Do Bettas get lonely?

[trailmule]

I have one female betta in the rest of my fish and it appears as though she is lonely. She still swims the glass alot and trys to interact with the tetras sometimes. Nothing mean, just seeing what they are up to.

Should I get her a friend? I have read that female bettas should be in groups of 1 or three. But I have seen two together with no problem.

Will adding one more betta be a problem for my tank? When it's finished it will have 5-6 black neons, 4-5 pygmy corys, 2-3 ottos and however many bettas I end up with. I am running an AquaClear 30 if that makes a difference.

I would rather be slightly overstocked and have all my fish be happy. And right no, betta doesn't seem happy.

Comment anyone?

-TM

 

[FishGeek]

Adding another Betta is probably not the best of ideas. Your current betta has already established your tank as hers and adding another may not turn out very good. I also think with the Neons and the Cories plus her that your tank is fully stocked. The only fish that get lonely are schooling fish. Bettas are (for the most part) solitary fish, so no I dont think she is lonely.

 

[trailmule]

Hmmm... I still can't figure out why she follows the glass so much. But she'e pretty active, swimming at all levels of the tank, looking around on the bottom etc. Like I said she interacts well with all the other fish.

I guess I can wait and see if following the glass gets any better.

Thanks for the advice.

-TM

 

[Kissyboots]

MissFishy and others will likely hate me for this...but I had a male betta (Juju, now deceased) who would always swim at the glass and not do much else. So I got him a female AND THEY WERE HAPPY. I'm not saying this is what you should do because I might just have been lucky. She is now just hanging around like he did because he died two days ago. Either she is depressed or she is old. I don't know what's best for yours though.

 

[trailmule]

She doesn't swim the glass all the time - she explores the gravel, plants etc... And she's small - maybe 1.5 inches long so I don't think she's that old...

I don't know.

-TM

 

[skratikans]

your tank is at the stocking limit...fish dont experience loneliness like we do, even when female bettas are in groups they will still swim like this.

As for having a male and female betta..it may work for a few weeks...months..and then you may notice torn fins on the female betta..depends on the male..they may get along for awhile and then he may harass her

 

[Kissyboots]

Trailmule, I meant my betta being depressed or old...sorry for the confusion. I had my male and female together for 10 months. Of course they chased each other and sometimes had torn fins due to mating but that was it. Not that you should go get a male...

 

[TabMorte]

I know it's against the rules but I have a male and female betta too. They've been together since before I knew better (I bought them together even) and when I found out that they shouldn't be, I tried to take them apart but the female got all pale and refused to swim around her new home so I put her back with him.

I would NEVER put a male and female together again intentionally BUT you can put 2 females together and they'll live together very peacefully (aside from the occational fin nip). That said your tank seems a bit full I wouldn't add more unless you were moving some out to other tanks.

 

[Kissyboots]

fish dont experience loneliness like we do

Umm. Actually a friend said she had two females and a male of some kind of fish. The male and one of the females really liked each other. She had too many fish so she wanted to give away one of the females. You couldn't tell the difference between the two females so she just gave one away. It turned out she gave the wrong one away. The male was not eating and not moving so she brought the other one back. Now they are happy together. I think they do experience loneliness like we do.

 

[TabMorte]

It might not be loneliness so much as other factors.

Fish, particularly territorial ones, develope very strong hierarchies to maintain peace in their tanks. Removing fish can really upset the order of a tank and stress the fish within it a lot particularly in small tanks where fish are forced to interact with eachother a great deal. I know I've pulled one fish out of my tank for being aggressive before and found that with the Alpha fish missing it was a free for all as all the fish scrambled to be the big guy on the block for example. Or by removing a fish that is a bit of a chaser (thus keeping everyone in the tank on their toes) the others get a listless and lose their activity because the thing that prompted them to be active is gone.

This isn't nessesarily 'loneliness' per say but it's still stress and that's what you need to look at in terms of your fish in my experience.

If your female betta is stressed she will likely have lost a lot of her color and gotten yellow or whitish (unless she's naturally light). If she's scared she will have dark stripes along her length (two usually). If she's happy her colors will be dark and distinct (if she's suposed to be darkly colored) and her fans will be spread wide.

Bettas do like to 'just hang out' as it where. Mine is happy to just hover or swim back and forth infront of the glass for ages and she's healthy and not stressed, that's what's important.

 

[trailmule]

Now I am confused on the color thing. She has been yellowish brown with stripes and a purplish/blue on her fins ever since I got her. She looks like the last fish on this page:
female betas - Pet forum for dogs cats and humans - Pets.ca

Not the most attractive betta, I know. But if the light catches her right, the purple really shows up

Anyways, does this mean she has been scared/stress since I got her?

-TM

 

[TabMorte]

The stripes usually indicate stress so it's very possible she has been stressed a while.

Check and make sure the water's meeting her perameters. She also may be too crowded. A betta bowl/tank is not expensive at all, you can buy a little 1Gallon betta kit for $7-14, or buy a 2G bowl for like $5.00 and add some gravel and stuff. If you want to set one up for her a few things to keep in mind:

Make sure it's in a warm place but out of direct sun light
Make sure you give her a plastic plant/hiding place
Make sure there is a lid on it! (your Betta can jump!)
Make sure you condition the water properly and clean it often (I do a 50% water chance once a week with my bettas and 100% tank clean once a month)

PS: One of mine is exactly the same coloring! When she's happy and healthy she turns a beautiful shade of indigo/blue and gets red in her fins. She's very playful too but really really needs to have a space that's all her own to feel safe. If you don't want to shell out for a little castle you can get small ceramic flower pot and put it on its side in the bowl/tank (make sure it's 100% ceramic though with no coloring or additives) or you can find bits of aquarium rock for fairly cheap at yout local fish shop and make a tiny cave... I recommend one with a back and front entrance so she can escape if some one invades.

 

[trailmule]

So the last fish shown on that website is stressed? Hmmm. I thought by calling the color "wild type purple" it was refering to wild bettas that were more muted and striped than the ones commonly seen today.

There is no way to keep an bowl at a reasonable temp as my house temp is set at 66-68.

I'll figure out something. I know none of the other fish are bothering her. she eats well, water's warm enough, there are hiding places, water chemistry is good...

If anyone else can comment on the coloration, please do. The more opinions the better. =)

-TM

 

[trailmule]

Here is a closer picture of what mine looks like
http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/llaplante/Home_images/betta06G.jpg

And this one is not as close:
Betta Simplex on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Again, is this a stressed/scared betta?

-TM

 

[TabMorte]

I could totally be wrong, the ones I have are all from the same place so their changability could be specific to what ever breed they are but that's the trend I've seen.

If she's eatting though and doesn't have any nipped fins she should be fine.

 

[nobody]

I had one kind of like yours and she was mainly pale, unless she wanted to show off, or act aggressive towards other fish or something to that nature. All the females I've had liked to follow the glass once in a while like yours and so have some of my other fish that are schooling fish who had buddies to hag out with. It might just be one of those favorite fish pastimes, who knows. Whenever I tried to add another female to my tank when it already had one, there was always a showing of colors for dominance and it wasn't long until one seemed to disappear and then I'd find it dead in a plant or something like that. You can try another female if you absolutely want to, but I think if your fish is swimming around, interacting with fish, and eating she's most likely just fine.