Topic: Weird behavior...

[momoiro]

I left my boys and went to lay down, trying to get an early night for work tomorrow...and got up when I realized I hadn't turned the light off yet... Well, normally when I walk over both of my boys are happy to see me and trying to get me to feed them more...but this time BOTH are hiding...and I have no clu ewhy... They've shoved themselves up against wahtever they can (one insdie his cave, the other first between his cave and the glass, then in a corner... I have no clue what's caused this behavior, and I'm worried! The only thing I can think of is that I just put an apple snail in with one of the boys, but the snail hasn't even moved yet, and I can't see why both of them would be acting this way. Everything's the same as it normally is otherwise...they're in a divided 10 gal with just the two, 1 snail, and a few shrimp, which never have seemed to make any difference, and they aren't even caring about the shrimp's presence... I just don't know what could be up with them...

Edit: Am going to take both boys out and put them in seperate hospital tanks for the night...I can't stand the thought of them being sick and losing them. Although how they would get so bad in 2 hours is beyond me...

Another Edit: Instead of taking out the boys...I took out the shrimp and the snail...and the boys are already coming out (maybe 5 mins later) like a couple of whipped puppies searching for their beaters, hoping not to see them... Has anyone ever heard of 2 bettas both equally terrified of shrimp? And what I truly don't get is that in both cases...the shrimp were either dead (I think the slight water diff and shock did it) or really close...although one boy had 2 shrimp cause he really seemed to enjoy the first, and the first was turning white... *sigh* I just hope my boys are alright... I think tomorrow after work I'm going to do a water change, give them a little salt maybe...or something to help their frayed nerves... I though the shrimp would be the ones to get torn up...not the other way around!

[BettaMaNiAcK]

Doesn't sound odd to me. I would say it's just their personalities...kinda cute too.lol. But, I applaud you for recognizing a change of behaviour and furthermore trying to fix it.lol. I can't say that their isn't something wrong, but I can reccomend keeping an eye on things for a while and if everything is to your liking, maybe try adding the shrimp and snail again and things will fall into place in terms of behavior. Best of luk.

[ZenMeBaby]

I doubt its the shrimp, especially if the shrimp have been in there for longer than a few hours.

More likely its either a water quality problem.  If you had recently done a water change the new water might not have matched their old water closely enough.  Or, it might be time for a water change.  

Sometimes if their tanks are rearranged it can also cause a Betta to hide.  

If I let the water qualty slip in a tank or a bowl, I notice that the Bettas are more likely to hide out.  After a large water change they sometimes stay in a corner also.  

The best thing to do would be double check your water parameters and make sure you have no ammonia or nitrites and that you nitrates are at a reasonable level.  Do some small water changes if things aren't as they should be but other than that, without any physical evidence of sickness, I wouldn't treat them with anything or remove them from their tanks.

[dorn27]

They could have just been sleeping, since you left the light on into the night...

[momoiro]

I'm really not sure what it was, it wasn't the water, because maybe 5 minutes after taking out the shrimp and snail they were already, but still seemed really fearful, and come the next day, completely back to normal, and actually, they love to sleep out in the open. One boy, Souta, is a really big show-off, he loves to be in the limelight (why I was immediately concerned about him literally plastering himself to the back of his cave)... The water is all fine, I really don't know what it was... Normally they don't mind nets, and even will quietly go along with all the human crazyness I put them through... I'm just glad to see them back to normal now.