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MoonSwimming?

1K views 23 replies 8 participants last post by  TurtleBarb 
#1 ·
My Betta which is new only had him 1 full day so far has been swiming backwards? Is this common? It looks like he is swimming against a current and losing but then he will suddenly stop and remain where he is, so it reminds me of the concept of moonwalking. I have a 10 gallon tank, so he has space :D.
Also I see him at times attacking the wall is this normal too? Is any of this cause for concern?

Oh one more thing, when I fed him this morning he took a long time to eat and spit the food out reate and so forth. Tonight though when I fed him he ate much faster but after he finished 3 pellets he spit like half a pellet out then re ate it. Is spitting food out normal?

Thanks for the advice in advance :D
 
#2 ·
I can't say anything for the swimming backwards, and I will say up front I'm also new at betta keeping.

Attacking the wall, he probably sees his reflection. Both of mine do the same. I covered the back of the tank on the outside with white paper and that has stopped one of them, the other still does so with the other walls so I'm still trying to think of what I can do for that..

The pellets might be too big for his mouth, spitting out is generally a sign for that. I swapped to a smaller pellet food when my first did the same.
 
#3 ·
Is he constantly doing it or just doing it to where it looks as if he's trying to back up away or out of something?
 
#4 ·
He isn't consitantly doing it. More like he is swimming around then it really looks like the current is pushing him but I know there isn't much of the current. He does this more often in the center of the tank. Like he will slow down, then start going bakwards then stop and carry on doing his thing. He does it near the wall a little bit too but that looks much more like he is turning around.
So what do you think?

@Skyr Thanks for the advice also :D
 
#5 ·
Hmm ... I'm not sure. Bettas find odd ways to entertain themselves. My female would carry around a single strand of java moss and it was always the same piece. xD
 
#9 ·
Food spitting: a lot of fish will do it if the food morsel is too big or otherwise hard to swallow. They don't have hands, so the only way they can break food up is with chewing and spitting it out and sucking it in repeatedly. I soak my betta's pellets in a drop of tankwater until they're saturated and soft (10 minutes or more), and then cut them into tiny pieces that he doesn't need to break up himself. I put the little bits on the water surface right in front of him. I use the tip of a drinking straw that I cut into a tiny scoop. He sometimes takes the food right off the scoop, so I made sure the cut parts of the straw are smooth and won't cut his mouth. This method means very little wasted food gets into the water. I pause between pieces to see that he swallows them. When he spits a piece in and out a few times, I know he's full. When you soak pellets, you'll notice that they swell up several times bigger than when they're dry. Better that they swell up outside his stomach than inside. The potential for constipation is much greater when they eat dry pellets than when they eat saturated pellets.
 
#10 ·
@ everyone thanks for the advice :D

I do have another food related question, since I have only had him a few days I have noticed rapid increase in how fast he eats, day one was ver slow, he spit them out re ate, it took him nearly a minture alone to find the last pellet. day 2 was slightly faster. But this mornin he was really chawing down, like I hink he ate about 7 pellets of terraBetta in less then 1 minute. The does says 4-6 is avarage. So is here a better method to know if he is not getting enouh food, or are betta just fast eatins, think maybe his first couple feedings were slower because of his new home?
 
#11 ·
Maybe, I wouldn't feed him too much though. The TetraBetta pellets swell up a lot and it can cause constipation when it happens inside of their stomachs. I'd be careful of that. I feed mine 3-4 pellets a day. Either three for a quick, one time feeding, or two at different times of the day to equal four.
 
#12 ·
Pellets and freeze-dried food don't swell up in their stomachs like they do in water. Our stomachs don't swell up when we eat popcorn or bread unless we drink liquid with it. Betta know how not to swallow water with their food. OldFishLady taught us that.

From what I gather too much protein can cause constipation.

But the advice to not overfeed your fish cannot be repeated enough.
 
