Depressed Betta

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

FishieMomma

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jul 12, 2011
Messages
499
I'm a teacher who had a 5 gal hexagon tank in my nursery classroom. "Blueberry" loved the activity and noise! Now that the school year is through he is home with me in my much quieter house. He's acting depressed. He hangs around on the floor of the tank but gets active if someone comes to talk to him. The water chemistry is good. Can I add some tiny nano fish for company?
 
Maybe someone w/ lots of kids can borrow him for the summer! He'd have FUN here!! Ha ha... I'm j/k. You'd miss him. As for fish w/ him, it's hit or miss. I'm going to try to my Betta in my community tank, you just gotta watch him for aggressiveness & the other fish could nip his fins. IDK about what you can squeeze in a 5gal w/ him b/c there's not much room. Maybe snails?? Somebody will chime in. Good luck w/ your tank!
 
jen31972 said:
I'm a teacher who had a 5 gal hexagon tank in my nursery classroom. "Blueberry" loved the activity and noise! Now that the school year is through he is home with me in my much quieter house. He's acting depressed. He hangs around on the floor of the tank but gets active if someone comes to talk to him. The water chemistry is good. Can I add some tiny nano fish for company?

Maybe try some ghost shrimp?
 
Maybe some African dwarf frogs. When you take it back to your class in the fall the kids will LOVE those too. I suggest 2 adf! I have a divided 10g, each side has a betta and 2 frogs.
 
I hadn't thought of frogs. I'll research them. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
Does he have a heater? Bettas don't get lonely.
Also what are you using to test? What are the results? Does the filter appear to be knocking him about?
 
Last edited:
He has a submersible heater keeping the water at 81 degrees. I use an API master kit to test. And there is a little current. He does hang out in places where there is minimal current, like under a fallen over silk plant or in his Betta log.

Also ammo 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 20-40 ( out of the tap like that, unfortunately)
 
What kind of filter is on the tank? You can try to reduce the flow some by either wrapping a sponge or pad around the filter intake or adding a pad to the outflow so the water flows down the pad before it hits the tank. Also 81 might be a bit warm, my betta seems to do well at 78.
 
librarygirl said:
What kind of filter is on the tank? You can try to reduce the flow some by either wrapping a sponge or pad around the filter intake or adding a pad to the outflow so the water flows down the pad before it hits the tank. Also 81 might be a bit warm, my betta seems to do well at 78.

Or try this..
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=30139
I did that with my betta tank and i've noticed that he utilizes mute of the tank now..
 
Awesome idea! I set up his betta log to block/ redirect some current and it's working well for now. I'll definitely try that next.
 
Scott F said:
I have 3 kids that make plenty of noise and I'd be happy to send them over for a week or two.

Lol, now that my kids and their friends are off, Blueberry is much happier!
 
Back
Top Bottom