Betta fish glass surfing?

[Lila]

Hello!

I've been kinda nervous to ask about this, but my betta (around 5 months old, I've had him for 4 months) has been continuously glass surfing around his tank.

He was like this since I've gotten him, and I put it off as him being young.

10 gallon tank - live plants and plenty of activities and places to go

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
Ph: a constant 7.4 since I have had the tank
Temp: a constant 79 degrees

Even if he isn't directly swimming against the glass, he frantically swims around his tank at all times during the day.

I have moved his tank with no results. He acts like this in any type of lighting.

He isn't showing any signs of stress other than that -- he is a healthy eater and always comes up to me when I visit him. His color looks great and although I am aware that bubble nests don't directly relate to his happiness, his little bubbles fill up the tank everywhere.

There also isn't a strong current in the tank.

He never flares, so I'm not sure if he actually is seeing his reflection or not.

I'm really not sure if this is a bad thing or something he will grow out of, but I've given it time and nothing has fixed. What should I do? Is this something that can hurt him?

 

[Colin_T]

Bettas naturally occur in stationary pools or very slow moving water and if you have lots of current in the tank, that could be the cause. He might also be doing it when he sees you and wants food. Maybe set up a video camera in the room and walk away. Come back later and see if he does it when you aren't there.

Post a video so we can see how he is behaving. Upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.
If you use a mobile phone to film the fish, hold the phone horizontally so the footage fills the entire screen.

 

[ADsnail]

Hello!

I've been kinda nervous to ask about this, but my betta (around 5 months old, I've had him for 4 months) has been continuously glass surfing around his tank.

He was like this since I've gotten him, and I put it off as him being young.

10 gallon tank - live plants and plenty of activities and places to go

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
Ph: a constant 7.4 since I have had the tank
Temp: a constant 79 degrees

Even if he isn't directly swimming against the glass, he frantically swims around his tank at all times during the day.

I have moved his tank with no results. He acts like this in any type of lighting.

He isn't showing any signs of stress other than that -- he is a healthy eater and always comes up to me when I visit him. His color looks great and although I am aware that bubble nests don't directly relate to his happiness, his little bubbles fill up the tank everywhere.

There also isn't a strong current in the tank.

He never flares, so I'm not sure if he actually is seeing his reflection or not.

I'm really not sure if this is a bad thing or something he will grow out of, but I've given it time and nothing has fixed. What should I do? Is this something that can hurt him?

I have a betta who is exactly the same. The frantic front of tank dancing, the non-aggressive non-flaring temperament, the whole bit. He's the same age as yours and I too thought time and familiarity would settle this. I've been wondering the same thing: what's his deal?

He's different from my other bettas in almost every way: he's not aggressive, refusing to fight his "5 minutes only" mirror ball or the few places he can find a little reflection. Not very curious about his environment, preferring to fixate on me when I come near (he waits in front until he sees me, then goes nuts). He has never slept in his Betta Log, which is normally a place of rest and refuge for the others. He drives through it every now and then, but sleeps leaning against things on the bottom where he can keep a lookout for me.

There's nothing wrong with him; he's not sick, his water is perfect, he eats the right amount, no stressors, no light issues (I'm fussy about amount of hours and dimmer switches). He has the same good life as the others.

There's just one difference: this guy is a wild fish. The others came from local breeders/LFS here in the US. This one came via Petco (I know, I know, but a friend who works there asked me to come check out a new shipment and, when I reluctantly went, this gorgeous baby kept tracking me from his container cup, pacing and following me as I passed by. In retrospect, it's clear he was obsessed with me from the beginning).

The employee friend told me they were bred in Thailand, shipped young spending a week in transit, put into the slightly bigger store containers. Several things are explained by this brief history:

They're not fed during transit and are fed only twice weekly at the store, cutting down on waste. This explains why I had to pretty much teach him to eat - specific daily mealtimes, how to calm down and find the food he so frantically searched for each time.

He doesn't know a fighting ball or Betta Log from anything else in his world, he's just placidly cruising all of it occasionally like a...fish in a river, actually.

For his first few days he got into bizarre frenzied little fits in small areas as though he couldn't find his way out of a perfectly open corner. I realized that he had no experience with spaces bigger than a cup. It took awhile for him to expand his perception of space.

Do you know where your fish originated? He may have had zero acclimation to people or an 'average' breeding environment. He may be sorta wild and making it up as he goes along. In addition, he may be a relatively non-aggressive variety (mine is). There's always the weird fish who swims to his own beat. But all these differences point to a different breeding circumstance.

