Betta Owners: What Has Yours Done To Scare/stress You?

Ok. So, I have had many stressful moments with my bettas. MANY! A lot that weren't anything to actually worry about.

I own four beautiful males bettas that are in two split 10 gallons. I will post pictures of them later this week when I finally finish adding in all the plants to my second tank. I will also post a picture of my newest one because I think he's still young and I can't tell what he is. I think he's a Rosetail, but I'll check with you guys later about that.

However, sometimes I can't handle the stress that my bettas put me through and I'm sure most of you can agree. My newest one will sleep almost upside down in the plants and I can tell he enjoys it. He swims regularly throughout the day, but the first time I saw it I thought he was dead! Most of the time, they look dead when they sleep!!

The other day I was cleaning my dragonscales side of his tank with the wider attachment hose(about an inch in diameter) and I turned my head for a second to make sure the other end was still in the bucket. When I turned back, he looked like Augustus Gloop going up the tube! Thankfully the tube has a mesh section at the end to block big pieces of debris from getting stuck in the small tube.

A little information about the tanks, I switched over to sponge filters because regular filters were causing too much water movement and if I didn't center them then one betta would be out of luck. After making a divider that fit around my filter, my dragonscale found a way around it and I came home from work to find both males on the SAME SIDE! I about died. They hadn't made it to the point of aggression yet so thankfully neither of them were hurt. So, now it's sponge filters with full dividers.

Those are just some of the stories. What are some or all of your stressful moments?? What have they done to make your heart drop? I know I'm not the only one.

 

One of my bettas had dropsy for a month but she survived. 3 months later, she got it again and she died.

 

When my sorority crashed, that was pretty stressful. I had 8 females in my sorority, and they started getting sick and dying one at a time, and each time one would die, the rest would start fighting to re-establish their pecking order, and the stress from that would weaken their immune systems. Today only 2 of those 8 females are still alive. They live in their own tanks now.

 

One of mine has a secret hiding place somewhere, and I just don't understand it. I keep thinking he jumped out, I'll go through all the decorations and plants and find all the snails, but no betta. He always shows up a few minutes later, but I still don't know how or where he hides

 

My betta has fin rot bc I think his fins are too huge for him. He has a great personality, but those fins kill me. Other than that he is lively and make bubble nests on a daily basis

 

The first few times I saw our boy Ocean right after the lights came on, I nearly had a heart attack -- all stress-stripes and bright red bases to his fins. I did an emergency water change each time, thinking there was something horribly wrong. I didn't find out until later that the light coming on in the morning scares them, especially when it's still dark out >_<
He also stresses me out because his fins are permanently damaged. After months of tri-weekly water changes and a course of antibiotics, I just have accept that they're going to be perma-curled and melted looking :/ They're constantly healing and developing tiny holes only to heal again. I've come to the conclusion that he also might be biting at them :/ They're just never flared enough to be sure.

My little girl Sweetheart stresses me out because she is constantly as round as a little beach-ball--she looks more pregnant than the girl endlers in the display with her! She'll slI'm out as I fast everyone...then find something else to eat and blow up again. She even tries to eat the algae wafers >_< I am hoping to move her piggy-tuckus to her own tank this weekend so I can go back to feeding the rest of the tank and not worrying about a betta exploding :/

 

I had so many scare moments. One was when one of my bettas got dropsy and I was stressing out whether she would make it or not. She didn't. There was also when I left my house for almost the entire day and there was no lights in the room, I got back and turned on the lights. But then they were acting strange and swimming blindly. Turns out that their eyes didn't adjust to the lights yet and they were back to normal a few hours later.

I also got another dropsy scare with one of my male bettas. I had Kanaplex on hand and quickly treated him. Still going strong for ~3 months now. Next there was when I found one of my male bettas sleeping completely flat on his side, poke him and there was no reaction. Though he was dead, then I poke again to make sure he was dead. Spazzed out and scared me.

Finally my female betta kept getting swim bladder disorder and thought I was doing something wrong. Seems she get it after I feed any soaked dried processed foods. I fixed it by not feeding her any processed foods. They stress me out like crazy whenever something goes wrong. But I still love them.

