Betta fish swimming erratically along walls

[BeginnerFishKeeper]

My betta fish is swimming along the side of the glass 80% of the time. The glass he usually swims along is near the heater and filter but I don’t think that’s related. He will swim along it, swim towards it as if he were “digging” at it, and he’ll turn around and go back and forth along that side of the aquarium glass. Is there a reason for this? Is there something I need to do to limit this behavior? I’ll include some water parameters. 

Ph 6.8

ammonia : 0 ppm

Nitrite : 0 ppm

Nitrate : 20 ppm

Kh : 0-1 dkh

Gh : 12 dgh

[Bjorn]

Maybe he sees his reflection? If the inside of the aquarium is brighter than the room outside it sometimes acts as a one way mirror. If that could be the case try turning down the aquarium lights or increasing the brightness in the room and see if his behavior changes.

[Bjorn]

I forgot you could also try placing a non glossy background around the sides of the aquarium. Girl Talks Fish made a video about this. She writes for Aquarium Co-Op.

Edited December 9, 2021 by Bjorn

[BeginnerFishKeeper]

On 12/8/2021 at 11:34 PM, Bjorn said:

Maybe he sees his reflection? If the inside of the aquarium is brighter than the room outside it sometimes acts as a one way mirror. If that could be the case try turning down the aquarium lights or increasing the brightness in the room and see if his behavior changes.

That’s what I thought too, but even when the aquarium lights were off he’d still do it so I wasn’t 100% sure. I will try to use a non reflective background and see how that works, thanks! 

[PineSong]

How long have you had your fish in this tank, and how long has he been doing this?

[BeginnerFishKeeper]

On 12/9/2021 at 8:41 PM, PineSong said:

How long have you had your fish in this tank, and how long has he been doing this?

He’s been in the tank for 2 weeks now and has done it since he first got in there

[PineSong]

On 12/11/2021 at 12:32 PM, BeginnerFishKeeper said:

He’s been in the tank for 2 weeks now and has done it since he first got in there

Okay, so that suggests (to me) that it's not any kind of reaction to anything suspicious in the water or changes in water quality and perhaps it's just a behavior. I've had a couple of fish spend more than the average time adjusting to the tank before they stop glass surfing or doing weird things, and they still turned out to be fine.

If you don't already have them, you could try adding plants or a betta leaf hammock or things like that to perhaps make him feel more secure/provide enrichment. 

[BeginnerFishKeeper]

On 12/11/2021 at 11:18 AM, PineSong said:

Okay, so that suggests (to me) that it's not any kind of reaction to anything suspicious in the water or changes in water quality and perhaps it's just a behavior. I've had a couple of fish spend more than the average time adjusting to the tank before they stop glass surfing or doing weird things, and they still turned out to be fine.

If you don't already have them, you could try adding plants or a betta leaf hammock or things like that to perhaps make him feel more secure/provide enrichment. 

Yeah I have a decent amount of plants and also have a betta hammock (although it keeps falling off the wall and I don’t know why). I’m trying to get my plants to grow more so my betta has even more cover but that’s a whole other can of worms 😂 Thank you for the help!