"betta sitter..a coupla questions

[alicemagooey]

hello,again,kind betta people.
my questions for the moment are

• 
  is there a book or anything which describes the 'natural daily activity of a 'normal,happy betta '

. The Betta i am sitting has been steadily improving,as far as activity,general inquisitiveness,and feeding, since i have been able to take care of him..I know for one thing that the heating pad someone suggested here, has dramatically improved his comfort level.

in the last couple days,however,he has gone to just resting on the bottem of the tank.

.hmm..could it be cooler down there? maybe i have made his tank too warm.

(i need to go out and get a better thermometer.) He has been doing very well for about four or six days with the pad...in that he seems active and curious,and playful.

My only problem is that the ambient temperature changes so drastically..At nights,i keep the thermostat up for fishie,but that is to about 60-65..

i worried about his changing temperatures so much that i purchased one of those hagen heaters and set it up on a new square 1.5gallon bowl,and put glasss marbles at the botten(what he is used to),and regulated the heater to a constant 76 degrees ..and everything was great.

yesterday,i moved him to his 'new,improved,heated bowl..'
(removing his bubble nest in the meantime.)

he definitely knew he was in different surroundings..but shortly after the change,i found him just lying on the bottem of the tank..amongst the marbles..rather lifeless.

i got rather worried,because he usually likes to go hide in his plant..and just 'hang out' there.
he even sleeps just twined in the greenery.that is his normal behavor.

so,when i saw him so lifeless,and at the bottem,i rather panicked and moved him back to his original "bowl-with-heating-pad" arrangement.
(removing again whatever bubbles he blew,if that makes a difference)

now he is back in his new tank,and still rather lifeless,for this fishie who had become rather animated and even 'danced' a coupla times for me..

• 
  that was another question:do they make bubble nests in hope of finding a female who will lay eggs
  
  is he 'love sick'?
  

• my main question is concerning why he may be just laying on the bottem of his bowl rather listless and lifeless..when he usually likes to live 'higher up in the bowl,amongst the roots of 'his' plant

help.,please..any thoughts on what this behavior is.

it could be constipation..
??
i have been feeding him a more varied diet than he used to have,but i feed him two pelletts of either his old food ,or new Betta Bio Gold twice a day.every third day i give him a treat of a freeze dried bloodworm.

• 
  last time i did that,i also gave him a 'pea'..maybe i should do that again??

i cannot tell if he looks 'bloated' or not..doesn't seem so.

many thanks
this was a long post,for which i apologise.but i tried to make y four or five specific questions intelligible.
thank you again for the help you can give.
alice

[Rachel]

alicemagooey said:

hello,again,kind betta people.
my questions for the moment are

• 
  is there a book or anything which describes the 'natural daily activity of a 'normal,happy betta '

For betta-specific books, these few seem to be fairly good for beginners:

Bettas: A Complete Introduction. By: Walt Marcus. 1995. TFH Publications.

Bettas: A Complete Pet Owner's Manual. By: Robert J. Goldstein, Ph.D. 2001. Barrons Educational Series.

The Betta: An Owner's Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet. By: Mic and Maddy Hargrove. 2001. Wiley Publishing.

• 
  that was another question:do they make bubble nests in hope of finding a female who will lay eggs
  

Yes...generally males blow bubblenests when they are happy and usually healthy and it is to impress females for the mating ritual. You'll notice that males often blow bubblenests when rain or snow is in the forecast as that is when mating often occurs in nature.

[Jenova]

Rachel said:

For betta-specific books, these few seem to be fairly good for beginners:

Bettas: A Complete Introduction. By: Walt Marcus. 1995. TFH Publications.

Bettas: A Complete Pet Owner's Manual. By: Robert J. Goldstein, Ph.D. 2001. Barrons Educational Series.

The Betta: An Owner's Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet. By: Mic and Maddy Hargrove. 2001. Wiley Publishing.

