Sudden Change In Behavior

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Caligo

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This betta is starting to worry me. He used to hang out around the top of his bowl, usually perched on top of the rock in his bowl. I change his water every week or so, and after the last change he's been acting really skittish. He never comes out from under his rock. When I am able to coax him out with food, he'll come up to the top to grab it and then he'll dart back under his rock. He doesn't appear to be sick at all. Every once in a while he'll come out, dart around the bowl really fast and then go back to hiding under his rock. My first thought was that he may have a bubble nest inside the rock and he's staying under there to protect it. But he hasn't acted that way with any previous nests and I can't see under the rock to confirm that. I need to change his water again but I don't want to make him even more neurotic than he already is by moving him around. Any thoughts? Sick? Scared? Psychotic?
 
Has he got any outward signs of being ill? Has something scared him? Has temp. of water changed, and is water condition ok? One of my boys is going down hill rapidly and I cant see what is wrong with him other than he is very quiet, very pale, eats a little but just isnt right.
 
Has he got any outward signs of being ill? Has something scared him? Has temp. of water changed, and is water condition ok? One of my boys is going down hill rapidly and I cant see what is wrong with him other than he is very quiet, very pale, eats a little but just isnt right.

I just pulled the rock out of his bowl and got a better look at him. He has some grey spots on his head and back. I'm guessing it's ick. What should I get for that?
 
:sly: you need to get some meds from a lfs. See if you can find a link on betta illnesses to find out which one. Fingers crossed for your little fishy, :good:
 
grains of salt on the fish is whitespot.
How big is the greyish spot and does it have a red centre or a circling of red around it.
 
Sorry it's taken me so long to post an update, I really appreciate the advice. I took a picture of him so that hopefully someone can identify the problem. Since I'm red/green color blind I can't really tell if there is any red in the area. It's only on his back and I managed to get a good picture of it. I'm starting to think it may be a scrape rather than ich. But would that explain his spastic behavior? I've got him in a bowl with just water for now so I can actually see him. I don't have a tank because it would have to be hidden away on a shelf in order for me to plug it in. He spends most of the day motionless on the bottom. Thanks!

betta_sick.jpg
 
I've been treating him with BettaFix for the last few days and I added some aquarium salt today. The salt seems to have perked him up quite a bit but he still spends a lot of time sitting motionless on the bottom of the bowl.

Does it even resemble anything? I was just told that the colors are a little off in the picture I took but that's the best I can do. Is it possible there's nothing wrong with him and that spot on his back is just a patch of color that I never noticed before?
 
Need a bacterial med if it dosn't look like a grain of salt, you can get columnaris spots and there quite hard to cure.
Tetracycline if he's on his own, but it will wipe your bacteria colony out in the filter.
Or maracyn one and two.
Good luck.
 
after seeing the photo,
i think tt it is quite safe...almost all of my bettas hav this kind of symptoms from time to time n to me it's quite harmless...
i just feed it normally n i do not watch it eat,
to give it some security.
after a few day the few just went back to normal and swim about happily...

how long has this betta been wif u?
recently?
or for more than two weeks?
if its just recently then im quite sure its safe, just scared as it's in a new territory...

wishing ur betta gets well soon,
joeyoii
 
I've had him for about 3 months. He is eating normally now, just a little skittish. The thing on his back is probably a scrape from darting in and out of his rock. Something must have scared him recently to change his behavior. Until the last 2 weeks he always stayed at the top of the bowl and seemed very much in control of his environment. Not sure what could have happened to change that.
 
I've had him for about 3 months. He is eating normally now, just a little skittish. The thing on his back is probably a scrape from darting in and out of his rock. Something must have scared him recently to change his behavior. Until the last 2 weeks he always stayed at the top of the bowl and seemed very much in control of his environment. Not sure what could have happened to change that.

Ah,
now i thought of something else tt could have scared him.
maybe in the last few days u changed something or put something into or near his tank?
i noe my bettas always gets scared when i place something near him.
 
We have put a few new things on the counter where his bowl is. I thought they were far enough away that he wouldn't notice them but I'll try moving them and see if he starts acting more normal.
 
We have put a few new things on the counter where his bowl is. I thought they were far enough away that he wouldn't notice them but I'll try moving them and see if he starts acting more normal.


we had a very territorial betta for a while. his bowl was on our kitchen table. during dinner time if my mom ever put a dark pot too close too his bowl he would get terribly agitated because he could see his reflection.

is it possible that he is stressed because he can see his reflection in something on your counter?

i don't see anything visibly wrong with your betta. they are known to change color somewhat, could be because of a better diet than what he was getting in the pet store.

although his rather "listless" behavior is somewhat concerning, if he is still eating and pooing on a regular basis i wouldn't be terribly concerned about it.
 
We have put a few new things on the counter where his bowl is. I thought they were far enough away that he wouldn't notice them but I'll try moving them and see if he starts acting more normal.


we had a very territorial betta for a while. his bowl was on our kitchen table. during dinner time if my mom ever put a dark pot too close too his bowl he would get terribly agitated because he could see his reflection.

is it possible that he is stressed because he can see his reflection in something on your counter?

i don't see anything visibly wrong with your betta. they are known to change color somewhat, could be because of a better diet than what he was getting in the pet store.

although his rather "listless" behavior is somewhat concerning, if he is still eating and pooing on a regular basis i wouldn't be terribly concerned about it.

Hi justahbi and welcome to the forum.

Unfortunately you've resurrected a post which is 2 years old :lol:

You need to check posts in the similar topics bit at the bottom of the forum as they tend to be quite old.
 

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