So, for the first month or so that I had him, Saga (my avatar betta) was a really curious, energetic, outgoing fish - he was constantly swimming around, checking out every part of his tank, staring at me through the glass while I worked, never afraid to get close to my hand while I fed him and never ever went inside his little shipwreck. For the last week he seems to be absolutely terrified of, well, everything. Half the time when I go to feed him I'll have to wait several minutes for him to come out of the shipwreck, which he seems to be spending a lot of time in. I've caught him lying on the ground a few times (always upright). He used to build bubble nests constantly, but hasn't built one in about ten days. He's in a divided tank, so I tried adding a third layer of plastic mesh between him and his neighbor in case he was catching glimpses of the other fish through the holes; I did that yesterday morning, and haven't seen any change in his behavior as of tonight. The other fish are showing no symptoms so it's not a tank issue, and I've checked the water quality and it's fine. Anyone have any ideas what might cause a fish to suddenly become so skittish?
wanderer7
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192 Posts
Saga and one of the other two arrived at the same time in late August and were quarantined separately for three weeks before they went into the divided tank with my older fish.
There are no visible signs of disease. No gold dust visible under a flashlight, no white or black flecks. Dorsal fin seems a bit clamped, but that could just be a symptom of stress.
Think I should put him in a hospital tank?
There are no visible signs of disease. No gold dust visible under a flashlight, no white or black flecks. Dorsal fin seems a bit clamped, but that could just be a symptom of stress.
Think I should put him in a hospital tank?
Joined
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192 Posts
So, I decided to isolate him in a hospital tank; if he's sick, I don't want it spreading to the other two. I didn't medicate him, but I did add a low dose (about 1/2 a tsp per gallon) of aquarium salt, since that's something mild that could potentially help with a lot of different infections. Weirdest thing, though: he seems to be very much back to his old self. He patrolled the tank for a while, he'll approach my finger if I put it up to the glass instead of scurrying away, and he's doing his old weird tricks like licking up the air bubbles that formed on the inside of the glass when I filled the tank. I gave him a cave but he's not spending any time in it. This change was immediate, and got even more pronounced between the time I went to bed and when I checked on him this morning.
That makes me think there really was something in his environment that was bothering him. He's so curious that I wonder if he was just stressed by not having any change in his surroundings for a while.
Regardless, I'm going to leave him in quarantine for a few days and see how he is, but I'm pretty convinced this is stress rather than illness.
That makes me think there really was something in his environment that was bothering him. He's so curious that I wonder if he was just stressed by not having any change in his surroundings for a while.
Regardless, I'm going to leave him in quarantine for a few days and see how he is, but I'm pretty convinced this is stress rather than illness.
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