Changing Homes Often

[Ella3]

I was reading on the tail biting post ( I think) about keeping your betta interested. I have 3 males and 2 are in a divided tank now and one is in a separate tank alone. Over the course of a month or so, I have bought lots of new plants, caves, rocks, etc. and each tank is totally different ( each side of the divided tank is decorated totally different too). I clean my tanks weekly and my 3 boys seem very healthy.

I was planning on rotating their homes to keep their lives interesting, but then I started thinking that may stress them out. I read some messages that sounded like it could be good for your betta to have a different territory to explore. So I'm just wondering what all you experts think about changing them around occassionally. Stressful or good idea??

Thanks!

Ella

[twoluvcats]

Ella,

I don't know...I'm considering it with my worst tail-biter to see if it will distract him enough...I have changed everyone around a few times and it doesn't seem to have stressed them out too bad. I would think that as long as the water is clean, the right temp, and the same chemistry as the water that they were in, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Bettas are curious, so giving them new places to explore can be good for them. Plus, college students and the like do travel with ther bettas a few times a year, and they seem to make it ok...and that's usually not even to the same water conditions.

As with a lot of other things with bettas, I think it all boils down to 'it depends on the fish'...shy bettas may not handle it, and I have known people with bettas that get attached to certain 'things', so they may get grumpy if thier 'thing' is not present.

Maybe try just swapping sides with the divided tank and see how those 2 handle it...if they seem to streessed then maybe its not a good idea. HTH

[teresa]

Not an expert here, but unless you are sterilizing the tanks when you are moving the fish around, I would be worried about disease. If one gets sick, all the other could get it from being put in the tank couldn't they?

[amanichen]

teresa said:

Not an expert here, but unless you are sterilizing the tanks when you are moving the fish around, I would be worried about disease. If one gets sick, all the other could get it from being put in the tank couldn't they?

Yes and no.

If there are no disease causing organisms in any of the tanks, then the fish are fine.

Fish diseases do not behave in the same way that diseases with people do. This is from my web page:

Fish diseases aren't all necessarily "contagious." I'm going to classify fish diseases into three different categories: bacterial&fungal, parasitic, and viral. It is true that viral and parasitic diseases are contagious. Viruses and parasites both need living fish as hosts, and if there are no hosts, there are no parasites. Parasites and viruses are NOT always present in the aquarium, and they do NOT appear out of nowhere. To be fair, I will say that in a small number of cases your fish can be infected already, and not show symptoms.

Harmful bacteria and fungi are generally always present in an aquarium. They happily munch away on organic matter like fish food, fish excrement, and decaying plants. Fish are able to fend off these microbes when the water quality is high, and there's not much food for the microbes to eat. However, if the water quality goes south, and the bacteria and fungi get a regular food source, then your fish will become vulnerable to them. Bacterial and fungal diseases are not "contagious" because, other than a few exceptions, they are not spread from fish to fish, but rather they are always present in the fish's habitat.

[teresa]

amanichen said:

To be fair, I will say that in a small number of cases your fish can be infected already, and not show symptoms.

That is the part that would worry me. You might not know a fish is sick until after you have swapped them around and then it is too late and you have more than 1 sick fish.

[amanichen]

teresa said:

amanichen said:

To be fair, I will say that in a small number of cases your fish can be infected already, and not show symptoms.

That is the part that would worry me. You might not know a fish is sick until after you have swapped them around and then it is too late and you have more than 1 sick fish.

It depends on what's causing the illness. Fungi and bacteria can show up overnight because they live in your tank and fish get stressed when moved. Parasites however, MUST come from somewhere else, so if none of the fish have parasites, then they won't be a problem. Again, just because one fish is sick doesn't mean all the others are going to get it. Most (parasitic) diseases acutally get introduced through contaminated water, and not necessarily the fish.

Although, moving fish can be stressful on them unless the water chemistry is identical in both cases, and doing this on a regular basis isn't recommended.