 

My little guy has had fin rot for a while now and seeing his tiny fin one one side and frayed caudal fin is so saddening (waiting for the Kanaplex and Furan to arrive in the post)

But I remember one day I went to say hI to him and I couldn't find him and it freaked me out for a second. Turns out he was sleeping under one of his anemone plants and then just decided to come swimming out at me while I'm in the middle of a freak out

 

I have always said, new bettas have to scare their owners at least once before they are officially moved in!
My bettas have always scared me, and I hate it when they do it!
Yesterday, one of my male halfmoons was sitting at the top, motionless, which lead to me thinking he was dead.

I have had bettas not eat for a while, or just look sick when they are just fine

 

Ok. So, I have had many stressful moments with my bettas. MANY! A lot that weren't anything to actually worry about.

I own four beautiful males bettas that are in two split 10 gallons. I will post pictures of them later this week when I finally finish adding in all the plants to my second tank. I will also post a picture of my newest one because I think he's still young and I can't tell what he is. I think he's a Rosetail, but I'll check with you guys later about that.

However, sometimes I can't handle the stress that my bettas put me through and I'm sure most of you can agree. My newest one will sleep almost upside down in the plants and I can tell he enjoys it. He swims regularly throughout the day, but the first time I saw it I thought he was dead! Most of the time, they look dead when they sleep!!

The other day I was cleaning my dragonscales side of his tank with the wider attachment hose(about an inch in diameter) and I turned my head for a second to make sure the other end was still in the bucket. When I turned back, he looked like Augustus Gloop going up the tube! Thankfully the tube has a mesh section at the end to block big pieces of debris from getting stuck in the small tube.

A little information about the tanks, I switched over to sponge filters because regular filters were causing too much water movement and if I didn't center them then one betta would be out of luck. After making a divider that fit around my filter, my dragonscale found a way around it and I came home from work to find both males on the SAME SIDE! I about died. They hadn't made it to the point of aggression yet so thankfully neither of them were hurt. So, now it's sponge filters with full dividers.

Those are just some of the stories. What are some or all of your stressful moments?? What have they done to make your heart drop? I know I'm not the only one.

This photo...Natalie enjoys laying on top of a leaf, half out of water, on her side, pressed up against the glass. 90% of the time, this is how I find her when I approach the tank. I panic thinking she is dead, she likes being pet, so touching her doesn't always get her to move - I have to watch for her breathing. My heart stops every single time I find her like this.

 

This photo...Natalie enjoys laying on top of a leaf, half out of water, on her side, pressed up against the glass. 90% of the time, this is how I find her when I approach the tank. I panic thinking she is dead, she likes being pet, so touching her doesn't always get her to move - I have to watch for her breathing. My heart stops every single time I find her like this.View attachment 486122

I would die if I found one of my babies like that! Holy cow!

I'm loving all of these scare stories and my heart breaks for those who have lost one of theirs. I was never into fish before until my first betta, Steve, who has since then taught me so much. Now, I'm obsessed with them and am so attached! My bettas give me the "no movement" scare way too much. It's only until they see me and come darting to the front of the tank.

 

When my sorority crashed, that was pretty stressful. I had 8 females in my sorority, and they started getting sick and dying one at a time, and each time one would die, the rest would start fighting to re-establish their pecking order, and the stress from that would weaken their immune systems. Today only 2 of those 8 females are still alive. They live in their own tanks now.

Betta Sororities are so beautiful, but they scare me because I know that they don't always work out. I'm so sorry to hear about the 6 of them that you lost. It must have been hard.

 

One of mine has a secret hiding place somewhere, and I just don't understand it. I keep thinking he jumped out, I'll go through all the decorations and plants and find all the snails, but no betta. He always shows up a few minutes later, but I still don't know how or where he hides

Same! So if you go to the thread of my 3.5 gallon then you will see a picture of the filter average filter right. But there is a little space between the wall and the filter about a centimeter of space. Guess where my girl hangs out... for the longest while I could never figure out where she went I wohld look and look then suddenly poor! She appeared!
another one is since I wake up early in the morning I try to feed them but they are asleep! Yet they move so I think their awake but their actually asleep. So this makes feeding a hassle and I'm probably going to feed them double at night

 

