Betta Personality.. For You Experts

[briggs]

So I get home from being at school for 11 hours.. and instead of going right on my laptop to email my girlfriend as I usualy do.. I go and hang out with Sarge.

I've been observing him quite alot.. and I've got a few questions now.. since I'm not sure if it could be personality traits or something else..

1). He kept missing his food. he would snap at it and miss it, as if he couldnt see properly. My question for this observation is.. since it has been dark in my room for atleast 3.5 hours, and i come in and put my light on.. does it take awhile for his eyes to adjust? Also, he usualy gets not so active around 4-5 in the afternoon and hes like that until 5-6 in the morning.. so maybe hes just tired right now. (also, hes not in DIRECT light, but obviously thers a difference from going from pitch black to medium bright light for us with some "shade" over him. Oh and another thing i thought up.. i have surane wrap(sp) on top of his tank (covers most of it but has about 1.5in x 5in of open air space). I've peeld half of it back because im feeding him and cleaning out the leftovers. Perhaps that messes with their fishy eyes, because there is a slight reflection and differnet angle differences. as you can see, im 'fishing' (exuse the pun) for possible reasons of him missing the food

I was a little ticked cuz he wasnt eating what i dropped off. i dropped abot 8-10 chunks (dont worry i used my turkey baster to get the ones out that he didnt eat), and i left about 2 on the bottom. He did his swim thing, then i noticed him digging around the gravel. First he was just movin' the actual gravel.. and i wonderd what he was doin.. but then after further observation, he found the two pieces of food and ate them! (Thank god)

2). do they have multi colored eyes? i know about if they outer part is not clear then there is a problem, but i mean benieth that.. should it be one solid color or is it possible to have different colors?

3) do they have different swim techniques? He's done this twice so far.. maybe becuase he wants to pick up speed.. but he almost swims like hes a snake..if you can pictur ehte way a snake moves, thats the way he swims sometimes, and he picks up some speed. His gills look fine and clear. Again, maybe he's tired or maybe he just wants to rip across the tank quickly

I also should point out he swims everywhere. top, bottom, middle, through things, curls up in things, lays on things, kisses the thermometer. He's a good boy. At the moment hes hanging out in his tall reeds

I'm a little concerned about a few things, but i wont get into that yet until i hear some expert opinions on the subject first.

Thank you

p.s. on antoher note, i just read this in an article.

"Unless the two males have been raised together as brothers, male Bettas cannot be kept in the same tank."

Do any of you believe that or have experience with that?

Oh and heres another question (sorry im full of them, but where else do you expect me to go? )

- This is how i see the chain of events in a fishs' life.. tell me if im close at all.

If a fish is to cold, he becomes stressed. When he is stressed he is unhappy which probably means he is less active.. doesnt move much.. also means his immune system will start to deteriate.. if his system deteriates.. he gets a disease and may not be able to recover.. and then unfortuantely mr fishy dies.. correct? is that about right?

I wonder how betta fish survive in the wild when a monsoon comes in thailand or something.. and knowing the industrial world, rain water isnt always that healthy and sometimes acidic.. not to mention probably a different temperature change when heavy storms roll in.

Are there places that sell wild bettas? Perhaps a dealer that breeds only FROM wild bettas.. you wold think those might be a bit more hardier then ones that were spawned by parents who were spawned in certain conditions and what not.. if ther are i bet they are expensive..

[amanichen]

1). He kept missing his food. he would snap at it and miss it, as if he couldnt see properly. My question for this observation is.. since it has been dark in my room for atleast 3.5 hours, and i come in and put my light on.. does it take awhile for his eyes to adjust?

Yes, it takes much longer for fish eyes to adjust.

Also, he usualy gets not so active around 4-5 in the afternoon and hes like that until 5-6 in the morning..

Fish do sleep, and it will depend on the light cycle they go through.

2). do they have multi colored eyes? i know about if they outer part is not clear then there is a problem, but i mean benieth that.. should it be one solid color or is it possible to have different colors?

Depending on the angle and lighting a betta's eyes can be different colors. Most times they'll reflect a red color.

3) do they have different swim techniques?

Yes.

p.s. on antoher note, i just read this in an article.

"Unless the two males have been raised together as brothers, male Bettas cannot be kept in the same tank."

