Help! I think my Betta is choking.

[bakes_buns]

Hello all,

I recently purchased my first fish, a nice Betta! After taking on a rather unsettling shade of grey after the trip home from the pet store he quickly regained his colour and he seems to have settled in to his new home.

My concern is that when I feed him, he appears to choke. His head moves up and down and brings the pellet back up. After a few attempts he seems to hold it down. Is this normal Betta behaviour or should I start practicing my mouth to mouth resuscitation skills?

I'm feeding him 2 Betta pellets a day as recommended by the pet store.

 

[ashleigh]

don't he's not choking- in my little bit of experience they all do that with pellets. have you considered feeding him frozen food?

 

[DarkElf_Mairead]

I think the head up and down thing is like chewing, but I'm not sure. Mine does that with everything he eats. He also spits things out sometimes, especially Frog Bites that I feed my frog. He tries one, doesn't like it, and spits it back out lol.

 

[bakes_buns]

ahh. Thanks, sounds like it's perfectly normal. I might give the frozen foods a try and vary his diet a little.

 

[daveheard]

I,ve noticed my dwarf neon rainbows do this with granular food,
Is it something that a lot of fish do????

 

[twoluvcats]

think of it this way...try eating floating food, underwater, with no hands as its trying to float back out of your mouth...you'd bob your head too