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Post by nwhysel on Jun 10, 2003 11:55:23 GMT -5
My betta has been lying on the bottom of the tank a lot. He used to hide in the plants or under a little stone archway and would often be seen playing about with the water streaming into the tank or at the top of the tank, but he never just laid down in the open like he is now. He doesn't seem to have lost his appetite and will always swim up when I come in the room to play or beg for food. His swimming seems fine.
Also, I have been changing the water & checking pH levels and all that.
Could he just be bored?
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Post by Jenny on Jun 10, 2003 13:02:50 GMT -5
What is the temperature of the tank? Bettas can get inactive when they get too cold. This temp seems to vary depending on the betta. One of mine seems happy down to 70, another pales and becomes sluggish below 75, and I just realized that above 78 my female's colors become so much brighter. I never noticed this because all winter her tank wasn't warmer than this.
You said that he used to play with water coming into the tank. Does this mean that he is in a filtered tank? If so, bettas can become stresed by current in their water. It can be difficult to swim against a current with their long fins.
One last possibility is that he is just slowing down with age. How long have you had him? I know that my two males I have had for about a year are not as active as they used to be. They are healthy in every other way, they just spend more time resing on their plant, and less swimming around.
You might want to hold a mirror up by his tank (or put another betta tank near his, if you have one) to see if he will flare. If he is just in a funk, that may cheer him up.
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Post by jedicat on Jun 10, 2003 22:45:25 GMT -5
how large is your tank? have you tried rearranging the stuff in it? also, is there anything near the tank that he can clearly see that might be making him timid?
i'm sorta dealing with the same problem...wedge has been pretty lazy lately, which i've been chalking up to old age, and a few other seemingly irrational factors. he spends a lot of time sitting under his plant. i noticed he's more active when the lights are dim, and there are certain things that when i put them near his bowl (like my twin pod cloud car lego set...maybe he doesn't like the color red?) , he hides from them and will only come out for food and air. i also think the bowl is too small for him (it's 2 gallons, but he's about 3 inches long...he's a BIG betta.) he still eats a lot, and is alert, but doesn't flare as much as he used to. now when i put him near one of the other guys, he gets more territorial than aggressive...the other guy flares and flares, and he swims around his bowl quickly, in circles, then eventually goes to his hideyhole and ignores them. i've also found that moving around the stuff in his bowl perks him up for a few hours, but then he goes back to being lazy. i don't have a heater, and it's been pretty hot here, so his temperature's been in the high 70's (77-80).
i guess you could try rearranging his "furniture" and testing to see if anything around his tank could be bothering him. it could just be old age (wedge is somewhere around 2 years old)
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Post by nwhysel on Jun 11, 2003 9:02:28 GMT -5
A wierd idea, but...
The last time I changed the tank, I broke one of the decorations. It was a hammerhead shark with a real hammer for a head. Maybe he misses it? He's actually doing the most lying around near the corner where the shark used to be. I'm happy he at least is flaring and not clamping his fins, and moves around a lot when I sit by the tank or feed him. Tank water may be a bit cool, but since the weather is warming up, that shouldn't be a problem.
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ana
Egg
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Post by ana on Jun 11, 2003 10:03:09 GMT -5
thats not weird, i was going to mention yesterday when it was suggested checking the stuff in his tank, i have a betta who pouts if i dont put his plant back in just right after his cleaning, he keeps it up til i fix it, just the way the leaves are sitting must bother him
maybe something close to the same colours and size?
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Post by Rachel - old on Jun 11, 2003 23:42:27 GMT -5
I had a somewhat similar situation one time when I moved the plants and hidey hole into completely new positions. Rudy was noticeably inactive and seemed to just bum around on the gravel until his next water change when I put everything back in its original place. He was back to his old self in no time.
It's weird how some of them notice little things like that, isn't it?
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ana
Egg
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Post by ana on Jun 14, 2003 4:05:52 GMT -5
yeah, they have very strong personalities and likes and dislikes  i have one in particular who gets huffy so easily and yet hes just the sweetest thing as long as everything is exactly right i keep my bettas at 80 degrees, they dont seem as happy in the 70's but that could be because theyre used to it now and i do forget, we never really know how old they may be when we buy them, i have one pair who look like twins, i bought them at the same time, but i would swear that one is much older than the other one, and though hes only a few months mine sometimes i think he's much more aged than the rest so i guess age is always a factor and we may not know how old they are, i know a couple of mine are babies still because of snout colouring and their behaviour, but the others, i really dont know |
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