This photo...Natalie enjoys laying on top of a leaf, half out of water, on her side, pressed up against the glass. 90% of the time, this is how I find her when I approach the tank. I panic thinking she is dead, she likes being pet, so touching her doesn't always get her to move - I have to watch for her breathing. My heart stops every single time I find her like this.View attachment 486122

Oh man!! That would do it to any one! Lol

 

Same! So if you go to the thread of my 3.5 gallon then you will see a picture of the filter average filter right. But there is a little space between the wall and the filter about a centimeter of space. Guess where my girl hangs out... for the longest while I could never figure out where she went I wohld look and look then suddenly poor! She appeared!
another one is since I wake up early in the morning I try to feed them but they are asleep! Yet they move so I think their awake but their actually asleep. So this makes feeding a hassle and I'm probably going to feed them double at night

My mom has a betta and he does the same thing!
The thing with mine is that there isn't a filter or anything really man made, other than the heater. Just two stems of red root floaters, a little bit of dwarf sag, and some red root floaters. And one little hide I made, but he doesn't like it and has only gone inside once

 

My male double tailed HMPK jumped out of the tank when I was trying to feed him. He freaked out and all I saw was a flash of black. Thank goodness he didn't hit the desk next to his tank but landed on a plastic grocery bag.

One of said DTHMPK's sons also jumped out of a tank and I found him all sticky and near death. He was revived and still lives, one of his brothers though was found too late. I've never had problems with bettas being jumpers until the last couple months. No idea what they're thinking but now all betta tanks are on LOCK DOWN.

 

Mine used to make a nice cushy bed on top of the floating plants... and sleep half submerged half outside...

I started a sorority and bought a few baby girls... and then 3 of my “girls” were not girls...
Red “girl”



Orchid “girl”

So not just a sorority... it is a sorority with “friends”...

 

Female betta being too curious for her own good. List of her Mishaps so far: 2 trips (on different occasions) into the gravel vacuum hose while doing weekly cleaning and I took my eyes off the hose for a second. Couldn't find her in the tank the other day and found her inside the HBO filter. Hubby was fussing with the filter earlier and priming it and he must have scooped her up with some water and not noticed. 3 lives gone, 6 to go.

 

the first time I caught my betta sleeping... I thought he was dead

 

Our first betta scared the heck out of us. Had his tank by a window, so I had taken him out of the tank and cleaned all the algae out very thoroughly. We moved the tank into the girls room. As soon as I put him back in the water he jumped out towards us and landed on a pile of t-shirts! Going strong still today

 

Female betta being too curious for her own good. List of her Mishaps so far: 2 trips (on different occasions) into the gravel vacuum hose while doing weekly cleaning and I took my eyes off the hose for a second. Couldn't find her in the tank the other day and found her inside the HBO filter. Hubby was fussing with the filter earlier and priming it and he must have scooped her up with some water and not noticed. 3 lives gone, 6 to go.

Don't blame your hubby too fast - my Tootie can often be found hanging out in the filter. Raising the filter high enough for her to be unable to access it creates too much current for the sorority, and she seems to be able to get herself in and out. Bettas are crazy!

 

I believe my betta had to go and get himself a tiny bit of dropsy so he's stressing me out just a bit thread is here if you wanna help Betta Has Dropsy

 

I had a betta for a week who was extremely curious and liked to fit into small places. He has a heater attached to the side of the tank that he would launch himself toward to try to get behind. I thought it would be physically impossible for him to get behind it because the gap was only a few milimeters and he wasn't that small. So, I come home from an overnight trip a week after getting him and find him dead and trapped behind the heater. Poor little guy finally achieved his goal, and it didn't go well I was/still am distraught and a bit traumatized

Weirdest part was that he was facing downward (head pointed toward the gravel), which makes no sense unless he swam backward from under the heater because the top part of the heater was above water...RIP Elvis

 

My red VT betta has a tendency to hate the thermometer in his tank. He just doesn't seem to understand that it is not his enemy when it had been in the tank longer than he did. Well, few months ago he blew out holes in his fins by flaring too hard at that thermometer.

 

My red VT betta has a tendency to hate the thermometer in his tank. He just doesn't seem to understand that it is not his enemy when it had been in the tank longer than he did. Well, few months ago he blew out holes in his fins by flaring too hard at that thermometer.

Oh wow! Like stretching his fin to hard and it tore?