Can A Beta Tell You What To Do And Appreciate What You Do For It?

mr. beta

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I don't know anything about fishes. I was in some pet store for my girls cat to get something for it.. anyway I was look at some of the fish and saw how cool looking the bettas are. Since my girl had a fish tank (floor is covered with colored rocks and marbles with seashells, theres wallpaper on the back that shows a sea with big fish, and has an air pump) that looks like its about 10 gallons, thats been sitting in a closet forever, and the low cost, I decided to buy a blue beta with cool violet streaks.
basically I never really thought of the fish as an entity and it just swam or lurched around, admiring its wallpaper, doing nothing different for about 1 month. On month two, Mr. Beta (which is what I call him since I never named him), started acting different. when I come in the room that it's kept in the fish will swim up to the side of the tank to greet me (ignores my girl and everyone else since I’m the only one that feeds him and talks to him). If he is hungry he will flare/puff up and just stare at me puffed up until I feed him. After he is fed he won't flare up again until the next feeding time. Gets fed pallets at around 10am and 8pm. In the mornings he will also look up at the light bulb indicating to turn it on (this happens after hes fed and actually ignores the food if you drop it in while hes wanting the light on), after its on he goes back to swimming around.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to get a 30gal filtering pump which was on sale for $16 since we are too lazy to clean the tank regularly and then seaweed starts growing from the sea shells that are on the floor. I turn on the pump during random times, usually at night, which keeps the water looking crystal clear. Anyways for the past few nights when I come in there, 10pm, to turn off his light he will swim towards me and look at me then swim to the pump vacuum tube and nudge it which I think means turn it on. After I turn it on he will swim around a few times then drop down to the bottom of the tank, always in the same back right corner spot (indicating a bed), wedge himself in the rocks and marble and literally close his eyes lol (my guess is he very much likes the water current from the pump and he can lay down to rest instead of having to sleep for a few seconds and lurch to keep breathing which is what he did before). This has been repetitive all this week and never thought a tiny fish like this could have any sort of mammal intellect or display recognition of me or know that the vacuum tube is what makes the water current, nor have a desire for the tank’s lamp to be on (which I leave on now at night so he can see where he wants to lay down).
This must be common among betas, does anyone else notice anything in theirs that can define them to have a unique character? It's like when this fish looks at me, its not like other fishes that are just oblivious, this beta will stare at me in some sort of connection and attempt some sort of act to get what he wants. once he gets it he then ignores me so it's definitely not like a dog that enjoys your presence.
 
:kana: :kana: :kana: :kana: magic mushrooms do that

well I have been on a speedball bing all week, but my girl can confirm it anyways. I couldn't beleive it myself until it happens over and over again so go figure..
 
basically I never really thought of the fish as an entity --


a ghost?
 
basically I never really thought of the fish as an entity --


a ghost?

no, just window dressing of a sort.. looks pretty and moves around but isn't supposed to interact. just eat it's food when given then go about it's mindless roaming around - I mean, how much mind can a beta have? It's brain is so small it could be one of those quantum quarks that appear and disappear randomly
 
I wouldn't say that. I've kept several male bettas over the years in a variety of tanks and i have found the same thing in them. A certain purple one name Mischevious that i had years ago i kept in a little tank near my cd player. Whenever i'd turn on the music (not loudly thank you) he'd swim around in circles to the beat of whatever i had playing. I remember him being paticularly fond of Enya...Mr. Bubbles, another betta of course, enjoyed making bubble nests in his tank and whenever i stuck the tip of my finger in he'd blow bubbles onto my finger. He'd make sure i did it every day after i fed him or he'd flare and flick water on the surface until i did so.

Heck! My previous goldfish, Taper, i kept in the bathroom and he'd swim to the bottom of his tank whenever i made to leave the room as if to say "did you flush?" Gross, yeah. But c'mon, it happened every single time my friends or I went into the bathroom.

I think fish do have somewhat of a distinct personality and it really shouldn't be underestimated...
 
To think any animal, no matter how small the brain appears to be, has no personality is a great fault in anyone. Seriously. We seem to think of the human race as being so smart and yet we are incapable of using two thirds of our own brains! Much less understand them, let alone an animals completely different to ours. Of course fish have brains and they know how to use them. They've been on this planet for billions of years longer then we have. Just because they little heads and not much room for a brain in there doesn't make them stupid. They all have personalities, communication methods, wants, needs and desires, much like we do. If we, as a species, took more time to try and understand our fellow earth inhabitants we might find that even the lowliest (from our point of view) creature is capable of communication and personality traits we could rarely imagine.
Makes you wonder just how stupid they think we are.
P.
 
