Overfeeding and underfeeding

[Quasicandid]

I have been keeping my female betta, Agnes, in a community tank for a long time. I have been feeding all of the fish in that tank tropical flake food, since I thought it would be more trouble than it was worth to single out Agnes and feed her betta food separately.

Now, however, she has become quite... rotund. I've put her in an observation tank so I could pay closer attention to what she is eating. Her scales seem smooth, her fins colorful, all normal. Since she has been overweight for a long time without incident (ie no death) I was wondering what actions I might take, and how long I may expect to wait before she slims down a little.

I've also made a recent purchase of a very small female and I was wondering if there was any food more suitable to tiny bettas than the pellets. I've tried crushing them but most of the larger pieces, she spits out, and the smaller crumbs she doesn't notice.

[bethyMT]

I think fish flakes are OK to feel all bettas...maybe your little one will eat them. That's all my Susanna would eat, and she wasn't tiny!

As far as rotund-ness goes, bettas are prone to it. Maybe she was eating a lot of the community food. As long as she is eating and active, I'd say she's fine. But watch for stress stripes, lethargy and eventual not eating.

Please note, I am not a good betta keeper...gonna try my hand at it again. What I've written here are things I have learned through research. The red flags to watch for are the ones I saw in my own bettas when they were ill (they both had bloat, for whatever reason).