Guest Author - Jilly Florio

I pretty much rely on Hikari's Bio-Gold betta pellets as a staple food for my betta pets. While I do vary their diet with treats, I like a basic, healthy pellet food to base their diet upon. The pellets are imported from Japan, where bettas have been bred for centuries.

Bettas are very finicky and can take up to a week to recognize a new food. So it is comforting to them to keep their basic food the same over time, and to use a food formulated specifically for bettas. This product's first ingredients are fish meal, wheat flour, milt meal, Antartic krill meal, gluten meal, clam meal and cuttlefish oil. Only 38% protein, but still plenty for my little carnivore. Vitamins A, D, E, K, B (a complex of them) and C are listed, as well as a slew of minerals. I would call this a premium fish food.

The Bio-Gold betta pellets float for a long time, giving them time to find and "capture" each pellet. The floating feature also prevents extra food from falling into the gravel (where they need to be cleaned, lest they start rotting and fouling the water). I really do prefer a floating pellet like this for bettas.

The 20 gram package (0.7 oz) has the "Easy-Feed Spout," which is a better feeding mechanism thatn the smaller package with the plastic cut-out on the front. For one thing, this package can be opened and closed, preventing spills and waste. The food stays mold-free, since the spout closes. And a feature that's really great about this package: you can put extra pellets back in the bag, after pouring some out into your hand.

That's a big money saver, since you won't have wasted food sitting in the palm of your hand after feedings. With the other Bio-Gold package, and most other betta pellet products, it is very difficult to put excess food back in the container. Keeping in mind that each betta only needs about 3 pellets, it's easy to over-pour with almost all betta food products.

The package on the back shows how to open the package and how to pour the food into the tank. I would make sure you only pour the pellets into your hand, or into a dish first. You do NOT want to accidently pour too much betta food in his tank. Overfed bettas often end up with intestinal problems and, frequently, death is a result from the subsequent swim bladder infections.

Hikari touts this product as a color-enhancing formula. I myself have not noticed that any one food enhances betta coloration, but since this is a complete food formulated with bettas in mind, I will give them the benefit of the doubt. The best way to promote betta color is to give them proper requirements overall - the right temperatures, clean water, stable conditions and a great diet. So the pellets can certainly be a part of that. :)

Here is your link for the 20g package at Amazon:



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