BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Betta fighting his reflection!

So over the weekend, I finally transferred my office betta, Ares, to a proper 1 gallon tank with light (that kept his water a comfy 72 degrees F). He used to live in a 1/2 gallon glass flower vase with a wide open mouth and the water was often very cold at night and over the weekend when the light is off. I got him a real plant, a little castle to hide in, and more betta-safe gravel. I also started putting a few granules of aquarium salt to help him with the stress of the transition. I came in on Saturday to transfer him to his new home and was antsy on Sunday wondering how he is doing.

Well I walk-in today and was happy to find him swimming about and his color seems good. Problem is... I can tell he is stressed out. He keeps seeing himself on the sides of the tank and he keeps trying to fight his reflection! He's also gotten SO JUMPY. Any movement on the table will cause him to FLIP OUT and act like someone hit him over the head with a hammer. He would either hide in the castle or lay low on the gravel behind the plant until it is safe to come out.

I don't understand why they advertised this tank to be safe for bettas (even came with a divider). I also do not understand why they make those dual betta tanks where they keep trying to fight each other and they get all stressed out. I bought my nephews one of those dual tanks and one of the bettas, overnight, had turned from his deep red color to practically opaque white from stress. It just seems so, cruel. I had to rush out and get another betta tank to move him to and his color came back.

ANYWAY, back on track... my question is... will Ares be okay in this type of set up? Will he eventually get used to it? I kinda wish he would 'cuz I really like him in this aquarium. I took some pics of him but forgot to bring the cable to upload the pics to my PC here at work so it will have to wait till tonight. How often should I put aquarium salt in? I also noticed his fins are clamped together but probably when he gets scared or something.

Please help with any ideas or if you have had experience with this sort of thing I would really really appreciate it. I've never had a betta before.. hell, I've never had an aquarium before so all this is fairly new to me!

Sincerely,

Confused Betta Mommy

Give him a few days to see how he does. If he still seems really stressed out, you may need to put something around the sides of the tank to give him a little more security, but in all likelyhood he'll adjust just fine.

Also, some bettas like to be near other bettas, and some people keep tanks next to each other, but it all depends on the betta. I think EMG even has some divided tanks, but they are considerably bigger and have hidey holes I believe. They were lovely when I saw the pictures <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Hello, thanks for responding! I'm wondering if there is something I can buy to cover up the glare 'inside' the tank that's safe for the fish? I already have a decorative background taped to the outside rear and the 2 small side panels of the tank but it's not blocking the reflection inside the tank.

Oh my gosh, this totally hit the nail on the head, so to speak, about what my betta's been doing. I posted sometime last week asking about what was going on and why he was jerking around so much... after reading this post, I tried blocking the reflection in his tank and the jerking completely stopped.

So the reflection-blocking technique definately makes a betta stop trying to attack himself. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

PinkCow, what did you use to block the reflection? Nice to know I'm not the only one in this predicament hehe

Thanks!

I put a towel around the base of his tank (I actually did this to warm up the water, but it helped this too!). I left about half the tank showing so that he could still see out, but he doesn't seem to be attacking his reflection even in the visible parts now.

Congratulations! You now have a stress-free betta hehe

Who, me? *lol* My poor little guy is awfully neurotic, so I doubt if he'll ever be stress-free... right now he's cold because the heat's off in this building. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> But he's enjoying the nice clean water I put him in today, so maybe he'll slowly start to calm down.

Good luck getting your fishy to quit fighting himself!

I made a simple webpage for my betta. I will be adding this link to my signature line as well =)

http://www.geocities.com/cpl94015/ares.html

I like your page!!! Great pics!!
Thanks for sharing!
Amber