Beta’s Hiding and Acting Strange

[Hammerpgh]

Hi all,

I have two female Beta’s in a small tank (20 litres) and for the first month all seemed fine but the last few days they have started acting very odd. They constantly hide, mainly at the bottom of the tank, underneath plants or in one instance inside a small skull head. Tonight I’ve come home from work and one is pretty much burying herself under a plant and the other I couldn’t find until I noticed her actually mostly out of the water in a small gap on the housing for the air filter. I immediately got her out and she swam around but is now back there again. The other after coming out and swimming around briefly is back burying herself under the plant.

What could be the cause of this? I’ve tested the water multiple times and the readings come out ok although the PH is a little higher than ideal.

The water pump seems to be working and water is flowing as normal but is it possible it isn’t generating enough oxygen for them?

Previous to this they’ve been happily swimming around and active. There’s no sign of any diseases that I can see.

Any help much appreciated as I feel I’m on the verge of losing them.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello Hammerpgh. That's a very small tank. Even with just two, small fish, you need to the change half the water a couple of times a week. If you're not, that could be the reason for the change in the fishes' behavior. Check the water chemistry. If you don't have the equipment, then start with a little bit larger than normal water change. Water changes will perk up the fish in most cases.

10 Tanks

 

[Hammerpgh]

Yes I’ve never had tropical fish before so just starting shake for now. I did change half of the water the other day when I first noticed the behaviour and have some water ready now to do another so I’ll see how they alter that.

Water chemistry has been ok up to now and I treated yesterday with the same results but I’ll check again once I’ve changed the water.

 

[TNG]

Would you check if your heater is working OK?
Your pH is not much higher than 7.5?

 

[Hammerpgh]

Heater is working fine and I check the temperature several times a day to make sure it’s in the right range.
PH is 8.0 which I realise is higher than ideal.

 

[powerdyne6]

No one has mentioned two Betta’s in a tank? And only a 5 gallon

These fish are best kept alone… they are probably stressed and looking for places to escape

 

[Essjay]

The often quoted rule for females bettas is -
1 = good
2 = bad, as one will pick on the other
3 = bad, as two will gang up on one
4 = OK
5 or more = good

Female bettas need to be either kept alone or in a group in a large enough tank for them to be able to get away from one another, and a tank with a lot of tall decor to break up line of site. Even though they are females, they are still aggressive fish and two in this small tank is going to lead to problems. They were OK for a month as they were settling in; now their true behaviour is coming out.

If these were my fish, I would either rehome one of them or buy another 20 litre tank asap and if it's possible, to split the filter media equally between the two tanks.

 

[Hammerpgh]

I am aware now that maybe two are too much although it wasn’t pointed out to me when I bought them unfortunately. It was indicated that two females would be fine.

But what’s confusing is that for almost a month they have lived happily together swimming around and seeming to be perfectly happy

Edit.. posted this as the one above was being posted so hadn’t seen that response about them settling in. But is both of them hiding what you would expect rather than one hiding from the aggressor?

 

[Essjay]

The first month was their settling in period. Now they've settled, the problems have started.

 

[TNG]

They are both female, and yes they can be aggressive too. But if aggression is an issue, one will hide another one will not. This is not what is described by the OP so aggression is unlikely to be the cause here.

 

[powerdyne6]

What are your water parameters?

Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate

 

[Hammerpgh]

What are your water parameters?

Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate

Anmonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate somewhere between 0 and 5.0

 

[TNG]

Everything seems fine apart from pH which is not ideal. I assume they are not infected with white spot?

 

[Hammerpgh]

Not that I can tell.. physically they seen just the same as they’ve been since I got them. The one that hides down the bottom has just been swimming around but then went straight back under the plant. The other one is just staying up by the top of the tank just underneath the holding arm of the filter.

 

[TNG]

I just saw the photo, that’s not a healthy fish. Whatever it is, it’s been slowly affecting your fish for quite a while, not just in the past few days.
If I were you, I’d lower the pH by whatever means available, but only by 0.2 or 0.25 at a time. I’d leave it for 2 or 3 days before lowering pH further until it drops to below 7.5
If the fish recover, the challenge is to keep the pH low and make sure it doesn't fluctuate too much.