Is he getting crazy or what?

[marcusbacus]

Is my blue fish getting crazy or what? He might be doing this just for fun, but this is so funny!... He doesn't seem to have any signs of diseases or anything else (that might lead to scratching or freakiness which could explain his behaviour), but since a day ago I was hearing some clicking noises late night (always at night) and couldnt figure what these noises were... when I had one betta in some small tank with some lighter and smaller gravel stones, once I caught him "moving" one small stone around, just having some fun, and it did some noise... then today I finally found the source of the clicking noises: this betta is getting close to the thermometer (it's one of these that have a suction cup and it's hung at the front of the tank), stares at it for a while... gets side by side with it and then violently hits the thermometer with his tail!!! *WHACK*...

One explanation (is there really one?) I came up with for that is that the thermometer has these small silver balls at the bottom, and this betta eats mostly pellets... is he thinking that these balls are pellets and is trying to release them from the glass?? I wouldn't be surprised. He hits the thermometer just exclusively at the bottom of it, and always with his tail, he gets side by side to the thermometer then *POW*!!!.... Also, it doesn't do this to anything, plants, glass, heater, gravel, nothing so I think he's not actually scratching himself but just having some fun... but at 3AM???

I'm thinking about removing the thermometer, or at least not using it with the suction cup, and moving it elsewhere in the tank. If the chasing and beating continues, he's really getting crazy.

[Cheart99]

WOW mabey that is his toy. Anway my betta has never done that, he likes to swim around it. Question, is the termomiter hitting the glass on the tank when he is doing this, is that what is making the sound? Cause if it is you may want to remove it. Before when i had goldfish they did the same thing and it broke. THey ate the pellets and with the combinations of the liquide in the termomitar it killed them.

[Flurry]

When I first put a thermometer in my Betta's tank, he tried twice to eat the weights in the thermometer, then gave up, lol.

[marcusbacus]

Cheart99 said:

Question, is the termomiter hitting the glass on the tank when he is doing this, is that what is making the sound? Cause if it is you may want to remove it. Before when i had goldfish they did the same thing and it broke. THey ate the pellets and with the combinations of the liquide in the termomitar it killed them.

yes, it happens when he "whips" the thermometer with his tail (he only does that with the tail) and it's the sound of it banging on the glass. I'm afraid that this thing that you've mentioned might happen someday... I noticed that the other thermometer of the other tank doesn't have these miniballs as a weight, it has a bigger (lead?) ball at the bottom and this one doesn't look like food at all, so it gets unnoticed. Also, the shapes of the thermometers are different, this one being "spanked" has some thinner part (like a drop, sort of) where the lead balls and mercury are, while the other one has more a constant shape so there's nothing different to distract/attract the fish.

I've moved the thermometer from the front glass to the left side, but he is still hitting it occasionally... not as hard though, and never (or I haven't seen it happen yet) during the day.

[abm]

The only suggestion I would have is maybe you could use a rubber suction holder (like the heaters have) to keep the bottom/loose end of the thermometer from hitting the glass. Or perhaps this fish is one that you need to use the stick-on thermometers for...they are not as accurate IMHO but they can't break open.

[Rachel]

Have you trying moving it or anything and is he still doing it? To be on the safe side, I might think about using a different non-breakable thermometer as already suggested.

One of my guys likes to pop the suction cup of his thermometer off the side of the tank with his head. He doesn't really push it around or anything afterwards, but just doesn't like it stuck there I guess. It's a fun little game for him and annoying for me to have to stick it back on, but we play it anyway.

[marcusbacus]

Since I moved the thermometer to the side of the tank I think I've heard the *thump* maybe once or twice in the first day after the move but it seems to have stopped, or at least the times he does that. I didn't like its position but I'm afraid that if I put it back to the original place the play starts again. This fish is a bit overactive and finds some fun anywhere...

[marcusbacus]

In the last full water change I put the thermometer back to its original place and he hasn't found it yet, after 2 days. It's a bit disguised behind a plant but it's quite visible for him I think, just not on his way as before anymore because of the plant.