Betta Splendens, a fish with loads of personality (fishionality?)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Solaris (Male Yellow Veiltail) is my latest addition to my bettas, i’m now up to 4, and each one has their own unique personality (or is that fishionality?)

Solaris has a major attitude, he wasn’t in his tank more than 10 minutes when he started attacking the brown ramshorn snails because they annoyed him and were in his tank, i don’t think he knows he’s not a shark, but a 3" fish that weighs a few ounces…

Goldrush is a yellow with black spots male Double-Ray Crowntail, and if he were any more laid-back, he’d be in a coma, unless the red ramshorn snail he’s decided he hates crawls within view, he doesn’t care about any of the other occupants of the tank, the Apple snail or the Bamboo shrimp, but if that red ram crawls by, look out…

Chiana is an extremely possesive white/red/purple crowntail female, she is the master of the entire tank she shares with Zhann, she has to eat all the food first before Zhann notices it, and she defends “her” tank against those nasty finless bipeds who want to steal her tank, she just knows it…, Zhann true to her namesake is nonconfrontational and passive

and i’ve noticed my non-fish pet in the other 10 gallon tank, Zoidberg, my Florida Common crayfish is a crafty lil crusteacan, he’ll take a shrimp pellet, flake off pieces and let them drift in the current of the tank, luring in the guppies that serve as his food, yep that’s right, he goes “fishing”…

who said you needed a spinal collumn to be intelligent? :wink:

2

I just got my first Betta a few weeks ago. He’s a boy, and he definitely has a little personality of his own. My six year old named him Buddy, after the babysitter’s dog, but he’s not really a Buddy, so I call him Fishy.

I feed him one pellet at a time, or he gets confused and lets them sink to the bottom, and when he sees me he gets excited.

Just recently I noticed that when I turn the lights off at night and only his tank is lit, he freaks out. He’ll look out the front, puff up, circle the tank really fast, look out the front, puff up, circle, look, puff. I don’t know if he does it all night long, but I’m thinking the poor thing’s gonna have a fish stroke pretty soon. Maybe he sees his reflection in the glass with the lights off?

3

That would be my guess.

4

They are rather addictive aren’t they. We have a blue betta, and it took him exactly 1 day to learn the feeding routine. Now as soon as he sees anyone in front of the tank, he comes and does his song and dance routine. We’ve even found that we can lead him around the tank with a fingertip to find any pellets he missed.

We also have a couple of algae eaters. He was a bit stroppy with them the first day, but they all seem to have settled down for now. We may need to give the Chinese algae eater her own tank eventually, though. I’ve heard they can be trouble once they get bigger.

I think it is a rule that no one can have just one aquarium for very long.

5

that’s exactly what’s happening, your betta is seeing “Bad Fishie” and, being a betta, it’s his job, nay, his DUTY to defend his tank against all challengers…

even the wispy, etherial ones that don’t exist :wink:

6

My Phil (pet store mutt veil tail guy) won’t flare at me. He does flare at my SO.

I think bettas are just hilarious. I mean, here’s this little fish that goes around saying, “I’m gonna kick your ass!” to me and the most damage he could do to me would be to nibble my finger.

7

Oooooh, I love bettas! I tried for awhile to breed them, but then gave up. The last of my breeder bettas died last year, and I haven’t bought any more, but I miss them terribly. My favorite was a pure white male named Moby. He was the most beautiful fish I had ever seen. He definitely had personality. He would follow my finger around the tank, and watch me if I was nearby. I also had a tiny female named Rose who would jump out of the tank without fail if you took the top off. It used to drive me crazy. Even to feed her, you had to open the tank just a crack, feed her really fast, then close it back up. Otherwise, she’d attempt suicide.
I miss my fish. :frowning:

8

. . . this all sounds disturbingly like my office . . .

9

Indy is my first betta and I’ve had him for six years or so, which seems ancient the way some people go through them. When he was younger, he was a very relaxed fellow, nothing like Rusty my other betta. Rusty’s anger management problems sent him to his reward years ago.