Cool. Iv had similar experiances with betta fish, they are quite intelligent. I dont think fish have eye lids, but im not surprised that you and this fish have formed a bond.
 
Plecos have an anatomical feature with mild similarities to eyelids, well the light reducing function (poor phrase, tired).
Not sure about Betta or other fish in general, don't think they do :dunno:
 
Most fish don't. When they sleep, they sleep like geckos and snakes: they lie still and breathe more slowly. I imagine people sometimes confuse them for being dead since they don't seem to move or see anything for a couple of moments.
 
In reference to another post regarding fish intelligence, they can make connections between various things in their environment. Maybe your betta connects your presence with food and the filter current.
 
Ok, I cleaned out the tank tonight and when I put the fish back in it doesn’t seem 100% This is what I did
I cleaned out the tank cos the green slime started forming on the glass and all over the rocks.. I used a new scrub pad with no soap or other chemicals. Cleaned all the rocks. when I was done I fileld the tank with warm water about 75-80 degrees so there wouldn’t be any shock. Then put in some of that solution that the clerk at the pet store said I needed that I guess neutralizes the chlorine from the tap water and allows the fish to form a protective slime coating. Then I put the pump back in and turned it on for an hour before I put Mr. Beta back in.
When I put him back in he immediately started gasping for air and fell to the bottom, his gills where opening much larger than I’ve ever seen him do before. Immediately I put In the air pump and let the bubbles in the water. Mr. Beta started swimming around again eventually like normal but every 10 minutes he would come to where the pebbles come out of the air line or to the surface and take a big gulp of air and go back do to lay on the rocks. Now laying on the rocks is what he always does with the pump on, but never have I seen him take gulps of air before. Hees been doing this now for 3 hours and his gills are opening and closing much bigger than before.. I’m sure it will straighten out whatever is wrong by morning but kind of wonder what exactly is wrong.

@kittytehpirate That’s cool your fish likes music, I know mine comes over to the glass to stare at me like (I’m feeling your vibe†) when I talk to him.
@Miss Dib Dabs you’re quite a bit more optimistic than I am regarding animal intelligence. Sure they can learn some basic instinctive traits which we personify, but I was surprised my ittybitty beta could learn how to do a 4 things to aid in its strive to maintain homeostasis as easy as possible. Sure we use a tiney percent of our brains but our tiney bit of usage is exponentially greater than any other animal when factoring in the significance of asymmetry and variations in brain folding - convolutions. Basically the fish species have been around for so long because in the waters they are less threatened to environmental changes and thus don’t have a need to evolve. Because people lived in harsh areas on land we had to evolve enough to learn how to grow food and hunt during unfavorable environments. I don’t follow the codes of creationism so just because mr. Beta has been around longer than us doesn’t mean squat since we evolved from the fishes, we have millions of years of technology put into us. Think of moors law and think of millions of years, that is us compared to a fish. For as long as everything the fish has in the area of water it lives in is provided for it without change, it has no need to evolve to survive. When a branch of fish leaves its naturally home waters and encounters different temperatures and foods at a very slow migration pace then it will develop different physical and behavioral attributes.. but I’m rambling on and on way too much..

GuppyDude I figured that my beta was just like most others regarding behavioral instinctive abilities which I find are very cute to personify which makes me happy to care for Mr. Beta. I really thought it had lids, when he lays down I saw his eyes go from brown to white-grey but when I think about it they closed like a circular lens on those older cameras.
 
All Bettas come up for air every now and then. That's how they breathe. They don't breathe the air in the water, so you don't need bubbles in the tank. However, if your Betta is acting different, something could be wrong. Was the temperature of the water in the tank, simmilar to the water he was in before he went back into the tank? Did you put the right dose of the water ager (chorine neutraliser) in? Could he just be traumatised by being moved about? Someone else might know what could be wrong. I hope he's o.k. Let us know how he gets on.
 
it sounds like you have a great companion in mr betta and have made a bond with him, so regardless of what you think he is capable of knowing, just in what he does everyday shows he can do what it takes to manipulate you into doing what he wants.
i hope he is back to normal soon and you can enjoy his comapny again

xXx
 
my old betta who sadley passed awway 3 days ago was like that, he would only eat the food if i fed him it. and when i came in and wotching the fish he would show off flaring at them and that
 

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