instead of flaring, he just swims on the left side of the tank and now he stop since I got some tall decor to block it.
My betta occasionally gets into a rut (2-3 times), and at those times he swims in a fairly continuous circle on one side of the tank for endless hours. It's distressing to me to see that because it reminds me of zoo animals who have gone insane.
I tried putting objects in his path but he would just modify his circle to accomodate them.
What I have done to successfully jolt him out of it is to give him something distracting, and a "rival" for him to flare at works beautifully. I use a mirror until I have his attention and he starts to flare, and then I will show him the mirror several more times during the next hour. He then starts strutting around the tank patrolling his kingdom and I wake up to a huge bubble nest and a betta that is no longer showing abnormally repetitive behaviour.
LOL at the "still flaring"! He's just being a teenage boy.
Thanks =) he's stoppped flaring so much (only took him 2-3 hours, OMG) but now I'm really concerned with his coloring. I mean he get super stressed for a long while, but his coloring seems to be fading =( He has a fading stripe down the length of his body, and his undersides are fading too.
My betta occasionally gets into a rut (2-3 times), and at those times he swims in a fairly continuous circle on one side of the tank for endless hours. It's distressing to me to see that because it reminds me of zoo animals who have gone insane.
I tried putting objects in his path but he would just modify his circle to accomodate them.
What I have done to successfully jolt him out of it is to give him something distracting, and a "rival" for him to flare at works beautifully. I use a mirror until I have his attention and he starts to flare, and then I will show him the mirror several more times during the next hour. He then starts strutting around the tank patrolling his kingdom and I wake up to a huge bubble nest and a betta that is no longer showing abnormally repetitive behaviour.
I'll have to watch for that o.o I do have a mirror handy, so I'll try that out if he seems to be doing it too often. I just hope his color comes abck soon =( I really hope I didn't make him sick somehow...
Honestly, I don't get it. When I got him from PetSmart, he was lethargic in his terrible little blue-water cup, but a very vibrant cobalt blue with velvety black face, slight silver under the gills, and bright, bright red pectoral fins.
Since then he started tail-biting after some water changes and moving him to a cool basement cause summer was too hot and at the time I didn't have a heater for the 2.5g tank. He bit his tail on and off since moving to the apartment in August.
Now his undersides and face are fading and he has stress-stripes after being moved to a 10g tank. i really, truly, honestly hope that it was just the move and change that's stressing him. I tested everything I could, there should'nt have been a very big shock for him, aside from being in a bowl over night. I'm now thinking that was a mistake.
I just want him to be a happy little betta...with his tail back and color bright.
Just srsly upset. Been stressing about him all day, and I just feel helpless right now.
Some bettas don't care for bigger tanks like 10g's. You can try turning your tank light off and use a flashlight to see if his color suddenly comes back in the dark?
You can also try making the decor like his 2.5g set-up was. Maybe he just misses his old place?
Give those a try for a few days, and if that doesn't work, move him back to the 2.5 gallon for a while. Then either take the 10g back and get a 5.5 gallon?
Some bettas don't care for bigger tanks like 10g's. You can try turning your tank light off and use a flashlight to see if his color suddenly comes back in the dark?
You can also try making the decor like his 2.5g set-up was. Maybe he just misses his old place?
Give those a try for a few days, and if that doesn't work, move him back to the 2.5 gallon for a while. Then either take the 10g back and get a 5.5 gallon?
Also, what's your temp in the tank?
The temp is between 77-81 degrees F. And it's kept constant by the heater, it's preset so I can't change it. I've had the light off since last night and figured I wont turn it on for a while. The setup is quite similar to his old tank.
He's active, and exploring everything, so I'm thinking it might be simply being handled by the net twice in 24 hrs and then the vast change in water. His previous tank - I will admit - I didn't always change the water when I should have, so he was in a much more ammonia-rich environment. With this tank I made sure ammonia read 0-0.25 before starting to acclimate him.
I hope you'll be able to figure it out. I certainly empathize with you as Fluffy moved from a one gallon cylinder to a four gallon tank within a week and took some time to settle in.
It didn't help that he was my first fish ever and I really had no idea which of his behaviours were normal fishiness and which were suspect or weird. I probably over reacted with treatments and adjustments a few times.
He's in a 5.5 gallon now, and I was a bit calmer in my reactions to his behavioural changes after that transfer.
I hope you'll be able to figure it out. I certainly empathize with you as Fluffy moved from a one gallon cylinder to a four gallon tank within a week and took some time to settle in.
It didn't help that he was my first fish ever and I really had no idea which of his behaviours were normal fishiness and which were suspect or weird. I probably over reacted with treatments and adjustments a few times.
He's in a 5.5 gallon now, and I was a bit calmer in my reactions to his behavioural changes after that transfer.
I'm hoping that he's just going to take some time to settle. The stress-stripe seems to fade then come back when he's at the front of the tank, so~...-sigh- I don't know. Maybe the front of the tank is too spacious, seems too open to him. But the fact he's active and exploring makes me think he'll adjust. He's already chosen favourite nooks and crannies to disappear to. Has his caves all figured out too. And still chases a laser beam. So...yea, here's hoping he'll adjust and calm down.
Just really glad he's not attacking his reflection anymore - 3 hours is a long time for a little fish, and I think that had a lot to do with his stress.
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