I've had Seaweed, my male emerald HM for nearly 5 months now and I'm becoming increasingly concerned about his behaviour.
He's always been very timid, and when I first got him he was in a divided 60ltr with my other HM male Tyr. I had to separate them though as Tyr was constantly flaring at him through the divider, and this resulted in Seaweed either eating his tail or developing fin rot.
So I put him in a 5gal for a while to try and re-grow his fins, which they did. He seemed happier and even started building bubble nests.
To cut the story short, because my mam wont let me have any more tanks and they're confined to my bedroom I had to move the males around. Tyr is now in the 5gal and is building the biggest bubble nests I've ever seen. He's really active and immediately comes to the front of the tank when I approach it. He's very feisty and loves his food.
Seaweed now has the 60ltr to himself with just 4 corys for company. At first he nipped at them but now completely ignores them. What is worrying me is that he's becoming progressively more skittish and constantly hides. Seeing him like this makes me actually wonder for the first time if some males really do hate large open spaces. He hasn't built a bubble nest in months.
Watching him over the past week that I've been home has really started to worry me though. I've built up an area of bog wood and plants on the far side of the tank to the filter for shelter, and he never comes out of it. Getting him to come out to feed can be quite difficult, and he becomes bloated very easily even though I don't over feed. Tonight when I went to feed him he would not get off the floor of the tank, even though he could swim. It was only after I'd put a few flakes in there that I realised he was slightly bloated, so stopped feeding him. He wont have any food until Monday now, just in case.
He's also eaten his tail again. No signs of fin rot, and his tail was starting to heal really well. And now it looks horribly short again, which I'm thinking could be a sign of stress? They get about a 30-45% water change every week, and I have a Fluval (1 or 2, not sure) which is quite powerful so water is always very clean. I have the outlet pointed towards the glass to try and reduce the flow, but it's still strong.
He gets fed a varied diet of flakes, pellets, frozen worms, as well as peas and cucumber at least once a week.
I'm really starting to worry, and I'm wondering if I should stick the divider back in there just to limit his territory and the flow of the filter? But that would leave barely any room for my corys (two of which are v.large albinos) and I can't put them in my community tank because my dwarf cichlids kept attacking them. I can't swap him with Tyr because Tyr would rip the corys apart.
I'll stick some pictures up tomorrow morning of the tank and of his fins.
Any ideas as to what I could about this would be greatly appreciated- my first betta started acting like this and died soon after, and I'm really worried that it'll happen again with Seaweed.
Sorry about the mammoth post!
He's always been very timid, and when I first got him he was in a divided 60ltr with my other HM male Tyr. I had to separate them though as Tyr was constantly flaring at him through the divider, and this resulted in Seaweed either eating his tail or developing fin rot.
So I put him in a 5gal for a while to try and re-grow his fins, which they did. He seemed happier and even started building bubble nests.
To cut the story short, because my mam wont let me have any more tanks and they're confined to my bedroom I had to move the males around. Tyr is now in the 5gal and is building the biggest bubble nests I've ever seen. He's really active and immediately comes to the front of the tank when I approach it. He's very feisty and loves his food.
Seaweed now has the 60ltr to himself with just 4 corys for company. At first he nipped at them but now completely ignores them. What is worrying me is that he's becoming progressively more skittish and constantly hides. Seeing him like this makes me actually wonder for the first time if some males really do hate large open spaces. He hasn't built a bubble nest in months.
Watching him over the past week that I've been home has really started to worry me though. I've built up an area of bog wood and plants on the far side of the tank to the filter for shelter, and he never comes out of it. Getting him to come out to feed can be quite difficult, and he becomes bloated very easily even though I don't over feed. Tonight when I went to feed him he would not get off the floor of the tank, even though he could swim. It was only after I'd put a few flakes in there that I realised he was slightly bloated, so stopped feeding him. He wont have any food until Monday now, just in case.
He's also eaten his tail again. No signs of fin rot, and his tail was starting to heal really well. And now it looks horribly short again, which I'm thinking could be a sign of stress? They get about a 30-45% water change every week, and I have a Fluval (1 or 2, not sure) which is quite powerful so water is always very clean. I have the outlet pointed towards the glass to try and reduce the flow, but it's still strong.
He gets fed a varied diet of flakes, pellets, frozen worms, as well as peas and cucumber at least once a week.
I'm really starting to worry, and I'm wondering if I should stick the divider back in there just to limit his territory and the flow of the filter? But that would leave barely any room for my corys (two of which are v.large albinos) and I can't put them in my community tank because my dwarf cichlids kept attacking them. I can't swap him with Tyr because Tyr would rip the corys apart.
I'll stick some pictures up tomorrow morning of the tank and of his fins.
Any ideas as to what I could about this would be greatly appreciated- my first betta started acting like this and died soon after, and I'm really worried that it'll happen again with Seaweed.
Sorry about the mammoth post!
