New betta keeps trying to jump out of tank

[CarnivorousPlant1]

hey so you may have seen my post yesterday about how I was planning to get another betta. Not my first rodeo with these guys as I have had one for a couple of years now, but she died last week and I wanted to try out live plants and maybe doing an uncycled tank with a new fish so was looking for advice.

Fast forward to today, ended up deciding on having the tank cycled as it's just less hassle and I already know how it works. I went to the aquarium store to buy the betta and plants, and they had such cool bettas there that I ended up going **** it I wanna get two. I'd been planning on setting up a second betta tank anyway before my first betta died so this honestly wasn't that much different to my original plan, and I have pretty much all the equiptment, cycled filter media etc. that i needed to immediately set up another tank lying around at home. I just needed a second heater, so i was like why not, bought two fish, went home, set up the tanks, everything was cool.

After I put the fish in I left them alone for about half an hour and when I came back one of them had jumped out and was lying on the floor. he was still alive so i immediately put him back in and then put a lid on the tank. (to clarify, i know betta's are known for jumping and need their tanks covered, that specific tank didnt have anything covering it becasue I'd literally just been working on it and i foolishly thought the fish would be fine for a minute while i went to find a suitable sized lid for the new tank).

The fish is alive but he's been sulking in the corner ever since his ill fated escape attempt, while the other new fish is very happily exploring his tank. The only time he hasn't been sitting in the corner is just now when i saw him try to jump out of the tank again. He hit the lid and landed back in the water and now he's back to lurking in the corner.

I've only ever had one betta before now and she never jumped. I'm not new to fish keeping but i am relatively new to bettas, this is also my first time with male bettas as my previous was a female. Are some of them just like this? or do they try to escape more if they don't like their environment?

The tank is 12 litres (aprox 3 US gallons) heated to 26°C, it has one of those hanging side filters, gravel substrate, a couple of plastic plants (the real plant i bought went in the other betta tank) and a cave my old betta used to like sitting in. I honestly thought this tank would be preferable to the other one as it has more tank ornaments and spaces to hide in it, which i hear bettas like, wheras the other tank is more empty leaving the fish exposed (although it is larger - 25litres/ between 6 and 7 gallons) but the fish in the other tank is very happy, like, the least stressed I have ever seen a new fish be, and this one seems miserable.

Is there anything I should do that can help the fish recover from being out of the tank, or since he survived initially he should be fine?

 

[Boundava9 2]

Clean water with correct parameters, add an almond leaf if you can. Consistent WC to keep water pristine. Was this tank cycled? I've never had a betta jump out on me and can honestly say I have kept close to 100 of them over the years

 

[GaryE]

Betta jumps are fear or prey based. Usually fear. So you have a startled guy and you need to define the cause. For now, turn off lights and don't let him see the other tank. Give him a few days and keep the lid on.

You don't see as much jumping with longfins as with plakats, because it's harder for longfins to move fast. Jumping takes an effort.

 

[CarnivorousPlant1]

Clean water with correct parameters, add an almond leaf if you can. Consistent WC to keep water pristine. Was this tank cycled? I've never had a betta jump out on me and can honestly say I have kept close to 100 of them over the years

the tank is technically new but the filter i have installed in it is one i transfered over from a cycled tank and fully contains cycled media, + all the fake plants and cave are from a cycled tank and i added substrate from a cycled tank, there should be plenty of bacteria, plus the fish has only been in there a few hours with fresh water so there wouldn't have been enough time for waste to build up.

by almond leaf do you mean like a literal leaf from an almond tree? I've never heard of this before, how would this benefit the fish.

 

[CarnivorousPlant1]

Betta jumps are fear or prey based. Usually fear. So you have a startled guy and you need to define the cause. For now, turn off lights and don't let him see the other tank. Give him a few days and keep the lid on.

You don't see as much jumping with longfins as with plakats, because it's harder for longfins to move fast. Jumping takes an effort.

ohhh that makes sense actually. He was just put in the new tank so is probably stressed out, and there was a lamp directed at the tank for a bit which he seemed to hate but I've turned that off now. The fish have been in the dark for a few hours now and no more jumping. He is a plankat, as was my previous betta. The other one i have rn which is chill and happy is a longfin.

