Betta Fish Playing Dead?

This morning when I went to feed my male betta before going to work this morning I found him floating belly up at the top of his tank, I freaked out thinking it was something wrong with the water in his tank and I just lost my new fish that I just got a few days ago. However as soon as I put my hands on the tank he flipped right side up and flared his fins before swimming off normally. He ate just fine and my mom even kept an eye on him for me while I was at work and said he was acting just fine. Is playing dead a normal behavior for male bettas or could mine be sick?

 

This morning when I went to feed my male betta before going to work this morning I found him floating belly up at the top of his tank, I freaked out thinking it was something wrong with the water in his tank and I just lost my new fish that I just got a few days ago. However as soon as I put my hands on the tank he flipped right side up and flared his fins before swimming off normally. He ate just fine and my mom even kept an eye on him for me while I was at work and said he was acting just fine. Is playing dead a normal behavior for male bettas or could mine be sick?

Well that's funny. What are your water parameters?

 

I did all my test and everything was good, ammonia was down, ph was neutral water temperature 78F, he also shows no physical signs of any illness

 

I did all my test and everything was good, ammonia was down, ph was neutral water temperature 78F, he also shows no physical signs of any illness

What is your nitrate at?

It is important to rule out any problems with the water first. Also please see the emergency fish template at the top of the Betta forum. It may be useful to fill it out so that we have all of the information.

 

Nitrate and nitrite are both at zero

He's a 1 year old dragon scale male betta from my local petsmart, he eats 8 topfin color enhancing betta bits a day (4 feedings of 2 pellets because he spits out the rest and let's them sink), lives in a 20 gallon top fin hex tank with top fin filter and heater to match, a couple of small plastic skull shape decorations at the bottom of his tank, substrate that is nutritional for live pants (can't remember the brand), filter on lowest setting and with a current dampener on it (he can swim in the little current that is still there) an Amazon sword, three anubias plants, and one large plastic plant in the back so that he can hide if he needs to. I was planning on getting him bloodworms and brineshrimp when I went back to the pet store again too.

His behavior since I've been home has been fine even though he keeps begging for food even though he's had all 8 pellets today. He's been coming to the front of the tank Everytime I call his name, been following my fingers around the glass, and resting on the plastic plant after a few goes swimming up the filter current (I've had him for 4 days and he had been in the 10 gallon Mickey mouse platy tank at the local PetSmart for less than an hour when I got him)

 

If your nitrate is at zero your tank may not be cycled yet. Also you may be feeding him more than I would probably recommend, but I know that everyone has their own thoughts on this.

Is he bloated at all?

 

He does had a little bulging around abdomen but he also had that when I picked him up from the store it's hard to even notice at first

 

He does had a little bulging around abdomen but he also had that when I picked him up from the store it's hard to even notice at first

He may be constipated? You could try fasting him for a day and see how that goes.

 

Could be constipation. Never heard of bettas playing dead, but they are fairly smart fish and have been documented having "personalities".

I had a betta that recognized me, and only me, and when I went in to my room and looked at him he would follow me. Wouldn't do it to nobody else.

That same betta has done this before, sadly I no longer have my betta, but for about a week back when he was alive I'd find him swimming sideways, with a bulge in his belly. He'd straighten back up, just to go back to being sideways. I didn't feed him for about 4 days, then the bulge went away, and he returned to swimming fine.

Sadly ich is what got to him :/ Had the medication on the way, and he died one day before the meds arrived in the mail.

 

I am sorry for your lost Brandon, I know losing a pet is more than that it's losing a family member. In fact I was actually starting to cry when I saw him this morning.

The reason I wasn't sure if he was sick or just being a little jerk was because I know a lady who's koi betta Cowboy actually dodges her finger guns and another lady who's betta will only sleep in her hand.

 

I am sorry for your lost Brandon, I know losing a pet is more than that it's losing a family member. In fact I was actually starting to cry when I saw him this morning.

The reason I wasn't sure if he was sick or just being a little jerk was because I know a lady who's koi betta Cowboy actually dodges her finger guns and another lady who's betta will only sleep in her hand.

Yeah it sucked. Battled a lot with that fish. He had fin rot and recovered, swim bladder and recovered, so on...so on.

It sucks that what killed him was ich, which would have been treated with just ONE more day :/

It is unfortunate, but he was suffering in his final days. The ich got into his gills, and even though I was monitoring him there wasn't much I could do until the medicine came in.