 

[Lila]

I actually got him from a local breeder -- but he grew up surrounded with guppies and other fast-swimming tank mates. He even had a few guppies with him in my tank when I first got him (they were to test the water, I ended up actually giving them back to the aquarium store because although my betta showed no aggression towards them, the guppies were constantly annoying him)

I'm not sure if this is where he learned this, I doubt so. Either way, he was also very simple in the fact that he was never aggressive.

 

[Lila]

here's a video

I did notice that when he doesn't see me he's a bit more relaxed, so I just might be making it worse by staring at him all day. His tank is above my desk so I'm not really sure how to fix that.

There's also not a strong current, the water is almost still so I don't think that's an issue.

 

[ADsnail]

Good video. I can see he's having a major reaction to his reflection. A dark background on the back of the tank, plus something on the sides will calm him down. Your LFS store may sell some nice ones. Or you can make your own. Plain white paper will have the same effect as nothing, so if your local store doesn't have anything, check out online what others have done (including DIY).

I was going to mention the possibility that he knows what the food container looks like and tries to get at it (one of mine did until I took it off the table and kept it stored), but it really looks like his reflection is what's causing the problem.

"Surfing" - great name for it.

 

[Lila]

Alright, thank you! I'll get to the fish store asap

I have tried using black and blue paper in the past, both actually worsened the reaction. Would a patterned background work better?

 

[ADsnail]

For some people (I mean fish) black works fine But there's a reason they offer patterns. I personally prefer patterns.

 

[Lila]

Hi again. I just purchased a background from petco https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petco...ounds-greenspike-amazonia-18-l-x-36-w-3356942

As I was setting it up, I was super hopeful as it looked like he was stopping. Unfortunately, as soon as I stepped back to look at my amazing work (lol), he was extremely stressed due to the background. Instead of just pacing back and forth, he was clearly flaring and definitely saw his reflection even more clearly. The background was double sided, and I purposefully chose the side with less dark spots in hopes that he wouldn't be stressed.

I'm kind of unsure what to do at this point, because he is still pacing now that I have removed the background (without flaring, but doing the same thing in the video). Any suggestions? I have another spot in my room I could move the tank to with more light, but I just finished moving him from my old room into a renovated one and I'd like to give him and his tank some more time to adjust, since I would have to remove more that half of the water just to pick the tank up. Also, I wanted to get a second tank to put there instead of having to move this one.

 

[ADsnail]

Try the side with darker spots. I wouldn't go through the hassle of moving everything. The flaring is probably due to having something new there. He should eventually grow used to it and calm down. My new one took two weeks to stop obsessing over himself. Having a routine, like feeding times and lights on/off, will help him to acclimate and become more interested in his environment instead of himself.

 

[Andy Sager]

Bettas will actually do better in more subdued light so I wouldn't add things to make his tank brighter. Try the darker side of the background and make sure there is nothing that he is used to, ( i.e. food containers, or Mirrors) within sight of the tank. This way you can eliminate things that may be stressing him ( if he is indeed stressed.) Fish get used to seeing things like food containers so if they see it, they think food should be coming which should get them excited which is not what you are trying to achieve.

 

[Lila]

Hi again! I was kind of hesitant to put the background back up, but I just added it again. He's still flaring towards the darker spots in his tank obsessively. How long is too long for him to be flaring like this? when should he calm down? If it doesn't stop within the time that it should, do I keep the background up and wait or just take it down?

 

[ADsnail]

Just leave the background there. The betta I got at the same time as yours is still doing it too. Some take longer than others to adapt to their environment even when you've done all you can do. I've noticed that when I'm not right there, when I'm across the room or at least 5 ft away, he's calmer and sets about exploring his tank. Is it possible that he's reacting to your presence? I'm finding that not interacting as much with this particular guy is allowing him to focus on his world instead of mine. Hope this helps.

 

[Andy Sager]

Just leave the background there. The betta I got at the same time as yours is still doing it too. Some take longer than others to adapt to their environment even when you've done all you can do. I've noticed that when I'm not right there, when I'm across the room or at least 5 ft away, he's calmer and sets about exploring his tank. Is it possible that he's reacting to your presence? I'm finding that not interacting as much with this particular guy is allowing him to focus on his world instead of mine. Hope this helps.

Good point!
Observe the fish from out of sight of the fish to see how it really is acting. I once set up a trail of mirrors to watch a new pair of Angelfish spawn without disturbing them. I needed to know if the male was fertilizing the eggs because whenever I was in sight, he would come to the glass to either look for food or attack me to get me away. It's " Old School" but it works.