Alpha has some interesting characteristics... Some would call them annoying. Some would call them infuriating. I call them quirky!
Like the Betta mentioned earlier (Professor), Alpha enjoys sleeping upsidedown in his plants.
He also does the following:
-Wedges himself into the smallest possible areas including between the filter and the back of the tank (it's an internal Elite Stingray... not much space!), the heater, and between the thermometer and the side of the tank.
-On the occasion that he cannot fit into a space, he will flare at the offending space (like the small 1/4 cm gap between the thermometer and the glass it is suction cupped to) and then continually ram his head into it until he either fits, or gets tired.
-The Mag-Float must be 2" under the water, as when I used to leave it partially above the surface, he would launch himself on top of it, so his head and body were half out of the water, and then gasp for air until I moved the magnet.
-He flares at everything, but his favourite things to flare at are my room mate and his food. Of course, he'll never flare for pictures though.
-He always builds massive bubble nests, right over his airstone (which I turn off at night and when I'm not around), so that I feel bad when I turn the airstone on and ruin it.
-Alpha requires a mirror next to his tank 24/7, otherwise he gets angry and chews up his tail. He's reduced it to less-than-half it's size, TWICE!
-When Alpha lived with 3 panda cory's, he used to be fed a flake food (Pet store Betta... it was all he was used to)... That was... until I started feeding the cory's shrimp pellets. He would steal their shrimp pellets and parade around the tank with it sticking out of his mouth. Problem is, the pellet was fairly large, and solid. Intended for bottom feeders who feed slowly. He would hold the pellet until it was soft enough to bite, would rip a chunk off and throw the rest to the surface, swallow the chunk, and catch the rest before the cory's could get it. I had to feed the corys after the tank lights went off so they could actually eat. Since then, Alpha has eaten a varied diet of 2 different types of flake, blood worms, and shrimp pellets. I actually have a picture somewhere of him parading around with the shrimp pellet... if I can find it, I'll edit this and attach it later.
*EDIT*: added a picture from my cellphone of him parading around with a shrimp pellet.
Anything else would be a mere distraction!
. It's hard to make sure he's not overfed. How he's not one big round ball of fatness I don't know, but he's not.
