hey guys,

1. I was wondering can bettas eat ants? i have a lot of ants in my backyard. (im from australia). so can they eat ants or not?

2. Also can they eat the breakfast cereal "Rice bubbles"? they're small pieces of rice crackers.

Cheers peeps!

I wouldn't try the ants because there is a possibility of the ant's venom harming the betta. And for the cereal: no. Bettas are insectivores, they wouldn't eat rice normally as it is a plant product.

Agreed. I would be afraid to try ants like Rosen said... because of the venom. And as for the rice things...I guess i just agree with Rosen on it all... Hehe.
-Kat

Thanks for ur reply, the ants seems reasonable, however why not Ricebubbles? they're a plant just like peas. Because i gave it a go, the other day at feeding my betta the rice bubble, in which it ate and enjoyed :blink: my betta would hold the rice bubble in its mouth and swim around with it, and eventually eat it up. however , there seems to be no negative effect. So can u try and help me from here. Thanks

ok this is my disclaimer as a sheer opinion. i personally would be afraid to use any kind of cereal. You know how when it sits in a bowl too long in the milk it gets all swollen and soggy? I wouldn't want it to swell in my bettas stomach, as small as they are. Its kinda the same principle with birds eating rice, i reckon.
Thats my personal take on the ceral thingy. Hope you find some answers!
-kat

To add my two cents.
I would not feed a betta rice bubbles.. I am thinking they might be the equivalent of rice krispies or puffed rice that we have here in the states.
As for ants
You can feed ants to bettas. They would normally eat ants in the wild, when ants have fallen into their waters. However, I would only give ants a treat, and only ants that you are sure are not severely dangerous, (such as fire ants, though I don't know what the down under version would be).
Most importantly, I would only give ants that I know for sure were not exposed to pesticides or other chemicals.
Having said that, I got into an argument once in a chat room about feeding bettas ants
I was feeding mine ants at the time.
I had 8 or 9 beanies around my computer, and I had a problem with an ant infestation
When I would see an ant around my puter, I would pick it up and drop it into a beanie. This was a long argument with people taking both issues.
Finally the person who took the most issue with my saying bettas can eat ants went to the chat room owner saying "she's telling people that bettas can eat ants." The reply.. "They can". His responce.. "Oh."
The forum owner that he was talking to was none other than V.Parnell of BettySplendens.com, (which may or may not be up at the time of this writing.
In a nut shell, you can feed your bettas ants.
You can even feed then rice bubbles, but there are several factors that should go into your desciding what you want to do.
The question is not so much can you, I have fed my bettas cheese and chocolate), but more SHOULD you.
Once you have weighed in all the available information, you can then make an informed choice.

cheese and chocolate? what..were they depressed? :OO

whats next? a little red wine?

:OO

I can see it now...

I've fed mine all sorts of weird things...I guess its a matter of do you really want to deal with a sugarholic fish?...ahh..I crack my self up...I'm gunna go sit in that corner yonder and giggle to myself..

I'll chime in too. I understand your confusion on the plant eating issue when you hear about bettas being insectivores, which they are, and betta breeders feeding peas.

The reason betta breeders occasionally feed peas is to add some fiber into their diet, which has a tendency to be a very high meat protein prepared diet.

In the wild bettas will eat bugs. Those bugs are alive. Those bugs that are alive have been eating themselves. Most of them are going to have tummies full of vegetable matter when they get eaten by the bettas. With out needing to specifically eat plant matter wild bettas are still getting that fiber in their diets, along with other important nutrients.

Now the bettas we keep will often times be lacking some of those nutrients and crave vegetable matter. We've also learned that too high of a protein diet can lead to constipation. That's another reason for peas. It just helps clean things out and keep the digestive tract moving smoothly. Just like with people. Fiber is important for us also. Who knows why peas instead of some other plant based food, like rice bubbles, especially seeing there's plenty of rice plants where bettas are from. It's probably just because peas are a handy size and easy.

Chances are that if something's not going to be good for a betta, it won't eat it anyway. For example, Mine won't eat Asian beetles. They taste test and that's it. Won't touch them again. On the opposite spectrum, be careful not to over feed something that your bettas love. Like us people eating ice cream and potato chips. Variety and balance.

Hmmm... very informative... Didn't know they could eat those little critters... :T

Ya, my bettas get an small assortment of wild bugs. We get these tiny black ants in the apt, they come in to steal water from the betta tanks. In turn they get picked off if they fall into the water. Also in the summer we get tons of these little flying bugs, they are also drawn to water. Also baby crickets that fall into the tanks trying to get a drink.

The bettas love these little treats and it doesn't happen all the time so I feel less nervous of a pesticide getting into the tanks.