Thank you so much. Do you often keep them in a quarantine tank to train them to be a little more friendly and open and then add them to the DT or is that not needed/helpful? Did you have any issues with them eating your fish/shrimp? Also where do you purchase yours from? Thank you!
They are going to be timid at first no matter what in most cases. They will always stay somewhat timid. They are nocturnal in the wild and spend their days in caves along with Moray Eels (which is badass and explains their coloration and markings!.) I have never had one eat a single shrimp, fish or any part of a clean up crew. They are also very long lived if they are in a healthy environment and I have seen estimates of normal lifespan of 40-50 years.
Will they eat large frozen shrimp? As in like frozen shrimp you buy from the grocery story for human consumption? Curious if target feeding pieces of that would be a viable option or if just getting them on pellets is best? Do you generally buy yours from anywhere specific?
I have had three and all of them ate the large TDO pellets as long as they were on the sand bed close by. I suspect that they would do so with little chunks of shrimp as well, but TDO pellets are far more nutritious. They won't bother with something too small or too big. My latest one which I very, very sadly just sold came from Diver's Den I think.
I'm not surprised that Captive bred are out in the open. They wouldn't have the same issues with eyesight, etc that wild ones do.
What size tank do you have do you feel like it disappears in the rock? I like the idea of it being in the open more but not sure I want that if it’ll be tiny and I won’t see it often? Do you recommend I go captive bred small or go for a larger wild one?
Thank you so much for all the information! I’m leaning toward buying a larger one from divers den I think but not confident. Do you remember how large you bought yours? I saw you listed it as 7” when you sold which seems pretty large!
5" when I bought this one I believe.
My tank is 90g 48x24x18. I personally prefer to buy small fish and watch them grow. I would recommend saving some money and not buy from Diver’s Den. I’ve bought a Marine Betta from Diver’s Den before and it died within a 24hrs due to some sort of fungal / fin rot disease. Luckily they gave me store credit.
This isn't entirely correct. They are definitely not ambush predators or related to groupers (not even close) but rather hunt more like lionfish, cornering their prey and fencing it in with their large tailfin. They hunt larger shrimp if they spot them but most of the time they pick pods, smaller Mysiids, or go for worms. I have even seen my largest ones picking pods like mandarins. Getting healthy marine bettas to eat has never been a problem for me, though what they eat seems to depend on the individual tastes and moods. Some days they like large cocktail shrimp, the other they just scoff at them and rather go for PE Mysis or pellets. Some of them stand at the front, begging for food and taking it directly from tweezers while others hide and wait until the food has fallen to the ground to pick it up from there. My regal angels are far less picky than the marine bettas, yeah, even less picky than my clownfish.
Some of my larger ones take cocktail shrimps, some even from tweezers. Most take frozen foods, pellets, flakes... All will usually be able to live of pods if there are enough and, in a pinch, they can go with little or no food for quite a while.
Ambush predator was definitely the wrong term. It should have read "stalker." They move slowly with their bodies (at least in a tank) somewhat vertical. Thank you for the clarification. The point was actually that they won't (at least none of mine ever have) eat out of the water column or top of the water like most of the other fish we tank, and that can sometimes result in adjusting feeding for them.
I have wild ones that take floating foods and some even go for flakes on the surface. It is more a matter of tank mates than marine bettas not doing it.
