Betta Went Beserk

[Johnlenham]

Oookkk im now rather worried about my betta Blue, was sitting here on the xbox when I heard a strange noise form my bettas tank direction looked round and he just went nuts! shot across ,down ,along and around the tank then just stopped dashed under a clay pot cover and sat there.

Ive jumped up to see what was going on and he started hiding away..

Tested the water and the Nitrites had creeped up past 0 so I did a 50% water change. He was still hiding and staying at the bottom of the tank so I scoped him out into a container and had a closer look.

No fin damage
No signs of illness (had sand specs on him from the sheer force he kicked up when he shot around)
Gave him 3 food pellets and he gobbled them up and was swimming about fine in the container..
Really nothing I could see that was different from a normal day.

I did add a black background to the tank which I think must have been reflecting because he was flaring quite abit yesterday but put it down to him adjusting to it... other than that a few bits of Frogbit plant

Ive taken off the background and stuck a brown parcel behind it which is dull so cant reflect.

Any ideas? Hes back to swimming all depths now but it was quite a shock to say the least.

 

[Truck]

take the background off all together, bettas will not appreciate it

 

[danni_69]

strange.. mine have done that before, i put it down to a noise or somethin spooked them a bit maybe? dont forget that sound waves are amplified under water, so any noise thats quite to u may be really loud to a fish. if hes ok now, maybe keep your ye on him for a day or so, but he should be ok

and as to backgrounds, ive got them on my tank, and it doesnt bother them.... nothing wrong with a background, adds depth to the tank.

 

[wilsonnw8]

A lot of the time a background is good for a betta, it distorts or removes reflection, do you play the X box often? was it a loud game?
It may sound stupid but Bettas are scared of things too and I would put money on it being your xbox that freaked him out.
My betta Sam is irrational scared of black objects this includes:
my phone
my camera
candles
boxes
glasses case
etc

Anything black he will dart around and almost throw himself out the water, hide under rocks etc. Your little guy is clearly scared too!
not ill just frightend

 

[Johnlenham]

I wouldn't have thought it was a noise as ive been on the thing all day and ive been going on it since long before he arrived. Really have no idea what might have caused it but hopefully by morning he will be ok and ill do another 50% water change aswell.

Thinking about it I might have been shouting in rage at the time;p could be that...

 

[love4aquatic]

I wouldn't have thought it was a noise as ive been on the thing all day and ive been going on it since long before he arrived. Really have no idea what might have caused it but hopefully by morning he will be ok and ill do another 50% water change aswell.

i once had a betta who was terrified of female bettas! never could breed him!

if your fish does it again and your not playing your video games look around see what items you have that he may be seeing or freaking him out, also do you have a cat or dog that could have walked into the room and scared him?

 

[Johnlenham]

I wouldn't have thought it was a noise as ive been on the thing all day and ive been going on it since long before he arrived. Really have no idea what might have caused it but hopefully by morning he will be ok and ill do another 50% water change aswell.

i once had a betta who was terrified of female bettas! never could breed him!

if your fish does it again and your not playing your video games look around see what items you have that he may be seeing or freaking him out, also do you have a cat or dog that could have walked into the room and scared him?

Nope my room has been the same way for about 3 months, I know for a fact my brothers have had the music up on my TV stupidly loud at times and hes taken no notice. No pets either... wilsonnw8 described it well and when I put him back after examining he went and hide in the gap between the filter and the tank side which is about _________ wide.

Unless he scared of Frogbit Im totally stumped. When it happened I though he was having a seizure or something!

Edit:
Well he was staring out of one side of the tank, ive walked over to see and hes looked at me, then swam down and went into his clay pot hiding place

Watched him abit more and hes staying in the lower half of the tank. Then he pointed upwards and was watching this frogbit circle in the water so im thinking "maybe he thinks its a predator or something" so ive took it out and chucked it in my main tank

 

[wilsonnw8]

Its likely to be a fear of something irrational you havent thought of! lol Sams fear of black things baffles me but I cannot leave anything black by his tank without him throwing "a fit" we just dont know what scares the little guys! keep an eye out!

 

[Netty]

Was it this kind of look

This was Draco's reaction when I put frogbit in his tank last year. He went into a frenzy and wouldn't go near it. I got this pic of him just before he went to hide under his IAL leaf

 

[wilsonnw8]

Haha looks just like Sam pressed behind his soft coral - he normally doesnt come out for a good ten mins!

 

[Johnlenham]

Yes thats the look!

He ran away again when I went to move the filter output as it was abit strong which was odd but hes out again at the top of the tank so I guess it could have been a mix of frogbit and a loud noise. Really hoping he will be back to his old self in the morning!

 

[Netty]

Aww bless him......hope he isn't too spooked anymore. It took Darco a while to get used to the frogbit but he did eventually with a little help from a dangling bloodworm. Proved just to much to resist in the end

Must admit though he did scare me at first until I realised what the problem was.