Hyperactive betta? [photo included]

[jevousdeteste]

I apologize for being so long-winded:

I've had my betta [Vinnie] for six months. For the first three months, he was in a 5 gal tank. When he came down with fin rot, I had to transfer him to a one gal tank, where he made a full recovery. He stayed there until two weeks ago, when I moved him into a ten gallon. I've made it a habit to talk to my fish and give them as much attention as I can when I home, so I've learned about all of their personalities. A week before the transfer to the ten gallon, Vinnie started swimming back and forth in his one gal constantly and his color went from bright blue and red to a muted blue/gray. When I moved him to the ten gal, his level of activity slowed down a bit, and his color went back to being deep and beautiful. Over the weekend, he starting building bubble nests like crazy. unforunately, the bubble nests were destroyed last night when I had to fish out all of the freeze-dried blood worms that he refused to eat. Anyway, he's gone back to swimming back and forth in his tank, darting around, and acting like he's on a caffeine high. His color is good, the water parameters are the same as they've been for months, the filter isn't producing a strong enough current to cause any problem problems, the temperature is optimal, and he eats like a pig. The only time he'll stay still and stop darting around is when I'm standing directly in front of the tank. When I watch him and do my crazy fish talk, he'll stare at me and follow my finger around, but when I'm not there I peek around the corner to see what he's doing, he's going insane. So, my question: is there anything I should be worried about?


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[Andos99]

I think i'm more worried about you standing in front of your tank doing "crazy fish talk" than anything....

 

[jevousdeteste]

Haha. My girlfriend says that it's the creepiest habit I have. The fish don't seem to mind it, so I don't mind making myself look crazy.

 

[An t-iasg]

Hi jevousdeteste,

I talk to my bettas too. I have "yelled" at my husband for interrupting my quality time with the bettas!

It makes sense that your betta raced around the one gallon bowl and lost color. Those are indictaions of stress. When you moved him to the 10 gallon, then he was fine.

The only times my betta has raced around abnormally are times when the parameters changed suddenly. I mix tap water and RO water and one time I mixed incorrectly and the pH dropped. Luckily I could fix that quickly. The other time was when the heater stuck on and the tank was 85 degrees. I corrected that too and my betta went back to acting normally. I had another betta who took almost a whole day to adjust from being moved to the QT and then back to the main tank. He raced around the whole day until he got used to his main tank again.

So my thoughts on your betta is maybe one of the parameters is off. Did you do a double check? Is the temperature fluctuating? I'm glad to hear that the current is not strong. What kind of filter do you have? I have a sponge filter in my betta tanks.

Another thought -- does he have enough hiding places? Bettas like silk (or live) plants. The silk plants are much gentler on their fins than plastic plants that could have a sharp edge. The only live plant that I read about tearing the betta's fins was an aponogeton bulb plant. Do you have one of those plastic backgrounds on the tank? I tried that once and the betta was able to see his reflection in it. He went crazy until I discovered the problem. Does the lighting or the activity in the room change abruptly? Did you re-arrange the tank drastically? How long has he actually been in the 10 gallon tank? When I got a new betta one time, he did race around a lot. It seemed to take him two weeks to get used to the tank, until he calmed down.

Bettas have different personalities too. Some of my bettas have been very calm and would sit on the silk plant for up to 5 minutes at a time. Other bettas have been very active. They were not "hyperactive", but they were hard to take a picture of because they rarely were still long enough!

From your description your betta does seem too active, so I hope these ideas can help you pinpoint what could be the problem.

 

[Zagz]

I have a question. What is the optimal temp for a betta?

 

[jevousdeteste]

I keep it between 78 and 80 degrees.

 

[jevousdeteste]

I have a Tetra Whisper Power Filter 10. Here's a picture of the tank:

He's been in there for about two weeks.

I'm going to keep checking things and hope that he calms down a bit. Thank you for responding--it helped.

 

[An t-iasg]

That's a brightly colored tank! It's pretty, but I'm wondering what the betta thinks of the bright colors. I don't know how much color bettas can actually see, but they definitely do respond to other colorful fish. For example, they respond to a colorful guppy. The betta may mistake the guppy for another betta and may attack. One time when I had red fingernail polish on, and fed my betta, he flared at me! Then I figured out he was reacting to my nail polish! Maybe all the bright colors are putting your betta in "attack" mode.

Here are some suggestions: Put some more black gravel down over the pink gravel. Do it gradually so you don't disrupt the good bacteria in the gravel. I would get rid of the blue plant (sorry, I know it's pretty!) and get 4-6 green silk plants. He needs more sheltered areas among some plants. See if those changes calm him down. The roof on the little house is also blue, and red, but try the other changes before you consider removing the house.

 

[Meredith]

I have some large green silk leaves that I flipped upside down and put the "stems" under the hood so it gave my betta a little over hang thing. He is under there a lot. That is where he builds his bubble nest. I have a cave for him as well but he prefers the over hang.

 

[mr86mister]

yeah i think it may be all the colors, if the water parameters are good then it must be him sick of all the brightness...lol, its definetly a nicely colored tank but think he may like it a bit more drab so HE'S the only everyone looks out when they see your tank...ohhhhh i got it...he's jealous....lol....good luck!!! and take pics if you change stuff