I bought a pair of mahas in Conn, as you all know.
Well, I got them home, and tossed them some blackworms, because it was close and handy, and I knew they were hungry.
BIG mistake. Big.
Since then, when I have fed them pellets, they look at it, and go, what is this? It's not moving.. It must not be food.
Then I find out form the breeder, Ani, that my fish had never had live foods until I fed it to them.
I told her they were mad at her for letting the cat out of the bag..
This is what she said..

They sure did have QUITE a racket indeed.
Here I thought they would starve, they didn't know what pellets were, blah blah... They saw that sucker sign big as day on my forehead, didn't they?

I think yours need to talk to Plato still bc other than bw's, he still won't eat anything but flakes.

hmmmmmm ... I have two Wild Types that are doing me the same way. I have a pair of Betta Falx and a pair of Smargadina. They watched the pellets floating and some sinking, waited until they stopped moving, and then seemingly snubbed their noses at the pellet food. UH!!! Soooo, thinking the same way as you did, I rushed out and bought black worms to feed them. Boy they sure knew what those were and gobbled them up :OO
I'm going to thaw some frozen brine shrimp and add a few pellets in some garlic today, and see if I can get them to vary their diet.

Heh betta extortion!

Smitty, you got Dick Houston Falx, right?
Nate has some as well..
Can we trade?
Mahas for Smargas?
Where did your guys come from? The smargas?

Yep, our Falx are from Dick Houston. We actually met and talked with Dick and Dot at the FCB show! They're an awesome couple, very nice people.
Our Smarga's are from the Spector Family ... whom I'm trying to contact for help in getting them to spawn.
If I can get them to spawn then sure I'd love to trade for some Maha's !!! That'd be very cool!!!

That would indeed be awesome. I would love too have them, the maha's and even imbellises. (imbellisi, imbellis'.. what is the plural?).
The bubblenester bettas shouldn't be too difficult, being as they are much like splendens.

Well I have the Mahachai's that took 1st at the Indy Convention and was quoted to be "The best female I have ever seen!" by the judge of that class. I didn't pay attention to who it was cause I was heated in the bidding and even moreso after that statement. LOL. I also have a few of Dick Houston's Falx. One of which is still mouth brooding. Any day I hope to have little falx babies!

Oh yeah so the whole point... My mahachais from Ani switch back and forth from white worms to betta pro without any problem. Same thing with the falx.

Mina are on strike and threatening to munch babies if I don't break off with the black worms..
I told them go ahead, that is why I have 60 over in the tank with Jamaica's babies.

I seem to be slowly getting mine to vary their diet. The frozen brine shrimp is working now ... but only after its sits there for a few minutes, while they appear to be waiting on something else :OO
The ONLY way I can get them to eat pellets (Atison's Pro) is if I soak it in garlic juice for a bit, and even then, they still look like they're looking for something else, and only take the garlic soaked pellets if they're really hungry AND they can't find anything else to eat. Crazy little carnivors! :lolo: :wub:

It helps if you can get the frozen food to move.
I have used pipettes to push and pull the water to get frozen bloodworms to "move" and my babies start eating the betta pro starter, (see the vid) only after it starts to sink. ie move.
These maha are funny though, lol.
I am glad I took the one batch away from the parents, so the splenden babies can teach them to be greedy piggies (they are already eating betta pro starter!). I have heard that guppy fry will also teach babies to eat anything, but I am not interesting in getting guppies.. My tanks are reserved for bettas, lol.

We inherited guppies with a 20 gallon tank and stand we got. They have already miltiplied several times since we got them. We put some in the 55 grow out and we will see what happens. Never thought of putting them with the wilds though. That might be an idea though ;)

Mumu has a father son guppy team that raises his babies.. And I have heard this from other people too.. you put the guppies in with the bettas, and they teach them to eat foods that they won't touch, because they don't recognize it as food, and the guppy fry teach the betta fry to eat non live foods.

I swear I really do feed my mahachais pellets! In fact this morning they got FREEZE DRIED blood worms for a change, but the last few days they've eaten nothing but pellets. They all sit at the top and beg for food and gobble up the pellets the minute they hit the water.

I don't know any pet stores aroun here who sell real live blood worms so I have to stick with the dry stuff.

Bad little fishies.

Ani