Can Betta Fish Eat Whole Krill?

Bettas, aka Siamese fighting fish, are carnivores. They need a meat diet for good health. In captivity, they can certainly eat krill, with some caveats. To keep your bettas at their best, their diet should be varied and include more than just krill. No one food can totally ensure the health of your fish.

  1. Betta Diet

    • Bettas are almost exclusively micro-carnivores. This means they eat tiny meaty foods. In the wild, their diet mostly consists of small freshwater crustaceans and insects, both adults and their larvae. In captivity, they need foods that contain a high proportion of meaty matter. Even though a betta would never encounter krill in the wild -- krill do not occur in freshwater -- they make a good food for bettas, since bettas have adapted to frequently eating crustaceans in the wild.

    Krill

    • Krill are marine or saltwater crustaceans. They resemble free-swimming prawns or shrimp. They form the foundation of many ocean food webs. Many pet shops sell frozen or freeze-dried krill. Like many crustacean-based foods, they are rich in pigments called carotenoids. Carotenoids are red, orange and yellow pigments. These can enhance the color of the fish that eat them, and tend to occur alongside various vitamins and micronutrients that fish also need to thrive.

    Feeding Bettas

    • You have to take several steps to ensure you are safely feeding your bettas. First, krill can grow larger than bettas, so you may need to chop or break up the krill before feeding it to bettas. Additionally, you must never feed more than your betta can eat in 30 seconds. Any more food that this will probably rot and foul the water. Additionally, bettas benefit from a varied diet consisting of multiple foods.

    Other Foods

    • In the wild, bettas often eat a wide variety of foods. In captivity, you should feed them as diverse a diet as possible to ensure their good health. Start with a staple or main food. You can use dried prepared foods for this. Most pet shops sell foods specifically for bettas. However, you should feed them the occasional live, frozen or freeze-dried meaty foods as treats. In addition to krill, these can include foods like brine shrimp, blood worms and daphnia. A diverse diet ensures that bettas get all of the vitamins and minerals they need to thrive.