Betta Food

In the past few months I have found betta pellets have not been available at some LFS when I have gone looking for them. I was also wondering which ones were particularly good.
I've been having a rummage around on some other sites, and have now ordered 3 different brands fro Amazon.
The Hikari Betta Bio Gold I have used previously.
Northfin Food Betta Bits 1mm pellets were the top recommendation on some other sites.
New Life Spectrum Betta fish formula was also highly recommended.
Kimi the betta is not picky when it comes to food, and will eat anything (and everything). Obviously he is a big fan of bloodworms, and Bug Bites.
Does anyone have any betta food recommendations?

I usually use Atisons Betta Food, made by Ocean Nutrition, as that comes in a 15g tub which lasts forever. The one in the blue tub not the pink tub of Betta Pro.This used to be one of the more highly recommended foods but they changed the formula to mainly fish meal and cereal meal. Although this link is out of date, aimed at the American market, and doesn't look at betta food, it does explain the types of ingredients that go into fish food. You will see that the new Atisons contains not very good ingredients. http://www.oscarfish.com/fish-food-ingredients.html
The one good point about Atisons is that the tub contains a silica gel sachet.

I find that tubs of good betta food are far to big for just one betta which I why I have never bought the highly recommended Northfin and New Life Spectrum brands. New Life Spectrum food is only available in 50g tubs which would last for years with just one betta.
I have used Hikari betta food in the past when it was the only betta food I could source locally, but now I buy fish food on-line. This one also contains not very good ingredients which is why I avoid it now.

I have just googled Northfin betta food and find that is supplied in 20g packs. I'll be trying that next  I have already bought Northfin kelp wafers for the snails, shrimps and stiphodons, though they are quite big so I have to crush them.



Fish food must go off as the packs have a use by date. I would not keep them in the freezer judging by the amount of ice that ends up in packs of frozen food, which is worse in frost free freezers because of the way they work. But in an air tight tub, with or without silica gel, in dark cool cupboard is probably the best we can do.

Having found the Northfin food comes in 20g tubs, I bought some just after I posted  It is on its way as I type.


I should also add that the food in the main fish tank cupboard currently consists of Northfin kelp pellets (crushed for my small fish), Omega One flakes and New Life Spectrum small sinking pellets. And there's frozen food in the freezer. I do vary the flakes between Omega One and New Life Spectrum when I buy the next pack.

I got the Northfin betta food a few days ago. The pellets are smaller and darker in colour than the Atisons. They also tend to sink faster, a good reason for adding them one at a time so the betta finds them before they sink.
But what a difference. My betta often swam round with a pellet between his lips before spitting it out and eating it. Were they too big for him? With the new pellets he almost jumps out of the water in his haste to eat them; he doesn't swim round with them between his lips as they go down almost as soon as they hit the water. The smaller size seems to suit this betta, and the way he devours them suggests they taste nicer They do contain garlic and rosemary extract in addition to a whole host of vitamins (disguised as their chemical names)

The only downside to the Northfin pellets is trying to remove a pinch from the bag. So I've put them in an old Atisons tub.