Cherrry123

Ahhhhh! I turned off the noisey filter for about half an hour so I could read in peace without the crashing sound of the water, and when I turned it back on, Charlie started flaring at his reflection! All I did was put a backround in, a tank divider, and a female betta, now he is flaring at his reflection, opening his mouth and attacking his reflection, and he's trying to build a bubble nest, I think, He will go to the top and blow a series of bubbles that always pop, I think he is competeing against his reflection, can anyone help me with his flaring problem(The tank is divided and the female, Norma is on the other side. It's a clear plastic one with holes in it, so the filter and heater can reach it. The tank readings are normal. He can see Norma, is that a problem?)

valentine

valentino did that last night, when i turned in another light in the room he was fine, you also might hold a piece of printer paper up so the reflection wount be so strong

Cherrry123

The thing that annoys me is that I have a back round, yet he can still see his reflection and he challenges it, he go up to it, start flaring, and then start blowing bubbles. Then Norma comes up to the divider and then he starts flaring again. I think it is quite strange.

chickadee

Well he may be having a problem with seeing Norma. She is after all a female. Then again he is going to flare at the "attack betta" that he sees and it does not help that the "attack betta" flares back at him. This is a lighting problem basically for the reflection part, but the major part is that you have two bettas in the same tank who can see each other and one is male and the other is female. Eventually you are going to have a problem. We have had a post about this with a male and female in the same tank in another part of the Betta Board for several weeks. Did you see it?
Eventually the female is going to produce eggs and the male a bubblenest and I hope you realize that you cannot in your set-up and with the way you have things allow these bettas to breed. You will need to seperate them or find a way of blocking their view somehow although they already are aware that the other one is there so I do not know if that would work either.
Do you have a top on the divider of any type? The male will jump the divider if he wants to get to the female and if they spawn in the tank and are not attended they will fight each other. One or both of them can be hurt or killed.
If you can get a small piece of plastic canvas or something like that and even make a small top like a T on the top of the divider, at least they could not get over it and to each other.
The flaring is normal until he gets used to the reflection and sees that it is not a threat. I am afraid that there is not a whole lot you can do to keep him from flaring other than to control the light. Sometimes turning the light off will keep the reflection from showing and then just use the light for short periods of time each time to allow him to get used to it gradually.
One thing you do not want to do however is to turn off the filter. After as little as 30 minutes the bacterial bed begins to diminish and the cycle to fail. If you do this often enough the cycle is going to totally fail and you will have a totally uncycled tank open to ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates with not a defense system in force. I know the filters can be hard to get used to but the sound is something that you must just get used to or get a different filter that you can live with because turning it off is not the answer.
I know that I did not give you an answer about the flaring other than to try the lighting. That is the only thing that I know. The paper that was mentioned may work as it is not shiny in any way. A piece of dark paper would work if it was like a construction type paper but that is only a short term fix. The answer is that eventually he will have to get used to the fish that he sees and see that it is not a threat or he will flare every time he sees it.

Rose

AggieYen

30 minutes?? Really?? Gee, I turned it off for 3 hours when I changed the filter, installed the heater and changed the substrate... would that have killed off the bacteria completely? It did go into a mini-cycle that corrected itself in 2 days, but I assumed the cycle reset mostly because of the substrate change (because most of the bacteria is in the gravel)?

Cherrry123

Wow, never thought of that, the divider goes straight to the top of the tank, and making it impossible for him to jump, he never really flared at the female betta, only his reflection, and if he does start flaring at her in stuff, or building a bubble nest, I think I will have to put her in the one gallon unil I can get something larger. I knew something was going to go bad when I bought that shiny backround. But I don't think he knows she's there actually, he only swims up to the divider, because he doesn't know what it is. But he doesn't flare anymore unless the light is on for like three hours, then he starts to flare and I turn out the light.

Cherrry123

?

