shollia

Share them with the rest of us! Just oddball things your betta(s) do that you find so cute/funny.

My newest betta Caine is a flaring machine. I'll genty tap on his tank to get his attention when feeding and he'll swim right up to the front and flare at me like crazy. Sorta like a "How dare you disturb me!!" that or "OMG YAY FOOD!" hehe...
And about an hour ago... Caine was at the front of his tank looking around... and I accidently tapped the glass and OMG he actually jumped b/c it startled him! I had to keep from laughing out loud b/c it was just too hilarious. You know when fish usually get startled they swim off and hide.. oh no.. he actually jumped in place (not out of the water) and just sorta gave me the death glare afterwards rofl.
We've also given him the nickname of ferengi.. you know those ugly big eared things from Star Trek... if you don't, you can google up the name and you'll see a pic heh. But yeah... he totally looks just like a ferengi, b/c his gils resemble big ears when he flares hehe.. he's so cute.

My lone female Afia is also a total cutie and my biggest oinker of them all. I just think it's so cute when she's begging for food, and she eyeballs me, then looks up at the top waiting for the food, then looks at me again, then the top.. I could watch her do that all day.

And Raj, my 2nd oinkiest oinker just LOVES watching the monitor while I'm on the computer. He was also very curious when I started to play some music. He stared at the speakers for a little while before he got bored heh.
And today.. he's usually very skittish when I do a water change, but not today! He inspected the syphon when it was on his side, decided he didn't like it and started to nip at it :P lol

Sparkling Diamonds

So far, what i've experienced with my fish...

Helios is eccentric and just flies from one side of the tank to the other, up and down the walls o the tank watching himself and what a stud he is. And when he knows he's being watched, he spreads out his fins and swims around, prancing around for all to see. But when the lights are off, he likes to hide in the plant, and swim behind the anenome decor that i've got in his tank.

Apollo though, he's a little more mellow... though it could be the fin rot that's doing that to him, because he does have spurts of energy every now and then. And in the morning, and at night when i go into my room, both of the fish swim up to the top of the tank by the walls, and wait there for me to feed them. They do just as your's do; swim to the top, look out at me, then up at the top again.

So adorable. One kiss for each fishie.
You know, i was watching some betta videos on You Tube last night, and some people actually pet their fish. He titled the video "Friendliest Betta Fish" or something along those lines, and he's giggling through out the whole video... However in the video, while he's petting, the fish is flaring so he obviously didn't like that much. And the fish was in a tiny drinking glass with some pebbles at the bottom. It was less than entertaining, to say the least.

shollia

Just had to post this before I went off to bed...

Raj is cracking me up right now. I have some kind of stem? plant floating at the top of his tank (not sure what it is exactly... might be hornwort)...
Anywho, he is just so adorable. Part of the plant sort hangs down in the water, so he's been scooting his fishy butt onto that part and resting on it for a few mins. But then he'll do this scooting thing trying to get off of it, but not really trying to get off of it.
I think he's actually playing with the stuff. He's been getting onto it and scooting right to the side of the tank, THEN he'll do a big hard swim to finally get off of the plant. He's done this about 4 times now...
SO ADORABLE!!

And people say fish don't have personalities! PFFFFTTT!

COBettaCouple

LOL, great stories. They do have such rich personalities - our playful Bettas. So curious & playful. The ignorant kid 'petting' his imprisoned Betta isn't just being cruel with the ridiculous 'home' (truely a cell) but harming his angry Betta by removing the slime coating. Poor little guy.

Our little female (my baby) Angel does that too.. Look right at me, then rolls her eyes to look at the top, swims up a little, repeats.. until she's at the surface. You're right, I could watch that all day too.

Aslan did something like Raj the other day when I was putting his column decor back in his tank. He swam over to me, looked at my hand because I stopped moving it so he could swim by, he circles my hand and just starts nipping away at me.. I thought I was going to lose my hand! The horror!! :P LOL
Our first Betta Mario would flare at me every time he saw me for at least a day whenever I'd do anything to change his tank decor - just me, no flares at my wife, he knew who was messing with his tank. Isn't it funny how they act when you mess with their tank?

Aslan is probably our biggest fan of food - when I was doing the weekly water test Sunday, I didn't move fast enough and he got my finger a couple times. LOL.. he always thinks it's dinner time when I get the water samples. Well all 3 Bettas do, but he's the one who nips me.

AnnaEA

Byron likes to go filter surfing. He swims under the filter, to right under where the water pours out across the top of the tank, then he pops up to get an air gulp and lets the current from the filter push him across the tank. He'll do this over and over again, if he doesn't notice someone watching him

If he notices someone watching the tank he swims over to where they are, and starts poking around the surface for food.

The other thing he does is follow fingers --- if he's noticed you and swum over, you can trace your finger along the outside of the tank, and he'll follow it around.

Timesdragonfly

If I move something on my desk, Grim will get startled and go hide in his plants. Then he pops back out Flaring and wiggling as if to say "I meant to do that! Hah, you thought I was scared didn't? Boy I sure fooled you!"

COBettaCouple

LOL.. I love watching Aslan filter surf like Byron. He follows fingers like Byron too - are they twins seperated at birth? .. it's a good thing because he gets so enthusiastic going after food, sometimes he misses and we have to lead him to the food that is now way past him. I'm trying to remember, have we seen a picture of Byron?

Grim's a little character, isn't he? Big & bad after he knows it's safe - you know us guys have to keep up that macho thing. That would make a great little movie to post online.

