Puffing

[steph5]

My beta fish likes to puff out his gils at me when i walk up to his tank. is this a sign of him protecting himself or are there any other reasons for this behavior?

[dramaqueen]

Its called flaring and its perfectly normal. They will flare when they feel threatened or they will flare at their reflection when you put a mirror in front of them. Mine flared at my Christmas earrings today.

[Kim]

No, nothing's wrong. You just got a feisty little guy ;) . Whenever I show my guy a mirror now, he flares like crazy, then when I take it away he patrols his tank all puffed out. When he catches sight of me he swims right over and gives me a huge flare!! It's so cute. Especially coming from this guy who was so docile and didn't have much of a personality when I first got him. He used to be afraid of my finger in the water too, and just the other day (I've had him for about 7 months now) he finally got the courage to come and bite me!

[dramaqueen]

Yeah, they will bite. I'm kind of afraid to leave my finger in for any more than a few seconds because some of mine definitely would bite me. Haa

[Kim]

Hehe...it doesn't hurt. I vacation on a lake and these HUGE (like a foot long) sunfish will come up and nibble your fingers and toes if you are standing in the water and even that doesn't hurt ;) These fish are like pets! the people next door feed them and so do we, so they grow huge and are really friendly. I won't let anyone in my family fish near the dock because they are too much like pets!

I still can't get over how daring my betta has become! When I vaccuum the gravel, he sometimes tries to look UP the vaccuum 0_0 . Silly fish!

[dramaqueen]

Wow, thats pretty cool about the fish at the lake. They must come up to you thinking they will get fed.Fish always act like they are srarved to death. Haa. A couple of mine, the second my hand goes over the container to feed them, jump in anticipation of the food! Especially my female.

[Kim]

Yeah, I love those odd fish at the lake! My dad thinks it's annoying when he tries to use the ladder on the dock and they all come swimming out from underneath and nibble his toes! He says it's kinda creepy. I think it's neat and it helps me not miss my pets so much when I'm away ;) My brother and I feed them worms, caterpillars, the occasional ant, and bread. One of the things I love to do is put on a mask and stand about up to my shoulders in water. Then I just stick my head under and watch them nibble at me and swim all around, through my legs, you get the picture - it's neat.

My betta doesn't jump, but he did just have a fun time trying to figure out what my cat's paws were when she was putting them on my desk (where his tank is) trying to get my attention. He was so cute, he spread all his fins out, swam over to where they were, and continually bobbed his body up and down trying to figure out what he was looking at!

[dramaqueen]

That's neat how the fish at the lake will interact with you. My Mom isn't a big animal lover like me and since I've been living with her, she never would let me have a cat or dog. People would tell me to get a fish and I'd say no, fish are boring. How WRONG I was!! I don't know about the personalities of other species of fish but bettas are ANYTHING but boring.They are full of personality I LOVE mine and would love to have more! Haahaa.

[catfishtabbi]

mine only flares when hes chasing a gourami ( just one poor guy) and he does not care much for my husband either.It is cute the way they like contact with you when i snip my plants my betta rubs my arms and likes ,y hands as well, but its so startling that i try to move.