My Female Betta Is Obsessed With Me!

[Athena]

I've noticed in the last week or two that my purple female Betta, Phoenix, has developed such a fixation on me that I can barely go near the tank without her trying to jump at me. As soon as she sees me approaching she zooms over to the front of the glass, doing her fishy dance and follows me if I walk back and forth.

She has also started jumping out of the water to grab her food. Yesterday, I got such a shock because she jumped straight at my finger and landed a "kiss" on it LOL. Wasn't a bite, didn't hurt, just a wet fish-kiss! I'm absolutely flattered that she loves me so much but I don't know how to cope with all the excitement!

I'm really scared of doing tank maintenance now because the other day I took the lid off to do a water change and she zoomed over to me so fast and literally jumped in the air and I heard a "smack" sound - I was searching frantically on the floor for her but couldn't see her, then heard a faint flapping noise from the tank - she had landed on the glass support strip just inside the tank. I was just about to nudge her back in the water when she backflipped herself into the tank. Phew!

She panics me so much now. Gosh it's a problem - I know Bettas can jump but how do you all cope with doing water changes/maintenance/feeding? I hate the thought of Phoenix harming herself.

Athena

 

[metromyers]

Aint love grand!! All mine see is the net and they run the other direction! Try keeping the lid on the tank down and just slip the net in. Then keep a lid on what ever you keep them in while you change the water. I had a white cloud jump out of the tank and jump behind a desk where I couldn't get to him fast enough. Good Luck

 

[Athena]

Oh, so do you remove your fish when you're doing water changes then? I've never done that. I've always manoevred around the fish.

It's food for thought, though (if I can catch her!). Just hope that being fished out in a net every week doesn't stress her out too much, though.

Thanks - Athena

 

[azulfire24]

i for one am for removing the fish, my bettas seem to have a thing for attacking the end of the sipon tube, once with very bad consquences, lets just say i had to enuthize a fish for the first time ever..... try cupping her out in to somthing with a lid while u change the water or clean.. better peace of mind.

 

[Annalina]

And my advice is, instead of using a net just a clean sterile cup and scope her up, each fish gets their own cup. That way there is less chance for the next to hurt their fins. I do that with my males anyway. With the females I just go around them and do a 25-35% water change. But if its more I'll be taking them out of the tank

 

[Amunet]

I used to remove my bettas during water changes, but it stressed them out too much. I would just leave them in the tank. They knew when to get out of the way and of course I always made sure to pay attention to what I was doing so I wouldn't suck them up.
Some of them actually enjoyed playing in the water flow when I put the water back in to the tank.

 

[Athena]

Thanks for all the replies. In the past I have always done the water change with the fish in the tank (Phoenix is in a 3ft tank with only 3 other small fish so there is plenty of room for me to do what I have to do without them getting in the way) but it's just this new habit of hers of jumping that is going to make life more difficult.

I think I will try removing her next time.

I was wondering if female bettas get more excitable at the time when they want to spawn? Could this be the reason for her change in behaviour? Or do they only get the inkling to spawn when they see a male betta? She can't see my male betta as his tank is underneath hers on a double stand.

I've never delved into the mating process of bettas too much because I've no intention of putting them together. Do you think it makes them depressed if they never get the chance to mate and spawn?

Athena