Bettas with Brains

[Synirr]

Just thought I'd share something I've noticed about my two DT plakat boys... their tanks sit side-by-side on my bedside table, so the begging little buggers usually get an extra pellet right before bedtime. Valefor sees me and immediately darts to the hole in his lid to wait for his pellet. Once I tap the food dispenser on his tank, he begins looking for the pellet because he knows it is in the water somewhere. After he finds it, his does his happy wiggle dance (pins his pectorals to his sides and wiggles like a worm,) then goes to the bottom and takes his sleeping position... he knows one pellet is all he gets, so he doesn't even bother begging further. Adramelech on the other hand doesn't seem to have the slightest clue what's going on. He dances for me, I give him his pellet.....he just keeps dancing and doesn't see the pellet at all. Usually I have to direct him to the pellet using the food container, and even then he has trouble finding it sometimes because he's just so excited by the container itself.

Mini is really bright like Valefor and knows when she sees the tweezers hovering above water she had better get under them for a tasty white worm treat!
Even the sight of the box I culture the worms in gets her all excited!

Sooo... which of YOUR bettas have brains and which don't?

 

[Kiarra]

That's great!

One of my green Plakats, Killian, KNOWS that I mean food. I come over, and he immediately starts jumping. He knows there will be food there if there's anything in my hands when I wander over. Soon as his cardboard (I'm poor!) lid starts to move, he jumps so high out of the water he just about smashes into it.

Lysander, however...I have to practically drop it on his nose before he realizes there's food coming.

 

[ScoutCarcer]

I know what you mean Diego doesnt know that theres food near until some drops on his head But Yasmin and Madonna understand what food means. Owl sometimes does know when foods there and sometimes he doesnt

 

[Bettabelieveit]

I think it's a plakat thing, tonight I fed some live brine shrimp for the first time, to all my boys, and well.. lets just say, my plakat Mario was a beast and chomped em down and was looking for more, then when i was at the tank next to him, but down a little further, he was down at the bottom of the tank, kind of cockeyed trying to get a good view of what the heck I was doing ) i was like, oh go away you pig, you already had two helpings of this already!

 

[Seahorse]

Hahaha aww

All mine know when I lift the lid of their hoods, food is coming. They must feel the vibrations or see, because they swim up right away.

 

[SPLiSH]

Cute stories everyone.

I only have one betta but he's a smartie pants. Jerry lives in a Kritter Keeper so when I lift up the little hatch on the lid he weaves his way through his silk plant and waits.

Then I drop the pellet and he gets so excited that he lunges at it and sometimes misses.

 

[FishEnthusiast]

I have so many and most I am just getting to know. But of the 6 I have had for a while, 2 seem to be really dumb. I think it is my fault though. When I open my divided 10G, both boys swim to the front edge of the divider and wait for food. If I don't drop it right in front of them they won't look for it. I think I caused it by feeding them this way a couple of times, so now I try to drop it in different places so they look around. The others will "hunt" their food so to speak. Especially Leroy. He really enjoys feeding time, he gets to "attack" his food. He spies the food in the water, sneaks up on it reallllllllllly slowly, then POUNCE! He grabs the food as fast as he can and then swims to the bottom to chew away happily. Once that pellet is gone, up to the top he goes to "hunt" another pellet.

 

[FalconStorm]

I have two girls that are right next to one another. One is really skittish, but likes her food. Her name is Lilith. The other is Lazuline. Lazuline always knows when it is feeding time and is right at the top, waiting for dinner. Lilith, on the other hand, although she gets upset if you feed Lazuline before her, she can't find her pellets. I've seen the pellets land ON her head and she still can't find them. Sometimes I think she's just dumb. She hides from the littlest things too...like, my boyfriend, even though he feeds her as much as I do. Lazuline is a regular socialite, though. Heh, it's interesting to see them next to one another as they are great contrasts.

 

[BettaMomma]

Everyone at my house is different. All are collectively weird, but separately different.

Lucky gets so excited when it's feeding time that he flips his fins so hard he blows the pellets to the other side of the tank. I just leave him alone to go find them. It gives him something to do for a couple minutes.

Charlie needs to have his pellets soaked for 5 minutes or so before I feed them to him or his swim bladder acts up. He thinks is SO fun when I dump the pellets (soaked in tank water) into the tank, and they originally sink a little, then float back up. He LOVES to chase them around.

My 6 girls climb all over themselves when it's feeding time. ANY time anyone goes by the tank they go up to get food. Like this:

Harvey and Archie are in a divided 10G. As soon as they see me standing beside their tank they swim toward the back of the tank where I drop the pellets in. (I use the holes in the back to feed them with rather than the flip door in the front cuz their sections are off to the side)... they both fold all their fins in and swim back there just as fast as their fins will carry them.

Louis - aah, Louis the blind boy. He hears me walk up on the carpet (don't know HOW he does it, but he hears me) and he comes up off the bottom of the tank. He comes over to the one corner where I've trained him to go for food and he waits for me to drop them in. Then he starts sniffing all over the place, and finds them. I use a toothpick to feed him bloodworms. I just dangle them right in front of his nose and he sucks them in like spaghetti.

Petey and Gabriel can count to 4, also. They both know when they've gotten all the pellets they're going to get, as they swim away once the 4 have been dropped in and eaten. MAN - they get mad if they're not fed at the same time, too. (they're in a divided tank)

Everybody else is not so bright.
They don't realize I'm feeding them until they see or hear the pellets hit the water - and then it's a mad dash to get to it.