Lexie, How long have you had this fish? If this is a new fish take it back to the store where you bought it and get your money back. Bettas that are sold in pet stores are sometimes mistreated so they become weak. This may be the case. Or perhaps this is an older betta...its difficult to tell the age when you buy a betta from a pet store...you are taking your chances.

If you got one healthy betta....that is good....but I would remove the betta that isn't eating right away. If this fish is sick...you don't want it to spread to your healthy betta.

Your 2.5 gallon tank is barely big enough for one betta....never mind putting in a divider so you can put two in there. A 5 gallon or even a 10 gallon tank with a filter on the low setting and heater would be better for your betta.

Good Luck!

I think if he's new but acting fine then you should still keep him. Some bettas go up to 2 weeks without eating when first brought home. If you got him from a store, ask what they fed him and try some of that or some live food. If you got him from a breeder its more likely that he's used to live or at least frozen foods. You can try live, but be prepared to find that if he takes to it, he may not accept much else afterwards since they can be picky little guys.

Make sure the ammonia and nitrite are at 0 and the nitrate is below 20 in the tank, just in case.

Bettas are usually picky. Mine wouldn't eat anything until I put him in a heated 10 gallon, and even then he would only peck at flakes. But then he saw my other fish eating an algae wafer, and he came close for a good look. He pecked at it and decided that it was indeed food, but not very good food. They taught him to eat two or three different things, and since then, he's open to all kinds of food, including live algae shrimp. (He left half of that for my snail though, being the thoughtful fish that he is.)

With my other betta, I tried freeze dried brine shrimp, flakes, pellets, and freeze dried bloodworms. She wouldn't touch a thing. After a while, she started to accept small flakes, and now she eagerly eats them up. I think she was used to live foods because of the way she tried to eat some of my other pets, and the addition of a filter made the flakes move around like little bugs.

Given my experience, I'd say your betta just needs some time and variety to choose what he likes. Hunger will bring him around.

Sierra is right about your tank. You really ought to get a 10 gallon tank with a filter and divide that instead. I know bettas *can* live in little bowls, but they don't prefer to live that way, contrary to what Wal-Mart will tell you. They're very intelligent fish, and they need space to move around and explor plants. I would also suggest a small snail or two (make sure they won't reproduce!) to spice things up in their lives.

I really appreciate all of your suggestions.

Believe me, if I could have a larger tank, I would.

So what I'm hearing, in general, is to keep trying different things but basically just wait him out? While I usually trust the advice I get here (especially from names I keep seeing around; Thanks guys!), I cringe at the idea of not finding a way to get him to eat now. I've had experience just "waiting out" a fish and he died. He was just an inexpensive little otto but I'd fallen in love with him. This is technically my fiance's betta (his and her's fish!!) so I know I would never hear the end of it if he died.

Thank you for the suggestion of talking with the shop. I don't know that they really had a chance to feed them much because they'd only had them for about 36 hours, but I'm sure they've heard of this phenomenon before.

Lexie

ps. one little suggestion: when you are trying to aid someone with a problem you may want to consider not judging the tank size first. Everytime I post here all I hear about is how my tank is too small. Not everyone is able to have even a 5g tank, and it may offend people to keep hearing "get a bigger tank" when they don't have that option. I'm trying not to criticize, so take this with a grain of salt if it upsets you; after all, I am a little bitty fish in this huge tank!

If you can keep the temps between the 72-78, that should not be an issue, and don't have to worry about getting a heater. If it gets much colder in the winter, you can try a 25W hydor or even better, they hydor mini. Here's a link to a good review on that heater :) http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=37990

I keep my betta in a 3 gallon with a 25W Hydor. Those are pretty safe, but I still have to keep it on the lowest setting and make check the temp everyday since I'm paranoid. I took it out last month because the water is in the 75-83*F range now without it.

I think oiut of all types of fish, the betta is the most finicky when adjusting to feeding in a new home. I was lucky and my petstore betta ate only after a few days and will eat anything. On some other forums its not uncommon to see many threads about their betta not eating for a long period of time. Otos are a little different. They are very sensitive the first month you have them and one reason is because they are usually not well taken care of or fed the proper types of food in the store. Fish's bodies are different than ours and they can go very long periods with little or no food. If you are worried, try some live worms. Most fish can't resist anything wiggly like that! In my opinion you should stay away from tubifex, live, frozen and even freeze dried. It is usually bred and grown in sewage and there are a lot of cases that the fish come down with parasitic infections after feeding. Just a little warning :) I hope the little guy eats soon, please keep us updated.

Edit: I also advise against feeding blackworms

Lexie,

First let me explain a couple things......I have a masters in fish, maintained my own fishroom for more than 20 years, write for fish magazines and more. I have bred show bettas and many other fish. I have showed fish and won Best in Show on numerous occassions.I have many years of experience just keeping fish healthy and happy.

The reason, that you get posts about the size of your aquarium is because you are not providing the proper care that is needed to keep two bettas alive and happy in a 2.5 gallon tank. We are not judging you....just trying to make you understand that you are not providing the right conditions that your pets need. Your bettas may live for a while....one is already not eating....so that one won't live long.....The other one won't live long either in the conditions that you said you have provided. Bettas need high temps from 79 to 82. If your room temps don't make the water in this little tank that temp.....then a heater is a must. Small tanks without heater also have greater and faster fluctuations of temps as the room temps change....this can cause major stress to your fish.

A healthy betta or any healthy fish will start eating the next day after transportation. A stressed or sick fish won't.

Most breeders feed a large variety of foods, so that their fish will do well and eat well in their new homes, regardless of what is fed. The fish that are raised on farms, don't get that care, and that is what you will find in most pet stores. These fish are stressed to begin with when they are transported to your pet store.....and then on top of that they are moved again to the customers tank, usually in a couple of days....only to cause more stress.

May I strongly suggest you do a google search and read as much as you can about bettas or any other fish you might possibley be interested in. Here are a couple of books you might also want to look for.

1. BETTAS A Complete Introduction by Walt Maurus..this book is a tfh publication

2. Bettas Gouramis and other Anabantoids Labyrinth Fishes of the World by Jorg Vierke.....this book is also a tfh publication.

You can of course choose to do as you please with YOUR fish....but they won't live long in poor conditions. Sorry that is just the facts. Some of us are actually trying to help you.

Good luck!