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Is my Betta depressed?
Yesterday, I cleaned my Betta's 5 gallon, heated, filtered, and cycled tank. As I was cleaning I sectioned off about 1/3 of the tank to make a temporary home for a Chinese algae eater I unexpectedly got from someone else's science experiment.
Without having any extra tropical tanks to add him to, this was the best quick fix I could think of. And this is only a temporary home! I'll be looking for a more proper home for him soon. (Pet stores are out, we only have a Wal-Mart.)
But now, my Betta is acting depressed. He's hiding in corners, he's not swimming around and being his active, normal self, and I tried to show him a pen that never fails to make him flare and go crazy, but this time he practically ignored it!
I'm really worried about him, this behavior is so strange! He's normally very active, happy, spunky and aggressive (don't worry, the algae eater is completely sectioned off). Now he's being the complete opposite!
The only possible explanation I can think of is that he's depressed that the size of his swimming space has been reduced. Can anybody else think of a different reason, or perhaps a solution?
Thanks for the advice guys.
I don't think he's stressed out about the tank mate, because the netting I'm using to separate them is black and hard to see through. There are plants and decorations to hide his view further though.
But again, thanks for the advice.
I am using netting to separate them, but it's more like a screen then the flowing netting you use with fish nets. His fins will be fine, I'm pretty positive.
3 Answers
- Anonymous8 years agoFavorite Answer
Hey mate,
My betta flares up at pens to ^_^ Or anything else I hold up to the tank other then my finger haha.
Anyways, your betta is probably very stressed from having a new guy on his turf, when he's used to riding solo. Might even be scared, like suggested in another comment here, more plants might help. Rehoming the new fish will be the best remedy, but because that's not an option, do whatever you can to reduce stress, and that can be adding freshwater aquarium salt, introducing more plants if you can afford it and try to keep all flow in the tank to a minimal and if you have a bubbler that he likes to play with, mine does, then slow it down for a bit. Anything to reduce stress will be the best until you can get the other guy out of there. With reducing stress, your betta may get used to the new tankmate, but he may not.
Wish the best for you and your betta :)
Source(s): Many years of fish(especially bettas) experience, plus hundreds of hours of research on fish+other animals. - ?Lv 48 years ago
He is probably just stressed from having a new tankmate and his area being reduced in size. Make sure they can't get to each other, try placing some plants near the divider to block his view of the other fish. And put the algae eater in another tank as soon as possible. Good luck.
Source(s): 25 years keeping fish - ?Lv 58 years ago
How did you divide the tank? If its by something net like, the betta can get stuck in it with its fins
And it's also not needed to divide the tank! The betta and algea eater can live peacefully together!
He might be depressed since betta's do get depressed quit easily
