Betta suddenly darting, acting terrified

HI everyone,
One of our rescued Bettas is suddenly acting so upsettingly -- darting crazily away at sight of us, hiding in nooks and crannies.. We've had him for a few months already and he's been absolutely fine all the while; in fact he was fine right up to this afternoon! He's always been very "friendly" and wanting to interact, always looking out at what's happening in the living room and always hungry too -- tonight is the first time he's remained in hiding and not come eagerly looking for food. The water parameters are fine and today coincided with his routine water change, which we did; superficially I can't make out anything physically on him (though it's really hard to tell now that he keeps darting/hiding) (early in the day he looked fine though). It's night now and we're thinking to see how he is in the morning -- we're not sure what to treat! If anyone has any suggestions or ideas, please do share

 

Can you post pics? Also I know you said the parameters are fine but could you please be specific?

 

darting around is a sign of stress or in labyrinth fish can also be a sign of anger,usually labyrith fish family does this,my dg does this sometimes when I feed him because there are 3 corys with him in the tank and he is just saying don't touch my food that's mine for around 5 seconds and then after that all good
if the water parameters are fine(I suggest u double check however),I suggest you add something like stressguard to reduce the stress a bit

 

jkkgron2 Masoud Thank you for your replies!
No, pics are out of the question at present; it's too dark and anyway he's keeping well hidden
Ammonia, nitrites are 0; nitrate 5; ph about 7.2, pretty much the same as it's ever been.
Yes, we added Stressguard. Honestly I think the hiding is bugging me more than the darting; the darting I agree can be a sign of being annoyed (he lives alone by the way), but the hiding.. He's NEVER not wanted to eat!

 

This might be weird but I’m curious did you move him to a new spot recently? Or have u been hanging out by him more? The change could maybe scare him

 

if there are no visible sign of illness and the parameters are fine then just give him time sometimes nature act in a way that we cannot do anything about it

 

jkkgron2 No, no new things at all.. Well, not that I can think of. I don't think we interacted with him any more than we usually do.. Of course if he is just upset about something he saw, that would be great and hopefully he'll feel better about whatever it was soon.. But it's really strange to see him like this because usually he's REALLY sociable.

Masoud Yes, you're right. It just makes us sad to see him not his usual self We'll see how he looks in the morning light tomorrow..

 

Did this start after the water change? If so then it throws up a red flag for me. It hints at some kind of change in your source water.

 

mattgirl No, his last water change was a week ago, as usual. We'd already noticed him acting like this earlier in the day, so today's water change was after that.

 

mattgirl No, his last water change was a week ago, as usual. We'd already noticed him acting like this earlier in the day, so today's water change was after that.

That rules that thought out then. Hopefully he was just having a bad day and will be back to his normal self in the very near future. I am leaning toward the thought that something unusual to him frightened him. If that is what is causing it we can only hope he will get over it quickly.

 

That rules that thought out then. Hopefully he was just having a bad day and will be back to his normal self in the very near future. I am leaning toward the thought that something unusual to him frightened him. If that is what is causing it we can only hope he will get over it quickly.

Yes, I hope so!!! Waaaaaah. I'm trying not to fret

 

Yes, I hope so!!! Waaaaaah. I'm trying not to fret

I know it is hard not to fret when we see our water pets not being their normal happy selves.