pendragon
Fish Crazy
A couple of questions for you betta experts out there. I have a 46-gallon, cycled, lightly planted aquarium that is currently the home to a school of red-eye tetras and a few otocinclus cats. It's nowhere even near approaching bio-load capacity yet. I think, ultimately, I'm going to move the red-eyes to a different tank and make it a rainbowfish aquarium. A couple of days ago I decided, after never having owned a betta - but read and heard much about them - to rescue one from my local PetSmart and use it as a colorful community fish in that tank. He's been in there a little over 48 hours now, and seems happy as a lark, but...
(1.) I've spent a lot of that time right near the tank and have had a watchful eye on it in case there are compatibility problems. The tetras are curious about him and occaisionally one will swim closeby for a look-see. Sometimes the betta seems to not mind this at all, but occaisionally he'll "strike" at the tetra - kind of like a snake strikes - in a very quick, lunging motion. The tetras are quicker and easily flee from his reach, and he doesn't give chase but for a split second, then goes back to his business. He just doesn't seem to like them in his "personal space". He's not "got" one yet, but I don't know if he'll really do damage if he did. I've witnessed him do this once while feeding, but a couple other times when not. I'm not really comfortable with that in the long term. Is that common? Can I expect that to continue, or will he eventually "grow" out of it? He will swim right up to an oto stuck to the tank wall as though he's curious, but has thus far shown no signs of bothering one, only inquisitive tetras.
(2.) I know bettas like meaty food/insects, but I understand they will eat flake, too. Mine gobbles up freeze-fried bloodworms, but when I put flake in the tank to feed the tetras, he does an odd thing. He swims around right under the surface like the tetras do, and will gobble several bites of floating flake as though he loves it, and then spits it all back out. He will repeat the process for a while, gathering a mouthful in several bites and then spitting it back out (essentially until the tetras eat it all). I've been waiting until right after the flake is all gone, and then feeding him some freeze-dried bloodworm a couple bites at a time by dropping it right in front of him (unlike the tetras, he sure isn't skittish when your hand nears the water). This isn't a terrible ordeal, but it would be nice if he would learn to eat some flake so he's not entirely dependant on being fed separately. Is this common? Is it likely he'll learn to eat flake too? I discovered he will eat tubifex as well. Will he eat daphnia?
(3.) He's very active. Swimming to and fro. Left side to right side to left side again. Up and down, surface to bottom to surface again. He seems tireless. I'm sure there's so much space after being in the cup that he doesn't know what to do with himself, but he does another odd thing here, too. He always swims along the sides of the tank right next to the glass. I wonder if this is a crazy side effect of being in the cup (where along the side was the only way he could swim). Is this common? Are bettas not open-water swimmers? There are bazillions of you who have described having your bettas in all kinds of accomodations, but rarely in a tank over 10 gallons. Is he "out of his nature" in a tank that size? Openness makes him uncomfortable, maybe?
He seems to like to "squeeze" through tight places, whether between two stems of a plant or between two adjecant silicon air tubes that run down the back corner of the tank. He'll push and push and push until he's through, and when he's free he'll turn around and go back through it the other way. He'll do it several times in succession before he gets tired of it and does something else. The first couple of times I thought maybe he was stuck, but I'm wise to him now. Silly betta. Seems funny behavior for a fish, though. Reminds me of a ferret.
More questions may arise as I observe him more in the new environment. Thanks for any insight!
pendragon!
(1.) I've spent a lot of that time right near the tank and have had a watchful eye on it in case there are compatibility problems. The tetras are curious about him and occaisionally one will swim closeby for a look-see. Sometimes the betta seems to not mind this at all, but occaisionally he'll "strike" at the tetra - kind of like a snake strikes - in a very quick, lunging motion. The tetras are quicker and easily flee from his reach, and he doesn't give chase but for a split second, then goes back to his business. He just doesn't seem to like them in his "personal space". He's not "got" one yet, but I don't know if he'll really do damage if he did. I've witnessed him do this once while feeding, but a couple other times when not. I'm not really comfortable with that in the long term. Is that common? Can I expect that to continue, or will he eventually "grow" out of it? He will swim right up to an oto stuck to the tank wall as though he's curious, but has thus far shown no signs of bothering one, only inquisitive tetras.
(2.) I know bettas like meaty food/insects, but I understand they will eat flake, too. Mine gobbles up freeze-fried bloodworms, but when I put flake in the tank to feed the tetras, he does an odd thing. He swims around right under the surface like the tetras do, and will gobble several bites of floating flake as though he loves it, and then spits it all back out. He will repeat the process for a while, gathering a mouthful in several bites and then spitting it back out (essentially until the tetras eat it all). I've been waiting until right after the flake is all gone, and then feeding him some freeze-dried bloodworm a couple bites at a time by dropping it right in front of him (unlike the tetras, he sure isn't skittish when your hand nears the water). This isn't a terrible ordeal, but it would be nice if he would learn to eat some flake so he's not entirely dependant on being fed separately. Is this common? Is it likely he'll learn to eat flake too? I discovered he will eat tubifex as well. Will he eat daphnia?
(3.) He's very active. Swimming to and fro. Left side to right side to left side again. Up and down, surface to bottom to surface again. He seems tireless. I'm sure there's so much space after being in the cup that he doesn't know what to do with himself, but he does another odd thing here, too. He always swims along the sides of the tank right next to the glass. I wonder if this is a crazy side effect of being in the cup (where along the side was the only way he could swim). Is this common? Are bettas not open-water swimmers? There are bazillions of you who have described having your bettas in all kinds of accomodations, but rarely in a tank over 10 gallons. Is he "out of his nature" in a tank that size? Openness makes him uncomfortable, maybe?
He seems to like to "squeeze" through tight places, whether between two stems of a plant or between two adjecant silicon air tubes that run down the back corner of the tank. He'll push and push and push until he's through, and when he's free he'll turn around and go back through it the other way. He'll do it several times in succession before he gets tired of it and does something else. The first couple of times I thought maybe he was stuck, but I'm wise to him now. Silly betta. Seems funny behavior for a fish, though. Reminds me of a ferret.
More questions may arise as I observe him more in the new environment. Thanks for any insight!
pendragon!
If he's still jittery about them, perhaps it would be a good idea to separate them. The only time I had a betta act like you describe was with blind cave tetras. These fish swam a little faster than the other fish he was with and perhaps bumped into him from time to time. I think his response was defensive more than aggressive, but I didn't wait to find out. Once I moved them, he was fine.
