the betta fish being so easy to be taken care of, there can occur some problems that make their owners worry about them.
One of the most common issues with the pet bettas is that they sometimes suddenly stop eating or having a proper diet. The owner of the betta fish for sure gets curious about the reason behind this.
Possible Reasons Why Betta Fish is Not Eating
Let’s discuss the major possible reason for betta fish not having a proper diet or not eating at all:
Unhealthy Diet
A very common reason for the betta fish not eating is that the food provided to them may be unhealthy. Bettas and almost all the other fish need food with proper ingredients required for them to stay healthy. Pattated food is normally considered a very good option to feed betta fish.
The food becomes unhealthy especially if it has been stored for a long time, probably more than six months even if it had all the necessary ingredients at the start. When their food is kept for this long duration, it loses the effect of some of its essential ingredients required for the fish to stay healthy, especially it loses the presence of proper vitamin C and Vitamin E that is very important to keep the betta’s immune system efficient. Moreover, when the food is kept for so long, it does not smell the same as before. This is another reason that betta fish deny eating it.
Temperature Changes
Bettas live in tropical areas and like many other fish move to the areas that have the best suited temperature levels. But, they cannot move like that in case they are kept as a pet in a water tank. When bettas are not provided with their best suited temperature levels, they often stop eating because of the discomfort they suffer from.
As they require a proper level of temperature for their healthy survival, it is important to keep the temperature level of the water keeping in mind their healthy living. Majority of the betta fish owners find it difficult to maintain the water temperature of the fish tank. A proper temperature control system should be introduced to the fish tank to maintain the level of temperature or a thermometer should be used to repeatedly check the temperature.
Stress
You must have heard many times that betta fish are famous for their quarreling nature. They cannot tolerate other fish of the same or different species in their surroundings or territory. Male bettas are especially known for their quarreling nature as when they fight with each other, they fight till death. Female bettas are comparatively considered less quarreling and competitive but still as per the nature of this species of fish, they get into competitions easily and ultimately end up being stressed. This may also be the reason that your betta fish suddenly stopped eating or started eating comparatively less.
Overfeeding
Betta fish can eat the food in good quantity but like all the other living things, they also have a digestive system that does not allow them to eat more than the quantity that can be stored by their digestive system. When a large amount of food is placed in the tank, the betta fish eats only in a limited quantity and the left-over food does not taste or smell the same after a certain period of time. The bad taste of the left-over food might be a reason that the betta fish is not eating it. And even if the betta fish eats it, it is unhealthy for them as it can make them sick.
Sickness and Diseases
No matter how much you care for the food and healthy living of your betta fish, they can get sick and attacked by different diseases like all the other living creatures. So, if there is no other reason behind your betta fish not eating, it can probably be a disease that has attacked them. In such cases, it must be understood what the reason is and what is its cure.
The Bottom-Line
There are multiple possible factors contributing to the fact that your betta fish has not been eating its food properly. The possible reasons can be an unhealthy diet/old food, changes/fluctuations in the temperature levels, mental stress due to the existence of other fish, overfeeding the fish and sickness or diseases. It is important to firstly identify the main reason and then change their living patterns accordingly.