#13 ·
I know Anabantoids have a different ABO than other families of air-breathing fish, but I don't recall hearing they don't swallow water when feeding. That doesn't make biomechanical sense to me, since they feed by using suction to create a water current that carries the food into their mouths and throat ("inertial suction"). It has been over a decade since my last aquatic anatomy class, though. To the best of my knowledge, it's true that dry pellets don't swell up in the belly as dramatically as they do outside the belly, but they'll have to swell a little if they're swallowed completely dry. And some pellets swell more than others. I noticed that the Hikari betta pellets didn't swell nearly as much when I moisten them as New Life Spectrum Betta pellets. Freeze-dried foods don't really swell that much, but they're not as nutritious as frozen or pellets. Freeze-dried foods are a sometimes food, as Cookie Monster would say, tasty treats that don't hold as much nutritional value as other foods. There's debate about whether to pre-soak pellets or not. Some people worry that soaking pellets for too long or in too much water will cause vitamins to leach out of the pellet into the soaking water. That sounds dubious to me, particularly if you only soak pellets for a short time in just a little tank water. Osmosis is not an instantaneous process. It takes time. And the loss would be partial, not a complete loss. I get around that concern by using only as much water as the pellets will soak up (a fraction of a drop of water) and soaking pellets in Vitachem a few feedings a week. And I feed a varied diet. A varied diet is important to the health of any animal. In order to digest food as efficiently as possible, the food needs to be easy to break down. Moisture helps that. Stomach acids, bile and water help the stomach break down food into tiny, digestible bits that are easier for the gut to process. It's easier for the stomach to do this with moistened food than condensed, dry food, although the gut will indeed moisten it some. A fish will not starve on dry pellets. :) The undigestible binders and fillers in some fish foods, combined with overfeeding and low variety in diet, contribute a lot to constipation. Some undigestible foods can also promote gas production. For example, Betta digestive tracts aren't evolved to digest corn, soy and other similar fillers found in many fish foods. Overfeeding fish makes digestion even more challenging and gas production more likely. A pellet-only or flake-only diet may not contain enough roughage to aid elimination, whereas a varied diet is more likely to. Bettas are carnivores and need high protein diets, but the kind of protein is very important. Invertebrate and a little fish protein are what they need most. In the wild, they feed mostly on inverts that fall on (or otherwise come to) the surface of the water like gnats, mosquitos, amphipods (such as Daphnia), copepods (such as Cyclops), isopods, insect larvae, worms and any other tiny critter that will fit in their mouths (like fish fry and eggs). The exoskeletons of invertebrates provide roughage. Thawed frozen Daphnia are a good source of roughage, more natural than peas. I feed my betta 2-2.5 moistened NLS pellets in the morning and a little thawed frozen food in the evening. Saturating the NLS is my personal preference because it helps me cut it into tiny pieces I can feed him one at a time to reduce the wasted food that would otherwise escape to the substrate when a fish has to "handle" the food repeatedly to break it up. Because his diet is so varied and I use Vitachem, I'm not concerned about any partial loss of vitamins that might occur from the kind of soaking I do. I alternate between kinds od frozen foods so he gets a different one each night (Daphnia, brine shrimp, bloodworms or "Freshwater Frenzy" are all I've been able to find around here so far). Brine shrimp are actually saltwater animals and not a natural food for bettas, so I only give him one or two little ones. If I can find frozen mosquito larvae or glassworms around here, I'll definitely use those, too, and ditch the brine shrimp. I also fast him one day a week, and give him thawed frozen Daphnia the night before fasting to aid in pooping.
 
#18 ·
In the wild, they feed mostly on inverts that fall on (or otherwise come to) the surface of the water like gnats, mosquitos, amphipods (such as Daphnia), copepods (such as Cyclops), isopods, insect larvae, worms and any other tiny critter that will fit in their mouths (like fish fry and eggs).
Great info! :) You mentioned Isopods. can they eat juvenile pillbugs? (rollie pollies)
 
#19 ·
I don't know the answer for sure, so all I can offer is an educated guess and my rationale. I would hesitate to feed them baby pillbugs, except perhaps the tiny whitish-yellowish ones that are still attached to mom's abdomen. I have two reservations about feeding bigger gray ones: the density of hardened exoskeleton vs. amount of nutritious meat, and possible pesticide/herbicide/fertilizer or other chemical exposure. I'm not sure the risk of constipation from overfeeding little pillbugs would be worth the unknown level of benefit. I wouldn't take them from your garden or around the foundation of your house/apartment building. But I would think that a couple two tiny ones as a treat would probably be okay, if you feel confident that they're coming from someplace not treated with agrochemicals or other common chemicals found around human habitations. I tend to be very conservative when it comes to collecting food around human habitation because of what I know about chemical contaminants. I frankly don't do it. But if I have occasion to be in the woods, I might do it, and see what other teeny tiny insect larvae I might find under a log.
I'm thinking about putting a small container of standing spring water outside in the shade to collect mosquito larvae. If I do it, I will be vigilant about collecting the larvae and changing the water frequently. I'll freeze extras. Mosquito-borne illnesses are on the rise, so I don't want to promote them by making more mosquitos!
 
#20 ·
Indeed such wonderful detailed advice thoughout the thread :D. Thank you.
You mention brine shrimp aren't a natural food sourse does that mean you think Betta's shouldn't eat it/don't like it? (I feel bad I bough some before I saw that post of yours)
 
#24 ·
There's no way to tell you how long it will take you personally to learn your betta's normal behavior. It takes time spent watching and observing what your betta seems to do consistently versus what suddenly seems like a new behavior or out of the ordinary. It's normal for a betta to sit still for a bit and then swim around. Rubbing against items could be a cause for concern if it's combined with other symptoms. I understand the nervousness, that will probably fade with time and more info. Most new fish owners are nervous. It means you care. :) If you have any concerns about a health condition, the folks on here are pretty responsive to requests for assistance. It's helpful if you post a picture of what you're concerned about, along with a description of fishie's habitat, water chemistry parameters and temperature. And it would probably be helpful to start a new post asking for help with a health concern so people who skim the new posts will see it. As you've noticed, my response time is unpredictable and can be short or long. :) There are plenty of other fish in this sea that could probably assist you faster. :)
 
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