first fishie temper tantrum

[Jess]

i witnessed my first fish temper tantrum. i gave everyone new homes yesterday when i did water changes. Helthy active fish in the biggest, sick in the easiest to treat... Doc (who is an old geezer i think. I've had him a month and he's healthy, just not as active as the others). So i moved doc into an almost 2 gallon tank. Well it is taller than his old one but not as wide. The horrors!!! I didn't put his fishie castle in there. I thought it would crowd him. It was the only "toy" of his that didn't get moved. He pouted, i Ignored him. he pointed "see mum, you can fit it right there". He would point to a spot and just stare. swim around and glare at me, then repeat.
of coarse i finally gave in. LOL he is much happier now.


I knew that Betta had personalities, but I wasn't prepared how wide of a scope. LOL
Doc who though seems to be an old guy, he makes me bubble nests and he absoluty refuses to flare at a real fish. No flare buddy for him. But he will flare and preen in front of a mirror.
he is absolutly prettyful! he has long flowing fins.

then there is Nemo, Bright adventureous curious and playful. He plays peekabo and tag with his fishie mum. doesn't bother him at all when my 1 year old smooshes his face against his (10 gallon) aquarium, just looks slightly bemused and rolls his eyes"sheesh look what i have to put up with, they sure look funny when they do that." then i have bashful and sebastion who are flare buddies. there 2.5 gallon tanks have a slip of cardboard between them to prevent over flaring. when they can't see each other they both pout. they go to the corner where their buddy first appears and stick their noses in the corner laying on the bottom just waiting for the other to appear, every once in a while i'm sure i hear a sigh it goes like this
"*sigh* it sure is lonely.... boy i wish i had someone to play with (sneaky look at me to see if i've noticed yet) *sigh* boy i wish i had a friend. *sigh*"

so what are your fish friends personalities like?

[starlight]

>>so what are your fish friends personalities like?<<

I used to have a turquiose female name LuLu that was extremely docile. I never netted her when she was sick and just took her out by hand. One day I realized that she liked it and I could take her out of the water anytime I wanted. She didn't jump or move about like most bettas. As soon as I put her back in the tank she was ready to come out again.

She practiced her routines too. I'd observe her practicing something new, after a week or so she'd try it out on me. She had a great personality and always tried to fool me.

Best routines...

LuLu lived in a planted 2-G. She'd do something to get my attention, I'd put my hand in the tank and "trap" her against the glass. Then she would swim frantically trying to get out, she could swim through my fingers but never did.

I put a small 4" glass vase with a wide neck in LuLu's tank. I filled the bottom with charcoal and stuffed some Java Fern in. For the longest time she ignored it then one day it clicked. She swam in between the Java Ferns and went to the bottom of the vase. She started swimming frantically kicking up the charcoal and acting like she couldn't get out. If I lifted the Java Fern aside most of the time she'd stay in the vase. One time she really fooled me, she had been trying to "escape" for a long time and I ignored her. Then I looked at her, she was breathing heavily, a real-life betta in distress even her color looked bad. As soon as I freed her from the vase she went back in.

One time I had company over and I noticed LuLu in the vase and of course she couldn't get out. I took the vase with LuLu & the Java Ferns out of the tank. I placed her on the coffee table where my company was. LuLu continued her trapped routine right on the coffee table. What an actress!

[Captain Flashheart]

LOL, temper tantrums - I can relate XD.

Ming and Hedwig are total opposites. Ming is fussy about his food - he only likes certain things, and he likes them to move before he eats.

E.G. I gave them each some daphnia yesterday - Ming chewed his up and spat it out and then chased down the pieces (he doesn't spit out food that's already in motion), whereas Hedwig likes to sit on the bottom and eat slowly & methodically.

Hedwig actually got too much food yesterday, so when I spotted him starting to bulge a little I scooped what was left out and smeared it on the side of the tank above the water level. He was getting a waterchange within ten mins anyway, so I went back to watching Ming hunting his food. Then all I heard was "splish, splish, thud, splash", and the food on the side of the tank was GONE - in it's place a smear mark. That was one smug fishy.

Ming adores his thermometer. It's the first thing he looks for after a water change, and that's always where he builds his bubblenests. I am not allowed to change where it goes on the tank, nor can I take it out of the water before Ming. If I do, he avoids the net like a pro - but if I don't, he volunteers himself in as if he knows he'll only be out for a short while.

Crazy fishies!

-Flash

[TheBreeder85]

I havn't witnessed anything really funny yet accept the fact that my 2 and a half year old betta Ravenous is always running to the top when i go near his tank and he does everything he can to get my attention for food or when i open the tank he immediatly flies to the top and looks at me and follows my hand. He's very relaxing to sit and look at when im in a bad mood ;D.

[SleepyHead]

Zeus has only been with us a week (I'm not sure how old he is, bought him at Wally World), but he definitely has a distinct personality.

He loves to sneak up on the feller in the mirrored ends of his aquarium by sinking to the bottom and navigating slowly through the separate branches of some artificial plants I put in for pretty. With nowhere else to go but forward, he stops swimming and begins peeking around the furthest branch for a bit - then he jumps out preening and flaring like the Cock'o'the Walk! Right now, he's moved his plant from his fave place to chase down his mirrored playmate, and gazes gently at the sadly swollen feller, often looking up at me as though to ask why I can't "fix" his "buddy"? (And yes, I said he moved his plant - I don't know how he did it, but I was home by myself yesterday, and when I woke up for work, his plant had migrated from one corner almost to the other with the aquarium gravel still intact in the small plastic tray.)

He absolutely adores his heater - he doesn't merely hover in it's vicinity for warmth, he actively "sniffs" out each inch of it, pausing for frequent gazes at the pilot lamp. It's in the opposite corner from his "buddy's" hideout, but on the same wall. He is spending most of his time tonight checking up on his "friend" and playing with his new "toy"...

Dinner time is a whole new subject. He will not come up to eat until his lid is safely down, and he's a slow eater, very particular about even the shape of his flakes or something. At any rate, after meal times, he will take a deliberately slow crawl under the intake end of the filter. He'll pause for a few seconds while letting his top fin be sucked towards the valve, and then proceed to let his lovely tail be similarly "washed" this way, for all the world as though taking an upside-down shower after meals, LOL! When he's just passing through, he just gives an extra flick of effort to avoid the updraft - his "showers" are very deliberate. In fact, I noticed him today angling his swollen belly for a shower - a very complicated feat with a very involved flipping of his fins, but he made sure to get both sides of his distended belly "showered"...