How Long Does It Take For A Betta To Get Comfy In His New Home?

[tintin]

Hello again.

As a newbie Betta keeper, I posted on here the other day. Call me a worrier but I care passionately about my fishy friends.

I'm keeping a close eye on Barney the Betta and have noticed that he's spending a lot of time resting on the gravel, or on the surface - behaviour that I've read suggests he's not 100% chuffed.

Is this standard for a Betta as he gets used to his new environment or something I should be worried about? Is a happy Betta constantly swimming?

For ref, he turned his nose up at freeze-dried Betta food for the first 2 days but did take some frozen stuff today - though not much. I've also done a 50% water change today. Think my main concern is the standard 21c temp still. I don't think the bowl is bigger than 3gal so i'm not sure that a small heater is going to be possible.

Any advice from you Betta experts. Undue worry on my part?

TT.

 

[willtang3000]

normally takes 1-2 weeks can even be a month for most fish but the better the condtions and quality of food like bloodworms much faster

 

[OohFeeshy]

If it's 5l, its just above 1g.

 

[debiasir]

mine took about a week to adjust and eat well

 

[tintin]

debi, a week? that's encouraging. I'll try and be a bit more patient. =)

feeshy, ignore what's in my sig. I'm useless at litre to gallon conversions. I'm fairly confident its about 3 gallons. I'll properly measure it when I next clean the bowl out.

willtang, do they only like live bloodworm? mine didn't seem to care for the frozen I ghave him today. he went more for the daphnia.

Thanks again to all for your help. Feels weird being a newbie on this subject again!

Any more comments more than welcome.

 

[JasonPlus]

I was worried about my betta the first day I got him, he'd stay at the bottom of the tank and didn't come up once. I ended up netting him and slowly brought him to the surface to feed. After that he was fine and I got a bubblenest a week later.

 

[soritan]

Took one of my boys about a month before he settled in. It took all my bettas at least 4 days before they'd take food. I didn't do anything as proactive as netting them and drawing them up... I simply let them become hungry enough to consider eating. 4 days doesn't do a betta any harm.

You might also want to consider that your guy is bored or lazy. Believe it or not, they're capable of both. I have one betta in my possession right now that I'm simply 'pet sitting', and after I added plants and a cave to his tank, he started to swim about a great deal more. It was the cave, that really did it. He hid in it for about an hour, and came out brave enough to tackle the whole world. 2 of the 3 males I've personally kept in my home both became a great deal more active after I gave them someplace to run and hide for when they wanted privacy. The third prefered a jungle of plants.

 

[Durbkat]

Well I must be lucky then because all my bettas started swimming around and eating the next day after I got them.

 

[tintin]

Barney has a (live) fern that he does swim around and between. He occasionally sits underneath the leaves too. A cave sounds great but there's not the room.

Durkbat, sounds like you're one lucky keeper!

 

[liz2]

I have just found this forum and think I will be up all night reading everything. I love any fish I have 2 bettas and they made bubble nests within about a week. The blue one is very greedy and will eat anything. The red one is a bit more conservative so every few days I put his small tank next to my fancy goldfish tank and he eats whatever food I put in. In the summer I give them mainly live but cant get it this time of year

 

[Durbkat]

Hi to the forum. How many gallons are the tanks the bettas are in, are they both male bettas, are they in different tanks, do you ever put them in the tank with your goldfish?

 

[rhstranger]

Wow. I must have gotten lucky like Durkbat. I just actually added my betta to my new tank, and he started eating, and swimming around calmly, inspecting everything the day I got him..... no bubble nest though.

 

[pippoodle]

OLD topic 2006