Feeding Peas: A Photo Tutorial

[Tiari]

You should NOT feed peas to bettas. This is what everyone on bettafish.com says. They say that it is not good for them.

I just recently saw this two days ago over on their site, and was quite surprised by it. I've seen it posted in a few other spots as well, and think that statement is pretty ill serving to Betta owners. Peas are the number one, and only cure for constipation and stomach bloating in Bettas that has consistent results.

The idea, that Bettas would never eat organic matter and only meat, seems a little skewed to me, as in nature, they would eat whatever presented itself as a food item. Even cats, who are carnivores eat grass for digestive issues. Betta may go after peas for precisely this reason, and are also bred, and far more domesticated than their original wild cousins.

Perhaps these fish would not eat peas in the wild, but in the wild they also do not eat prepared pellets containing wheat gluten, nor freeze dried anything, so it is pretty certain they adapt well to a more varied diet.

[Slaphppy7]

I tried this today, with mixed results. The peas were all different sizes out of the bag (BirdsEye), so I think they cooked at varying degrees. Some "shelled" themselves during microwaving, and were very soft, but the larger ones required a bit more effort to peel and were not as soft.

The tetras and platys ate some of them, but weren't over eager. The corys, BNP, and snails LOVED them.

Thanks again for the tutorial, I will "give peas a chance" as part of a diverse diet for my fish

[Trillianne]

If you get mostly hard to peel peas, up your cook time 10-20 seconds more.

Some fish are a bit picky at first... kind of like a kid with their veggies. But a couple weeks or so and they recognize it as tasty eating in my experience.

[Slaphppy7]

Will do, thanks Trilli. They were about half/half easy peel, hard peel mixture. Interestingly, the guppies were most enamored by them, and then the corys and BNP...I will definately do peas again...especially to offer more variety for my BNP