Behaviour Quirks

[Kekmet]

Hi all, first time poster.

I've been living with nine bettas successfully for quite some time, and eight of the nine of them are all happy and well-adjusted (or at least seem to be.) The ninth one, though, my roommate and I have playfully termed 'The Village Idiot.' He does one thing all day- swim down and to the left.

We have switched him to different sized tanks (1/2 gallon to 10 gallon sized), changed the color of his rocks and plants, and even taken the plants and rocks out entirely, but he continues to try to bury himself in the bottom of his tank regardless of where we put him. The only thing that distracts him is a little food at the top of his tank, but we can't very well feed him constantly...

Does anyone have any ideas what's happening to him, or a way to discourage this behaviour? This has been going on since we got him (from Wal-mart, ) almost five months ago. He seems very distressed.

 

[FishyLove]

Perhaps he has some sort of swim bladder problem, maybe got injured at some point in time?

 

[Silver1]

I have a baby fish that insisted on trying to eat the southwest corner of his tank every time he was fed. I thought he had some kind of brain disease or something, but either he was just stupid or perhaps sensitive to what was in the water.

He was moved to a 25 gallon tank with a filter, heater, and a ton of plants to hide in. It took about two weeks but in the end his obsession with the southwest corner of the tank ended.

 

[Kekmet]

If he was injured, it happened before we got him... who knows what the fish are subjected to before we get them?

Right now he's in a 3 gallon 'vase' type tank. We've crammed it full of plants so that he charges the plants instead of the pebbles... cushioning the blow, at least. He must be either dumb or crazy.