My betta started to IGNORE me today! D':

[LugiaChan]

[I need a fish counselor/pet psychic x_x] I don't know what I did to hurt its feelings.... I don't know if he just found other ways to amuse himself.

His tank is a 10 gal. with excellent water conditions, not plants (yet) and do plan on it. I plan on getting him hiding places as well, but he always treated me different since I received him on March 7th. Why now does he act differently? I have quite a relationship problem here, with my fish. XD But it does hurt my feelings.

Every time I talked he realized I was near by and swam very quickly towards me, and then swam up and down that side of the tank, always keeping his eyes on me. I seen the happiness in his eyes when doing so. In fact, before his larger tank he could never stand to be away from me and he knew when I was talking to him. I'm really sad, this is the way he was fine yesterday and every day prior.

Today the only changes was I accidentally dumped some of his betta fish flakes into the tank (possibly more than needed but it wasn't over kill to harm his health, but twice as much as what I normally give him). I let him exercise against the current of his tank a little longer each day, he makes bubble nests as soon as he's done exercising and he LOVES the mirror. I think he hates it when I take the mirror away...

Well anyway, today when I go up to see him he constantly swim against the side of the tank I normally have the mirror on, with the strongest current. He never used to be able to swim against it so easily, now he's darting from one side to the next with ease from the exercise training. The problem is, he just keeps doing it. And swimming around, ignoring my presence. I know this sounds like normal fish behavior, but this personality is absolutely not like him- at all. Unless I misread him as being happy to see me because he's very hungry? And I fed him enough to feel full? XD Is he really that selfish? I felt like giving him back to the store though it's not in my heart.

The reason I got him was I felt a trust in him towards me, and he would always want my company and presence. I'm just really confused. I hope fish just don't grow out of friendly phases. Ugh...

One thing I noticed is he has a very tiny small white dot on his gill, I didn't notice it until today. It may have been there all his life but i'm waiting to see if it develops into something to cure, but I dont believe that to be the issue.

Food I currently feed him and have since day 1: freeze dried blood worms and betta flakes. I AM adding to his diet a whole lot more variety when I get to the pet store (freeze dried brine shrimp, omega one betta buffet and new life spectrum formula).


*I JUST noticed he's getting stripes on his body! It's a huge change from yesterday, STRIPES? His body used to be dark just yesterday I thought, but how is he getting blue stripes across the length of his body and lighter scales in between then? :O WOAH. Is such a fast change a bad sign of anything?

**What would be a good way to re develop our relationship?

[LugiaChan]

Actually, I put the mirror up to make him happy and I noticed whenever the mirror is there, he COLOR CHANGES and gets the stripes on him! For real I will take a video to prove it, that's really crazy man! A real RACING fish LOL

Anyway he reacted to me and noticed me and was much happier after seeing his mirror again.... What a strange fish D: he's not 100% acting the same but it is a 75% i'd say.

[Pogthefish]

bettas just do that, its natural, dont worry, lol!

[Bombalurina]

Stripes don't mean he is a racing fish. They mean he is stressed.

[MadameDesu]

I agree, with Bombalurina, horizontal stripes means that he's probably stressed out.
I'm not sure what's up, but maybe you should take the mirror away for a few days. Moving into a new home is probably stressful for him, or maybe he's just having a cranky day. Give it a week or so, and then see if he's improved.

[LugiaChan]

Originally Posted by MadameDesu

I agree, with Bombalurina, horizontal stripes means that he's probably stressed out.
I'm not sure what's up, but maybe you should take the mirror away for a few days. Moving into a new home is probably stressful for him, or maybe he's just having a cranky day. Give it a week or so, and then see if he's improved.

Thank you! I did not know that, and I dont know why he acted happier after the mirror. I wont be using it any time to soon- I always wanted to ask if betta fish are happier with no mirror exercise whatsoever.

[MadameDesu]

I don't think that mirrors are necessarily bad, but maybe only for once a day at the most. I don't have any small mirrors, so I just try to get my girl to flare up once a week or so with a pencil.
If it's hanging up all the time, it would be stressful. It would almost be like you spotting intruders in your home every few seconds, hahaha.

[LugiaChan]

Originally Posted by MadameDesu

I don't think that mirrors are necessarily bad, but maybe only for once a day at the most. I don't have any small mirrors, so I just try to get my girl to flare up once a week or so with a pencil.
If it's hanging up all the time, it would be stressful. It would almost be like you spotting intruders in your home every few seconds, hahaha.

Yes I agree! I had it for 5 minutes a day usually and upped the time very slowly towards roughly 8 minutes (when he was getting his stripes). fish are very fragile! But he hates it when I take it away from him. Man, fish are sometimes confusing.....

[Bombalurina]

What is his behaviour that makes you think he hates it? Humans have a tendency to superimpose human behaviours on their animals - what looks like hating it to you could be something very different. :)

[LugiaChan]

Originally Posted by Bombalurina

What is his behaviour that makes you think he hates it? Humans have a tendency to superimpose human behaviours on their animals - what looks like hating it to you could be something very different. :)

I turn the mirror backwards when done, he thrashes at it and constantly tries to swim underneath it (it's outside of the tank) and sometimes will swim across the length of the tank and look very confused when the fish is gone and wiggle himself around, looking side to side or in circles. He will constantly go out looking for it and makes bubble nests when he's done or even while trying to fight it. He will go out on a searching spree for it, even some times longer than necessary.... XD LOL.