Help with Betta - Strange Behavior

Hi all. This is my first post here so I apologize for any decorum mistakes. I have a male betta in a 10 gallon planted aquarium for about 3 months now. He seems healthy, but he started strange behavior lately... when passing near a plant, he will twist his body intentionally to touch the plant, but as soon as he touches the plant he recoils away. I've never seen a betta do this. His meal preference has also changed. He never ate pellets, but he would eat flakes and freeze-dried bloodworms. Now he will only eat flakes. He won't eat bloodworms now. He also likes trailing behind the 2 corys and eating the bits of algae wafers they churn up. That's the only way he can eat the algae wafers though... he doesn't eat the algae wafer sitting at the bottom; just any floating bits the corys churn up. I know that algae wafer is not a good diet for him, but he doesn't seem to get too much of the bits anyway, and there's no way for me to prevent him from getting to the wafer bits unless I separate him from the corys. Not sure if this has any relation to my main question of his brushing the plants then recoiling. Just wanted to provide as much info as I can.

Additional tank info: ph 7.6, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate < 3ppm TIA!

 

Welcome to the forum!!
Could you possibly include a picture of him for us? That could help us determine some possible issues!

 

How many fish do you have in your tank? It’s possible he could be stressed or bored. If the tank is full of little fin nippers it will make him paranoid and stressed. Do you have any shrimp? He could be scared of those (I know it sounds stupid but mine was). Do you have rough decorations? He could have ripped a fin on that and now is scared of everything. A pic would help

 

Welcome to the forum!!
Could you possibly include a picture of him for us? That could help us determine some possible issues!

Thanks for the welcome! Here are some photos I took today.

 

How many fish do you have in your tank? It’s possible he could be stressed or bored. If the tank is full of little fin nippers it will make him paranoid and stressed. Do you have any shrimp? He could be scared of those (I know it sounds stupid but mine was). Do you have rough decorations? He could have ripped a fin on that and now is scared of everything. A pic would help

Hi. I have the betta, 2 green corydoras, 3 tiny amano shrimps, and 2 nerite snails. He is the boss of the aquarium. He isn't afraid of anyone or anything. He will go face to face with the other creatures to check them out, but he doesn't attack anyone nor does anyone attack/nip him. I don't have any plastic decorations. I have live plants (anubias, swords, reineckiis, water sprite lace, and dwarf lettuce. There's also a piece of mopani wood in the middle (mostly used by the corys to hide in), and some real seashells I picked from the beach. Everything sterilized by boiling before I put in. Live plants sterilized by diluted bleach before planting.

Additional info: Carib-sea Eco-Complete substrate, 2 mechanical/biological filters (Cascade 300 on the left side with bio sponge and filled with Seachem Matrix; an air pump sponge filter (also filled with Seachem Matrix) on the right side. There's also a heater (shows 77, but a calibrated kitchen thermometer reads 79 so the water heater/thermometer is off a couple of degrees.)

His fins don't look ripped to me. I also thought that he was afraid of the leaves, but why does he lean into them (definitely intentionally brushing against them?) This doesn't occur all the time. Mostly he will just act normally - he will maneuver through the leaves (even brushing against them) normally. Wish I could get a video of it, but I'm not even sure I can post a video in this forum. Thank you!

 

This morning he has become lethargic. He went up to surface to eat some flakes then went to bottom and just stayed still for almost 3 hours, which is very unlike him... he's usually swimming back and forth the length of the aquarium. I attached a couple of pics; can someone confirm if this is popeye? TIA!

 

This morning he has become lethargic. He went up to surface to eat some flakes then went to bottom and just stayed still for almost 3 hours, which is very unlike him... he's usually swimming back and forth the length of the aquarium. I attached a couple of pics; can someone confirm if this is popeye? TIA!

That looks more like diamond eye to me, but i'm not an expert. Also might just be the lighting of the first pic, but it could also explain his behavior if his vision was impaired. He could be using the plants as markers to maneuver around the tank?

His fins also seem really clamped, increasing water changes may help him feel better.