Obsessively Flaring at Matte Black Wall

I got a new betta, Artax, about a month ago. When I first got him, he had swim bladder disorder which I have since fixed but now he has gotten a different problem. After he was cured, he was a normal little fishy just gaining weight back. He was super calm and docile. I had a shrimp in with him as well as a snail. He would never go after either of them and whenever I saw the snail, he always had his antenna things so I know he wasn't being nipped at.

I spent two days over at a friends and during those two days I fasted both of my fish. I came back to Artax's tail half eaten away as well as the snail's antenna were gone and Artax was chasing his shrimp. It has been two days since then and his tail has gotten so much worse and he has gotten increasingly aggressive (I moved his shrimp out of the tank the first day I came back and found him being chased).

Today I was wondering if he could see his reflection which was stressing him out so I switched my betta's tanks. Artax went from a planted Fluval Spec V to a fully planted imagitarium 6.8 gallon which has a matte black background. He hates it for some reason. I moved him into there about 3-4 hours ago and he has been flaring ever since then. I have the lights off currently and he's still been doing it. When the lights are on, he typically flares at the filter intake grates on the left side, while, when the lights are off he seems to target the entire back wall. How can I fix this? I am just afraid that hes gonna hurt himself or die from exhaustion.

My other betta has proven to be more aggressive than Artax and has never had a problem with the wall so I can not think of what could be wrong.

Black backgrounds can reflect things quite well and your fish is flaring at his reflection. If you can change the background to a different colour it might help, however, I'm not sure if you can with that style of tank.

Moving the fish into another tank has caused him to become aggressive towards his reflection. He is in a new territory and is telling his reflection to back off.

Move him back to his old tank and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a couple of weeks.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last couple of weeks. Wash filter materials in a bucket of tank water.

Feed him more often, 2-3 times a day for a couple of weeks. Use a variety of foods including dry, frozen (but defrosted) and live.

Colin_T said:

Black backgrounds can reflect things quite well and your fish is flaring at his reflection. If you can change the background to a different colour it might help, however, I'm not sure if you can with that style of tank.

Moving the fish into another tank has caused him to become aggressive towards his reflection. He is in a new territory and is telling his reflection to back off.

Move him back to his old tank and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a couple of weeks.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last couple of weeks. Wash filter materials in a bucket of tank water.

Feed him more often, 2-3 times a day for a couple of weeks. Use a variety of foods including dry, frozen (but defrosted) and live.

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He is not flaring at his reflection as there is no reflection. He is flaring at a black completely matte wall that has no glass or reflective properties. It has been 8 hours and he is still flaring at the wall. When I tried to feed him his freeze dried bloodworms he came away only long enough to eat two or three and kept getting distracted. I moved him out of his old tank because there were way more reflections in the Fluval than there is in the imagitarium and the location of the latter makes it easier to maintain reflections. I have tried feeding him two times a day and increasing his feed but he has still gotten more aggressive. I can try to increase water changes and do a deep cleaning but I'm not sure how that would help

The only reason they flare is to tell rival males to go away, or to show off to females.

You moved him into a new tank, which he considers a new territory, and he can see a reflection or something, which is why he is displaying to it.

You can try putting a mirror next to his tank (on the front or side) and see if he displays to that. If he does, then let him display to it for about 5 minutes, then remove the mirror. It might take his mind off the back of the tank and he might settle down after that. However, it might not make any difference.