These were the books I started out with, and the only one I think is actually useful for beginners is the last one.
The one by Goldstein is very intesting if you are interested in the genetics and the chemistry behind betta colors as well as wild bettas, but it's absolutely useless for a new betta owner.

The "Owner's Guide" helped me out a lot. I don't agree with everything in there, but overall it's not bad

[Bettaman]

The book suggestions above are all good but they don't get into the behavior of a PET Betta. Unfortunately such a book does not exist but I am writting a book on just this subject. It will be a great book for Betta owners who keep them as Pets and not for the breeders. Most books on Bettas spend too much space on discussing Breeding and very little if any discuss research and observations of Bettas kept as a pet. My book will discuss the various personalities of Pet Bettas, how you can make them perfectly happy and live longer, and how to bond with them so that they will love you as much as you love them. My Bettas will not go to sleep at night unless they greet me good night. This is not a plug for my book because it won't be out for a few years but it is a project I take great pride in and can't wait to share this info with everyone who loves Bettas as much as I do.

Your Betta is not love sick. If he is blowing bubbles it means the chemistry of the water he is in is acceptable to him and he is a happy Betta.

Moving your Betta back and forth like that is not good and can stress him out. Most Bettas will become at least slightly stressed when you move them or do water changes. Leave him alone for a day and see if he gets snaps out of it. Don't keep moving him or making temp changes or water changes as that will only stress him further.

Bettas don't like more than a 2 degrees of temperature change per day and they can't handle more than a .2 ph change per day. So hopefully when you were moving him from bowl to tank, the water temp and ph were exactly the same. If not then it's too late anyway and I suspect he may get ich as a result of the stress but that's ok cuz we can treat that. Study him closly with a magnifying glass and look for little white spots.

Keep us posted.

[alicemagooey]

BettaMan: you are my kind of person..there are NO books out there and very few people who would not look at you like you were "loopie"(like they look at me..)i am so happy you are writing a betta book..but...
may i ask a favor,.? would you ever consider making it an "online work of progress"..in other words,perhaps to a few people..(i would even pay for your book in advance)you would make a website (personal,and by invitation only,if you wish),where you would publish or put on the Internet,your future work,chapter by chapter.

i don't know..there is so much potential on the internet../and there is some valuable information..waiting to be made public.(my opinion)

your post alone was very helpful.
many thanks
alice and 'fishie'(who is doing much better!!)

[Bettaman]

The book is really not to make any money. It's primary goal is to help Betta fish and secondary goal is to help those who care for them and to get more enjoyment out of them. I'm not writting the book in a very organized manner at this point. I'm just writting a little each day or each week covering anything and everything that I want the book to cover and so there is no organization to it at this point. But organizing it will be easy once I get ready to do that. I don't want to publish the info in any format because that could seriously jeapordise my ability to land a book publisher for the book when it's done. I have already been warned by a few publishers about this. But I would be glad to answer any questions you may have via email. You can email me during the day at [e-mail] or in the evening at [e-mail]. It is best to just always email to both of those addresses to insure the fastest possible response.

I don't claim to be an expert at raising Betta fish. I have been keeping about 7 Bettas at a time for about 10 years and being an Engineer I treat this hobby like a science and record all of my observations and treatments, and even every single water change in every tank. But I love these Bettas to the max. You just don't expect any fish to sit in your hand while your hand is in the water or for them to interact with you they way they do or for them get jealous when you are spending time at another tank or for them to give you the same amount of love that you give them. It is incredible but Betta fish do this.

Once I discovered this I made a commitment to save as many Bettas from what I call SHOT GLASS HELL as I can. I've even stood in fish stores for hours buying Bettas for other fish hobbyests who come in and never had a Betta. The Betta fish is totally incredible absolutely amazing and the most wonderful fish in the world. It kills me to see them in the stores in these little Shot glass cups. Feel free to email me. I look forward to sharing Betta joys with you.