Betta flaring all the time...anything I can do?

[nosidam]

First, a little background...about a month ago I bought a betta for my office. For the first week, he was fine - very playful, full of energy, social, etc. - but then he started to change. At first, he got scared easily and would swim frantically around the bowl, and then he became completely lethargic and wouldn't move unless you touched him. And forget about eating.

In an effort to save him, I transported him to my 10g tank at home. The 10g has 3 corys and 7 rasboras. Within a few hours of introduction to his new home, he was acting fine - almost like his old self. Within a day or two, he was 100% and was eating like it was going out of style (he didn't know what to make of the flake food or the siphon tube, but he tried to deal with them the best he could).

That brings us to the current situation...he's sort of staked out the right-rear quarter of the tank as his. He tried to claim the area under a slate-rock cave, but the corys let him know that was their area. The problem is that for the last week, he spends all him time flaring at the right side of the tank. He will flare at it and swim back toward the center where the heater is located, then he will turn and charge at the side again. He will break off and get a gulp of air and maybe chase a rasbora or two, and then return to flaring at the tank side.

There's nothing on the tank side or on the outside. It's clean on the inside (no algae) and the outside's been cleaned and doesn't have any streaks or water spots. In an effort to stop him, I've put both a tank background and a plain brown paper bag against the outside of the right side of the tank. Nothing slows him down.

Is there anything I should do to calm him down?

 

[Sticky Fish]

Are all lights out in the room that you have the tank in? When I shut off all lights, mine flares all the time and freaks out. When I turn then back on, he is A-OK.

 

[wrestlingfreak7]

maybe if you put him in his own tank for awhile, still in your house, but maybe move him to a different room and have a small tank mate like a ghost shrimp or something.

 

[joy613]

Look down into the tank and off to the side, he might be seeing his reflection. I know my acrylic tanks are worse than my glass tanks for reflecting. I keep my calm bettas in my acrylic tanks.

 

[TabMorte]

Do you have any plants? I find my bettas are a lot more comfortable when I have tall, leafy plants for them to hang in. I usually put them in the corners of the tank. They block the reflections on the glass and give them some turf to feel secure in.

 

[nosidam]

Thanks for the suggestions. I do have plants in the tank and he does hang out in them.

To try to get a better understanding of what he's doing, I set up my video camera to record for a while so he wouldn't be distracted by me watching him. After further review, I think he sees his reflection in the rear glass of the tank. The background is dark blue and I can clearly see his reflection when he swims near it. To further support this hypothesis, I found that he is flaring when he approaches the filter intake on the left side of the tank and continues to do so while he goes back and forth between the intake and the heater, all the while staring at the rear glass.

I have pulled the background off and will watch him to see if that makes a difference. Boy does the tank look weird without a background.

 

[TabMorte]

LOL I have no backgrounds on any of my tanks!

I suggest a lot of plants in the back of the tanks.

 

[nosidam]

Just wanted to update everyone and close this thread out.

Since removing the background, the betta is much calmer and seems happier. He's now taking his time exploring all over the tank and has spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what the bubbles are coming out of the air stone. He follows one to the surface and tries to eat one every now and then.

Here's a pic of Gumby:

 

[TabMorte]

Very pretty little guy! I'm glad he's settling in.