Now that he’s older, Indy doesn’t see as well, I don’t think, and spends a lot of time just sort of perched on one of his plants near the surface. When it’s dinner time he wobbles over and grabs at his food, only after he’s cussed me out for being a big scary monster. They really do have a sort of personality, or ingrained behaviors that seem like personalities, but I’m not picky.

10

Damn. That is really old for a betta. The oldest my bettas have ever made it to is about a year and half.

11

I just went out and got Fishy some freeze-dried bloodworms and some brine shrimp. Everything I’d heard and read about Bettas insisted that they love these treats. But no. No reaction at all to the bloodworms, and the shrimp were met with a few nibbles and a “meh”. Darn. I try to do something nice for the fish…

I asked at the store about the reflection thing, and was told I should be turning his light off at night, so he could rest. I don’t know why I never thought of that. Guess I figured he’d freak out if he couldn’t see anything at all.

I could literally sit in front of his tank for hours, watching him and playing with him. Who knew a fish could be so fun? I’m now looking forward to getting a much bigger tank and more fish. This could very well become a lifetime hobby.

12

Mine eats the blood worms and “Beta Bites.”

13

I haven’t had one yet (Phil is number four; I do my damndest but pet shop fishies tend to have problems from the get-go, and I’ve had him for something like eight or nine months which is a record) that didn’t looooove bloodworms. I’d try again a couple of times before I give up. The first time Phil got worms he sort of sniffed at them, backed off, sniffed again, and SLURP!

Six is ancient for a betta. You must be doing something really right!

14

Stanley wasn’t a betta, but a Cichlid One day I went to the fish store just to look. I was a poor student so Ididn’t get new fish often. As I was passing the tanks with larger fish, I was splashed. I looked to see a fish the size of my hand “waving” at me. It reminded me of a puppy at the pet store. I asked the clerk about this odd behavior. He told me the fish was a Texas Cichlid, it was a female, and it was on sale, because she wasn’t very sociable. They didn’t have room to keep her alone in the big tank.
He sold her to me for $7.00.
I happily went off to pick my son up at daycare. I took the fish with me for the kids to see. They wanted to name it. They started calling out name, until one child said “Stanley” and they all jumped on it . I told them she was a girl, but no, she had to be Stanley.
At home, Stanley took to the tank like… well a fish to water. She responded to each member of the family differently. I discovered, while wiping down the inside of the glass she liked to be petted. She rub against my hand in the water. After that, if I put my hand in the water she’d get her little pet.
She would get very excited when we came home from school. She got fed in the morning, so it seemed to just be the sight of us.
She would mount a defensive stance whenever someone she didn’t know came in. She even bit a friend of my husband’s who put his hand in the tank.
That’s how Stanley became our watch fish.

15

I love Bettas. I’ve had so many I can’t remember all their names. Two of the most memorable were “Fish-O” and “Slartibartfast”. Fish-O was in a small hex tank. I didn’t have the filter hooked up, so the clear plastic tube attached to the bottom of the tank was empty. Fish-O discovered he could swim down this tube, turn around underneath, and come back up. He did this whenever people were in the vicinity to entertain them, and seemed very proud of himself when someone marvelled over the little trick fish.

Slartibartfast was a centerpiece on our dining room table, in a big vase with plastic flowers. He LOVED people and would vie for their attention whenever someone passed by. Before I would feed him I’d always ask if he was hungry, and his little body would jolt. Then I’d say “Are you really?” and he’d do a frenetic little dance of excitement. I swear he understood me.

16

Benign neglect seems to do the trick for me. My mom holds what may be the world’s record for shortest betta life expectancy. She killed her last (she promises) betta after less than 24 hours of ownership. I just find a good spot with fairly even temps, feed daily and change their water every week or so and leave him in peace. Wah-lah!

17

I love my bettas! I’ve got way to many though. Anybody want one? I’m waiting for my last spawn to grow.
My favorites are: Satan, a big red veil who will chew his tail off if he sees any other fish
Niran, a black lace from my first successful spawn. He was quite a surprise coming out of two royal blue mutt veils. He has a cave that he guards against all intruders, including the evil soda cans that get set next to his tank.
Almir, he’s a metallic red plakat, pretty laid back
Elliot, my newest fish. He’s my first crowntail. He’s a blue grizzle with a lot of attitude.