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Betta fish enrichment?


BeginnerFishKeeper
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Are there any unique ways I can give my betta sources of enrichment? He doesn’t really interact with his environment other than swimming along the glass walls and I can’t help but feel like I’m doing something wrong. He has a coconut hide and a terra cotta tunnel but in the 2 months I’ve had him I haven’t seen him use either. My initial plan was to have 2-3 hides and an abundance  of plants but I’m struggling to get my plants to grow and stay healthy.

Also how much and how often do I feed my betta fish certain foods? I got him frozen bloodworms, freeze dried bloodworms, fluval bug bites, and ocean nutrition pellets. I give him 10 pellets every day but he still seems hungry as he swims to the front of the tank when I walk by, and is constantly looking for snails thinking they’re food. Once a week I give him the frozen and freeze dried bloodworms and some fluval bug bites, I’d say about 5 or so “pieces” of each. How much should I be feeding those foods and how often? Thanks 

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Your betta fish is "glass surfing" because they see their reflection in the glass.. I had the same problem with mine, the best solution I can give you is buy some frost film (the one for windows, without adhesive) and apply it to the back, and side pains of glass. This might not be the most beautiful solution but I've found that it works well. 

As for the feeding, though I'm not a Betta pro, I'd recommend to feed your betta once per day, and skip one day ever week, or every other week, this helps to avoid bloat. (unless your conditioning a breeder) you should probably feed them about 5-10 pellets or a few(3-4)medium blood worms. 

       Hope that  helps! And best of luck

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As for enrichment a hand held mirror once or twice a day for a few minutes so he can flare and display his boy boy status is good for them. Some even chase a cat toy laser pointer light. Indian almond leaves. The tannins are very good for betta and can limit the seeing of the reflection on the glass constantly. 

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You could see if he'll chase a laser pointer. Some fish will, and bettas are typically a type that will do it. 

Here's my limia in quarantine having a grand ol' time with the temp gun.
 

 

Other betta toys can be a mirror held up near the tank for a few minutes each day to get him to flare or even a finger to chase. 

What plants have you tried? Have you got him one of those suction cup leaf hammocks to hang out on?

I've noticed that younger bettas tend to swim constantly, especially the short tailed varieties. As they grow older, they get more lazy and slow down. 

As for food, fish always seem hungry, don't be fooled by the begging. I only feed my betta once a day, about 4 or 5 Bug Bite pellets. If I do blood worms, he might get 2 or 3. 

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I hatch baby brine shrimp. The cold slowed the hatching in the last batch, so I added some Spirulina powder and let it go another 24 hours. This fed the shrimp that hatched early while waiting for the rest to hatch. A lot of the brine shrimp were bigger and more active when I feed them.  They spread out in the tank quickly. My betta was very busy for a long time finding and eating the bbs.

He also likes to chase scuds and live adult brine shrimp. I have peppered corys and a small flagfish in my 10 gallon betta tank.  The betta often tell the flagfish to "move along, nothing to see here" but does not chase it once it moves away. I have read that flagfish nip fins, so when the flagfish doesn't flee quickly, I will move it to another tank.

I found some suction cup rings on Amazon to hold rolled IAL. After the leaves have been in the tank a few days, I fold them lengthwise and put them through the ring, like a half pipe. Everyone in the tank enjoys checking them for food and scuds and anything else they can imagine.

I have 2 betta logs that he checks often for snail eggs and such. I have a lot of floating plants and hornwort with the stems threaded through ceramic bio media cylinders.  The scuds are often darting from plant to plant to IAL and under rocks. My rocks and stone are piled loosely over the substrate it give the scuds a chance. I have seem the betta swim sideways under a rock to flush out some scuds.

It is a very busy little 10 gallon tank with only 5 fish.

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On 1/28/2022 at 10:07 AM, H.K.Luterman said:

What plants have you tried? Have you got him one of those suction cup leaf hammocks to hang out on?

The plants I currently have in the tank are cryptocoryne lucens, anubias barteri, anubias nana, Java fern, Amazon sword, dwarf Sagittaria, pogostemon stellatus octopus, tiger lotus bulb, and Java moss. The lucens and anubias aren’t really growing, the sagittaria and tiger lotus are growing ok,  the Java fern and Amazon sword aren’t doing the best, and the java moss and pogostemon are browning. I’ve tried using the suction hammock, but he didn’t interact with it and after the first week it wouldn’t stick to the walls. 

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