Stupid Betta Contest?

[Xaltd1]

I just rescued my GORGEOUS light blue ee hm "Mist". If I hadn't thought to check on the fish at that very minute, she'd be dead. As it is, she's in shock, but alive. What did she do? She tried swimming through a stone doughnut bead that I used to anchor a piece of driftwood. These beads are available at craft stores; they're heavy, natural, colored stone (these are sodalite) that are pretty and tie easily to the wood, and are unobtrusive. I had 3 buried in the gravel (so I thought). She found one above the gravel and got her head stuck in one! I had to shove her head back out! I didn't think a betta would EVER think they could swim through a tiny hole like that! I'm going to have to abandon these stones as weights.
Just thought I'd pass along the info. Does this fish win the dumb betta contest? What other pickles have your got into? (Besides jumping out of the tank- not a bright idea, either.)

[Vizja13]

My first jumped >.> But then, that was a 1 gal. I had one jump a divider? xP

[veggiegirl]

Oh poor Mist! I hope she will be okay, bettas seem to have a habit of getting themselves into bad situations at times. I had a male betta jump through a hole the size of a 5c piece (I am Australian) and into the tank net door with another male betta! I was in town and they fought all day and were in such a mess by the time I got home. Anyhow with time and a lot of TLC they both recovered.

[Xaltd1]

Bettas certainly have an abundance of curiosity, unfortunately they don't have the 9 lives that cats do. I've pulled my cat out of some situations (He fell through the ice in a swamp once) but I didn't think I'd have to shove a fish head out of a bead! They do like small spaces. I have to be careful to leave large spaces between rocks...

[Laki]

In trying to eat anything and everything - I can one of my boys to chase and try to eat waterbeads running down the outside of the tank.

[Xaltd1]

I made the title of the thread sound funny, but if we can compile a list of possibly fatal (and in some cases definitely fatal) betta predicaments, maybe we can save a betta life or 2.

[Xaltd1]

Mist is hanging out in the floating water plants. She looks a little stunned and confused.

[AyalaCookiejar]

I don't think he's stupid. They are curious, and it happens more often than you think. This is why people will tell you not to buy decorations with holes that aren't big enough for you to put your thumb into. Many people use terracotta pots, too, but not before plugging the hole in the bottom or knocking out the bottom entirely.

There are ways around it, though, if there are decorations like that that you'd really like to use. I have aquarium safe silicone I used to fill the hole in my terra cotta pot, but you could also use the silicone to attach weights to things and I've even thought of using it to attach suction cups to silk plants to create my own fake floating plants or use them to hide heater cords, etc...

I have found that you can't really trust decorations made for aquariums any more than you can trust decorations NOT made for aquariums, and there are a lot of very creative things you can do to make a tank look the way you want it without being dangerous to its inhabitants.

[Xaltd1]

I think the takeaway here is to use NATURAL plants and SMOOTH stones. I just bought a piece of waterlogged driftwood (no anchors necessary). I bought some slag glass online to use as decor. It is smooth and beautiful; no holes for fish heads! I just have to be sure all the glass is 1" away from the tank & each other; bettas love to wedge their heads between rocks. I can only imagine what trouble they can get in with fake plants.

[Hadoken Kitty]

THESE GUYS were stupid. They swam themselves into plants they couldn't fit through (when I used more fake plants). They didn't make it through their first night in the tank. How annoying.