Before we gave up on them, Aslan LOVED Betta bulbs - to play with and nip at.. he knew he wasn't supposed to though. So whenever he'd see us looking at him & he was playing with them, he'd try to look all innocent and give us a look that said "I wasn't doing anything, honest!" and then he'd swim away from them. We'd also see him looking our way when he swam over to them to see if we were watching him before he'd start to play with them.

AnnaEA

I haven't been having much luck getting a good photo of Byron -- he is either colorful but blurry or clear but all washed out -- there's some pics in the picture forum here : http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/10-fis...tograph.0.html

He's a very pretty fish - gold and purple/pink and blue, with red tips on blue/white fins. I like that he looks like a sunset.

COBettaCouple

I remember Byron now. I'll look forward to when he lets you get a good shot off, but I can tell his colors are excellent. Sorry I didn't remember, seen so many Bettas lately - but i can stop going into the pet stores anytime i want to, i don't have a problem.. yea, i can quit anytime i want.. :

Asinity

Christen has always been a show off... she'll grab a piece of food in her mouth and just swim around the tank with it hanging out like she was saying 'ha ha ha, look what I got! and you can't have ANY!' and she'll quickly gobble it up and do it all over again. She also eyes me when I come into the room - like she's doing now. She's also got the cutest little flare I've ever seen, such a small little girl with a huge attitude.

Kyler on the other hand seems to love flaring, I know he looks good (and knows it) but that can't be good for his health. He's also an eating machine and loves to have staring contests with me, until he gets nervous and starts flaring to get me to stop, at which point I just tell him 'alright, you're bigger than me, I'll leave you alone!' He's an adorable little fluff ball.

antisen

Dory is curious about everything, especially the filter intake... he constantly swims over to it... closer... closer... then gets STUCK! to it, freaks out, and swims away really indignantly. He also HATES my camera and flares at it every time I try to take a picture. :P When I hold his food over the water for too long before dropping it, he tries to jump straight out of the water and get it himself!

The best part about Dory is how ACTIVE he is in general. The reason this is so important to me is that I used to keep him in a bowl, where he did NOTHING because the water was so cold and he had no space (I didn't know any better). Since then I've spent well over $200 on the little bugger... but the fact that he's so incredibly interesting now, with such a personality, makes it totally worth it

COBettaCouple

LOL.. Dory sounds like Aslan.. my wife will get a nipped hand if she isn't quick with dropping his food and he's sometimes got the patience of.. well no patience.

They are worth it, aren't they? I tell people we don't just give our Bettas space for them, we do it for us too.. they are so fun to watch when they can really move around and let their personalities show.

poefox

I like those stories too. Ribbon has learned to play the finger game...he will if I move my finger slowly follow it along the glass for a bit.

However one of my favourite moments with him was when I was trying to take his picture--he kept moving behind plants, his ruin, etc, or suddenly dashing across the tank when he caught a glimpse of his own reflection, so that I couldn't get a clear shot. (still haven't) I had just taken a few that were basically these fish shaped blurs and was resetting the camera when suddenly there was this huge shape in the camera--it was Ribbon who had come right up to the glass to see what was going on.

COBettaCouple

LOL.. how do Bettas know so well the best way to mess up the shot? I love how he came up when you were resetting - as if to say "here i am, go ahead & try to take a pic now".

0morrokh

I love these stories... (and whoever thinks fish are all the same... )

Fuego is Mr. Cool...he spends a lot of time simply floating around at his favorite corner of the tank. but the moment he sees Cas across the divider, he turns into Mr. Stud and flares so much it looks like his fins will fall off. He does this funny wiggly thing...some sort of fishy dance, I guess. Then he'll come right up to her at the divider and show her how big he can flare out his gills. Unlike Dorado, who can be quite aloof to me at times, Fuego is very friendly and always watching what's going on around him. Any time I walk up to the tank, both Fuego and Cas immediately dart to the fromt of the tank...it's pretty cute.

Cas always flares right back at Fuego. It's so funny watching her trying to puff out her tiny gills. It's like she's saying, "Oh no you don't, mister, you'll have to try a lot harder to impress me!" Of all my Bettas she's the most enthusiastic and curious. Yesterday when I opened the lid to feed them, not even joking she launched herself straight out of the water, she was so excited. She likes to hand feed, although usually she ends up trying to eat my whole finger. For such a little girl she bites hard...

Dorado is probably the most amusing of my Bettas. He things he's the boss of the tank. I rarely ever feed him because he's always bloated up from eating too much of the catfish food. He often lurks around the bottom, standing guard over "HIS" algae wafer or shrimp pellets, and trying to chase off any "intruders." But the funniest part is that you can practically see the catfish rolling their eyes at him. Even the one-inch Pygmy Cories aren't a bit afraid of him. Really, he's quite mellow and wouldn't hurt a fly, but he doesn't want anyone to know that.

COBettaCouple

LOL.. Cas sounds like Angel in her food enthusiasm. You've got some real characters there.. and you gotta love the betta dance, huh?

chickadee

Alex is my Baby for sure. He is the one with the sweet personality. He wants to be awakened with a lullaby every morning and if I do not get the lights turned off soon enough at night I turn around to see a small betta behind sticking out between the heater and the intake tube at the surface of the water where he sleeps. His face is toward the back of the tank where it is darkest and he is letting me know that it is time to go nitey-nite. Then when he hears me come to turn off the light, he very sleepily comes to the front surface for his nighttime lullaby and then goes off to bed. Marty Jr. in the tank next to Alex's would stay up all night and go Disco Dancing if I would let him...!!!

Rose

cherryrose