Cherrry123

Never mind, I was feeding them this morning, and he saw her and started flaring at her. Surprising enough, she didn't back off, which I thought she would, then I sprinkled food into his tank, and he stopped flaring. I still don't think he can find a way over, although Norma keeps trying to squeeze through a way to small opening in the corner of the tank, between the divider, it is for the platy fry to swim in and out.

chickadee

The most of the bacteria is in the filter media. That is what it is for. The bacteria will also build up in the substrate but it is not the main place. When it dies in the filter, it is serious. The substrate bacteria alone cannot keep your tank cycled. It is the bacteria in your filter that does the cycling. So yes, it is possible to really end your cycle by turning off the filter for that length of time. True it will come back in a few days (you were lucky that it was 2 days) but it is hard on the fish to go through this each time. This is why it is always wise to have everything set up ahead of time and try not to have things turned off any longer than absolutely necessary when you really must turn them off.

Just watch him closely as they have been known to jump for 2" or higher if they want over the divider and it is not evident now but if she becomes egg full and he is ready to spawn and she is ready to spawn they are going to try to find a way if this is what they want to do. I am just saying that while it is not totally a promise that they will spawn, it is a possibility that you cannot ignore since they are in the same tank.

Rose

Cherrry123

Ok, so far I have been feeding her regularly(sp) and she looks really fat, is this normal? And now Flare is starting to flare at her when she comes into view of his tank. Is that really bad? And Charlie or Flare have shone(sp) no intensions of building a bubble nest. I know even without a female males will build a bubble nest, is that true? And if Charlie or Flare doesn't build a bubble nest, does that mean they are not coneten, happy, or healthy? Wow a lot of questins.

chickadee

Some boys never once build a bubblenest and this does not mean they are not happy. It just means they did not build one. Some build them all the time and it does not mean they are anything but building a bubblenest. It COULD mean happy, It could mean that they are ready to mate, It could mean that the weather is right for it, It could mean that they are bored and wanted something to do. Only the betta knows for sure.

You have got a case of MTS that means that you are going through wanting Multiple Tanks and you are buying fish and tanks and all and setting them up all over the place. You are just buying fish at will and you do not really have them planned for. You buy them on impulse. This is neither a good or bad thing but you need to know that these are living creatures that you are buying and you are going to need to think of what is best for them. They need to be protected from each other. Eventually they will need to be where they will not be seeing each other continuously so they can not be stressed out all the time. Even if it is nothing but covering the side of the tank with a piece of paper that would help.

How much have you been feeding her? She should not be getting more than 3 pellets or 4 bloodworms per meal and no more than 2 meals a day. NONE of them should get more than this. If you are feeding them more than this or just dumping the food in the tank then you are way overfeeding and they can become constipated and die.

Have you read the Betta Care Section in the Stickied Threads at the beginning of the topics of the Betta Section? It tells all about how to take care of a betta. It tells how to feed them and how to take care of them and I think if you have not read it you need to.

http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/be...ead-first.html

Rose

Cherrry123

Ok, I fed her a pea, and I thought about when I got her, she was fat. There were three female bettas, and I saw a red one, that was fatter then the rest, and thought"Wow she is soooo pretty," She is a red betta and very nice, but I'm pretty sure she was fat when I bought her. I am only feeding them once in the morning, 1 pellet, and when I get home from school, 1 pellet, and before I go to bed one pellet. Is she sick, if she stays fat?

COBettaCouple

Some Bettas HATE background paper. Our Aslan would flare like crazy anytime we tried to put some paper up on the back of his tank.

Cherrry123

Ok, I'll take that down, it is a shiny blue swirl one, and I thought he was flaring at the divider but when I moved I could see his head turned towards the divider. I think it might help but I'm not sure. He will flare at his reflection, still, I think.

COBettaCouple

He might need a small lamp near the tank. We had a Betta that would always flare at the glass on the one side if the tank light was on and the room light wasn't, but a small lamp on low on that side cancelled out the reflection he was seeing.

Cherrry123

Ok, I'll do that, but now when ever Norma, the female, swims up to the divider withen Charlies' view, he doesn't flare. He will only stare. And swim up to the top of the tank, she will follow. Does that mean anything good, or bad?

COBettaCouple

That sounds good. They're probably getting used to each other now.

Cherrry123

ok, I'm still having a problem though, he stopped flaring at his reflection, for a little bit, but it's starting again. I have the lamp, and everything, but when I saw what he was flaring at it was his reflection but at a certain part of the tank. I looked up to see why, because he never flares anymore, and I saw a row of tiny bubbles. Is he like protecting them? Or something like that?