 

[CarnivorousPlant1]

also re. water paramaters. I went to heck him just now and did notice the tenperature had gotten a bit high, about 27-28 °C, which is withing the range for bettas but higher than my other tank and what i had with my previous fish. I have turned the heater down.

 

[Boundava9 2]

Indian almond leaves release tannins, have antibacterial/antifungal properties. They have been used for years and are especially beneficial in smaller tanks and with bettas that can benefit with the lower pH that comes with the release of tannins.

 

[GaryE]

Another trick is to directly manipulate instinct. If you have a broad leafed houseplant, position it so at least one leaf is over the tank. Shaded spots are prime real estate for surface hunters, as birds are their predators. I keep killies whose jumping is legendary, but under Monstera leaves, nothing could be farther from their minds.

If you're the leaping sort, try it in a 3 layer wet ballgown, and compare that to a speedo. Longfin leaping versus short fin. A longfin may want to leap as per its instincts, but why bother? They sometimes can barely swim.

 

[Naughts31 103]

I agree with Gary that the two Betta should not be able to see each other. I hope his ‘sulking’ is not due to injury.

12 litres is very small for an active plakat Betta. Could you upgrade to around 40+ litres, a long tank that gives him space to swim?

 

[GaryE]

12 litres is very small for an active plakat Betta. Could you upgrade to around 40+ litres, a long tank that gives him space to swim?

This is a good point, as @Naughts ' posts usually are. I hadn't thought it through, but I do find fish are way more likely to jump in small tanks, and once you get past the fearful acclimation phase, it remains more of a danger in small rather than large set ups. I base that on plakats, but also on 35 years of killiekeeping. Pent up energy with nowhere to go...

I come from the punk generation and we had the pogo dance - packed like sardines in clubs but very energetic, we had nowhere to go but up when we needed to dance. Longfin Bettas are unable to move much because of breeder's choices, but shortfins need to move, and sometimes like killies or punks, they go up when they can't go forward.

 

[CarnivorousPlant1]

I agree with Gary that the two Betta should not be able to see each other. I hope his ‘sulking’ is not due to injury.

he's been swimming around fine today and seems uninjured, so I think he's fine in that regard. The tanks are not very near each other and I've already made sure the fish can't see each other.

12 litres is very small for an active plakat Betta. Could you upgrade to around 40+ litres, a long tank that gives him space to swim?

This is a good point, as @Naughts ' posts usually are. I hadn't thought it through, but I do find fish are way more likely to jump in small tanks, and once you get past the fearful acclimation phase, it remains more of a danger in small rather than large set ups. I base that on plakats, but also on 35 years of killiekeeping. Pent up energy with nowhere to go...

I come from the punk generation and we had the pogo dance - packed like sardines in clubs but very energetic, we had nowhere to go but up when we needed to dance. Longfin Bettas are unable to move much because of breeder's choices, but shortfins need to move, and sometimes like killies or punks, they go up when they can't go forward.

This is a good point. I was actually thinking last night that it might be a good idea to swap the two fish - that is, put the long fin in the 12 litre tank and the plankat in the 25, so that the more active fish has more space to swim.

 

[CarnivorousPlant1]

the fish that was jumping is doing much better today, hasn't tried jumping again and is a lot more active. The tank is on a desk where i am currently working and he's swimming back and forth watching me, seems very interested in my craft project. I definitely think he could benifit from more space so I will likely swap the two fish between the tanks. Would it be a good idea to do this immediately or better to leave them as is for a few days or weeks as i dont want to stress them out more by changing things as i think the main issue with the jumping fish is probably that he was upset with moving. He was new at the aquarium store, i literally saw the guy putting him into the display tank there and then bought him like 15 minutes later, so had proably been transfered around a lot that day and was stressed.

 

[CarnivorousPlant1]

day 3 update i did swap them between the tanks last night and both fish are behaving normally and happy this morning. Here is a picutre of them I feel like ive been yapping so much about them and u guys deserve to see how cool they are

thjs is the jumping one, he's a half moon plankat

and this is the longfin one

both of them are kinda hard to photograph because the plankat zips around very fast and the longfin is super friendly and likes to look at everything so whenever i go up to the tank he turns to face me front on and then you can't see his fins