Best time of day for H2O changes?

[BettAy Paige]

I know that bettas do best on a night and day schedule similar to humans, but (as I type this my toddler is screaming in the background), sometimes the only block of free time I have to do a full 100%, top to bottom, scrub everything, arrange, rearrange, re-rearrange (yes, I know, slightly ocd ), my 3 gallon tank, and then gradually reacquaint Himself to his new ph, temp, and fresh space is late at night, like around 11pm (like, get started then), sometimes later.

Could this be causing him stress by disrupting his normal cycle, with the added bonus of being in his tiny "holding pen" while I'm cleaning his abode? It's only once a week, but I feel bad when he is noticeably resting and I have to scoop him out and (ffrom the looks he gives me), piss him off royally.

50% changes (I usually do once a week, maybe twice if it's noticeable grungy), are easy and much less time consuming, and stress him out way less, if at all.

Thoughts? Theories? Opinions?

When do you change your water/attend to betta maintenance? When do you think is the best time of day (from the bettas' point of view) to do so?

[1983SS454]

I personally try to do mine in the afternoon before work, but sometimes I only have time available after work, 1am or later. So I'll do those when the need is there and then I turn off the lights. I would think yhat doing it right before lights out would help lower stress levels right after the water change? Maybe Someone else can let me know if I'm wrong lol

[Banicks]

In the beginning I was very motherish of my Betta - but the truth is these are very hard fellas!

Routine is great, I'm sure the Betta would get used to what to expect and when. But if it isn't possible in your schedule then it just isn't possible!

What I would recommend is #1: Wait until they're awake and aware of whats going on. #2: Give them an hour post change to adjust with light, allowing him to explore.

I've done many-a-11pm water change, sure he gives me looks. But it's for his own good :)

[BettAy Paige]

^^pretty much the conclusion I came to.

Clean water trumps pretty much all, from what I'm learning.

[Thunderloon]

whenever you're not being clumsy or forgetting things

Last year I had a jaw-bone infection and was on tylenol-3 for two weeks... so I did the water changes out loud with my wife 'bridge command style' to make sure I didn't dump five gallons of softened chlorinated water into the sorority.

My boys I often wait until they've woke up for the evening, nothing crankier than a sleepy betta suddenly swirling about his tank.

[HatsuneMiku]

=D don't worrie .. late night water changes won't stress him out .. he's probably just looking at you and giving you looks like "shouldn't you be sleeping" ..

bettas don't sleep like us in hrs of a day .. they sleep in what would seem like napping .. 10 seconds here .. 1 mins there .. even at night when i'm sleeping (i'm a really light sleeper) .. sometimes i can hear him splashing water (i found out the next morning he was making a bubble nest) .. so don't feel bad if you have to make ur water changes at night .. just make sure that if he is in his sleeping state that you wait a min or two .. for him to wake up =)