Do any of you believe that or have experience with that?

It sounds like someone is trying to take an exception and make it into a rule.

When people spawn bettas they need to separate them at a certain age...as soon as one of them starts biting or flaring it's time. And this is with fish which were hatched together, and kept together constantly since they were hatched. If this "brother" thing really worked, you could keep them together like this indefinitely.

Someone probably had an experience with two particularly non-aggressive bettas which didn't immediately maul each other. It goes against all a male betta's instincts to live peacefully with another betta (even males and females only get together for breeding.)

Yes, I did find and read the article you were talking about, and it mostly contains textbook betta information -- stuff you can find just about anywhere. There's no author listed which really doesn't give any authority to the article. There's also no evidence or credentials provided to support a claim which goes against what is known about bettas and their behavior.

Oh and heres another question (sorry im full of them, but where else do you expect me to go? )

- This is how i see the chain of events in a fishs' life.. tell me if im close at all.

If a fish is to cold, he becomes stressed. When he is stressed he is unhappy which probably means he is less active.. doesnt move much.. also means his immune system will start to deteriate.. if his system deteriates.. he gets a disease and may not be able to recover.. and then unfortuantely mr fishy dies.. correct? is that about right?

Temperature, water quality, and diet are the three biggest factors in a fish's overall health. Fish prefer conditions that are consistent, and within a certain range. If conditions go out of the ideal range, or fluctuate then problems happen.

I wonder how betta fish survive in the wild when a monsoon comes in thailand or something.. and knowing the industrial world, rain water isnt always that healthy and sometimes acidic.. not to mention probably a different temperature change when heavy storms roll in.

Bettas are found in rural areas of Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries -- basically, away from developed areas.

Bettas that have been captive bred for generations will generally be composed of members who do better in a higher pH and in harder water. Bettas that are wild, or only a few generations removed from "plakats" will generally prefer a lower pH and slightly softer or slightly harder water depending on geographic region.

Are there places that sell wild bettas? Perhaps a dealer that breeds only FROM wild bettas..

Yes there are such breeders. You might want to head over to groups.msn.com/advancedbettas because many breeders hang out over there.

you wold think those might be a bit more hardier then ones that were spawned by parents who were spawned in certain conditions and what not.. if ther are i bet they are expensive..

Pricing in the betta world is completely arbitrary and depends heavily upon where your fish are shipped from.

[briggs]

Ohh good, thank you for replying.

I'm glad you pointed out their eyes can turn red depending on the light and what not, because i noticed his eyes a bit red last night. Phew, thats a relief. I thought my fish was going blind or something.

So him swiming around like he's a snake sometimes is normal eh? I mean i see other fish do it.. but i guess its weird to see him doing it up close and in real life.

Thanks for answering all my questions. I like having them answered and not on my mind!

[Flurry]

My male, Donatello has amber eyes. He has a slight case of popeye in one eye that will not go away, and you can see the amberness more in that eye. It's really pretty.

[Bettaman]

briggs said:

Ohh good, thank you for replying.

I'm glad you pointed out their eyes can turn red depending on the light and what not, because i noticed his eyes a bit red last night. Phew, thats a relief. I thought my fish was going blind or something.

So him swiming around like he's a snake sometimes is normal eh? I mean i see other fish do it.. but i guess its weird to see him doing it up close and in real life.

Thanks for answering all my questions. I like having them answered and not on my mind!

The snake like swim style at least for my Bettas is usually when they are happy to see me or just in a great mood. It's almost like a swim dance they do when Bettas mate.

Try to give your Betta a normal light cycle. Light during daytime and dark in the evening. If you can't make his room dark when it is dark outside just cover his tank with a towel to keep out the room light. Bettas have no eyelids and they do like to sleep when it's dark and require a normal sleep/light cycle. As far as your betta having trouble seeing he could very well be missing the food do to reflections off the water or tank glass, or that saran wrap top. I wouldn't worry about it because your Betta has demonstrated he can find the food on the bottom when he's hungry. He sounds like a real happy Betta. Lots of luck with him.

[briggs]

i think it really is the refraction from water to air, and the tank glass also nowt hat i think about it, since i have my finger about an inch from the side of the tank.. i should try feeding him from the middle..