# Darting around and playing dead at the sight of me?!?!



## bettabetter (Sep 26, 2012)

hi, it's been a while and generally my betta fish, Leo, was doing amazing! he can now swim through a hoop :-D
But yesterday he did something that really alarmed me... i was just feeding him a pellet when all of a sudden the sight of my hand seemed to alarm him, and he began darting around the aquarium. He then proceeded to hide in a corner behind the filter and play dead. this really scared me, he has never done this in the past... i didn't even know they could do that and i thought he was really dead for a second 
anyway, I left him to go to sleep overnight, and in the morning he seemed okay, but then as soon as I tried to give him breakfast (he gets food in the morning and at night) he saw my hand again, and he did the same thing again. since then he has just been darting wildly at the sight of me. 
I am not sure, but i think that this may be caused by my nails, I painted them a dark blue, the exact same color that Leo is, and i think that the bright colors are alarming him, because he did not do it when my mom tried to play with him.
Any help or other suggestions on what might be causing this strange darting??? it's making me very sad, he normally loves the sight of me :-(


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## Fishy Mom (Feb 11, 2013)

Did you try taking the nail polish off yet?


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## Bettafish (Apr 20, 2009)

Try taking the nail polish off. he just miht think that your finger is a giant betta staring at him. w


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## waterdog (Dec 31, 2012)

Most fish don't like dark colors overhead. Think of wild fish having to watch overhead for birds feeding on them.
Hey, just a theory!


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## bettabetter (Sep 26, 2012)

waterdog said:


> Most fish don't like dark colors overhead. Think of wild fish having to watch overhead for birds feeding on them.
> Hey, just a theory!


okay, but it is weird... i have always had my nails painted. but he does seem to be better today, i think i will take off the nail polish and then see how it goes


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## SolomonFinch (Dec 22, 2012)

WOW!
That is so interesting! I never thought of fish perceiving color...but what a neat experiment! I know it wasn't neat for you, LOL but that really is cool.
Playing dead... I believe it. Betta's seem so much more intelligent than other fish... 
I wish you could have recorded that.


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## Demysta (Nov 24, 2012)

My bettas are the same, too. They react very strongly if they see a certain colour near them. My old betta responded very strongly whenever he would see anything bright pink or green - he would flare right up for minutes at a time! I think its kind of cute and funny to see. XD My male Orpheus reacts that way when he sees the colour black. He'll swim away like a little chicken, but then come back in full force and flare like there's no tomorrow!


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## bettabetter (Sep 26, 2012)

Demysta said:


> My bettas are the same, too. They react very strongly if they see a certain colour near them. My old betta responded very strongly whenever he would see anything bright pink or green - he would flare right up for minutes at a time! I think its kind of cute and funny to see. XD My male Orpheus reacts that way when he sees the colour black. He'll swim away like a little chicken, but then come back in full force and flare like there's no tomorrow!


Wow thats so cool  that would be a very neat experiment, if i wasn't so scared for my fish playing dead


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## bettabetter (Sep 26, 2012)

UPDATE: i took of the nail polish a few days ago, and i didn't post again because I thought everything was all better, yet today he has been sulking near the bottom, and i tried to play with him, but he flipped out again! I'm pretty sure it's not the color thing anymore... he didn't play dead this time, just darts around, and then goes back to sulking at the bottom, only coming up for air. whats wrong with him?!?! someone help please


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## Fishy Mom (Feb 11, 2013)

Did you remove or change the decor in his tank since this started?


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## bettabetter (Sep 26, 2012)

Fishy Mom said:


> Did you remove or change the decor in his tank since this started?


no actually it started a week ago right after i did clean his tank 100% and change the decor, but i haven't changed it since then


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## Fishy Mom (Feb 11, 2013)

bettabetter said:


> no actually it started a week ago right after i did clean his tank 100% and change the decor, but i haven't changed it since then


If you changed the decor, maybe you could try changing it back. My VT boy plays dead if I take his heater out first before cupping him for a water change, if I take out a decoration he likes, or put in a decoration he doesn't like. He's a bit dramatic & spoiled, lol.


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## bettabetter (Sep 26, 2012)

Fishy Mom said:


> If you changed the decor, maybe you could try changing it back. My VT boy plays dead if I take his heater out first before cupping him for a water change, if I take out a decoration he likes, or put in a decoration he doesn't like. He's a bit dramatic & spoiled, lol.


wow thats funny! my fish is very spoiled too... he actually didn't like the plant i put in last week, it didn't hide him as well as he liked, and so i changed it to his favorite ones!
also I change them every week, and nothing has ever happened before like this.


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## Fishy Mom (Feb 11, 2013)

bettabetter said:


> wow thats funny! my fish is very spoiled too... he actually didn't like the plant i put in last week, it didn't hide him as well as he liked, and so i changed it to his favorite ones!
> also I change them every week, and nothing has ever happened before like this.


You have a spoiled boy too. The more you describe his personality the more I think you changed something that he wanted to stay. I'll try taking my boy's heater out first during his next water change in a few days & see if I can get a pic of him playing dead. Then we can compare notes on our spoiled boys.


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## Destinystar (May 26, 2012)

Perseus flips out when he sees the color blue as in the lib on the jar of the NLS pellets. He just goes wild and starts flaring and swimming around like a shark...lol


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## Stone (Jan 6, 2013)

I have a betta named "spoiled brat" he threw a tantrum when I moved his tank location, he hid the whole time, would only come out when it was feeding time and had clamped fins, I had to move the tank back by where my girlfriend sits and works at her computer, as long as he is within about 5 feet of her he is fine, I can change his tank whats in hios tank or anything I want to, but to move him away from her and he flips out.....


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## Picasso84 (Feb 11, 2013)

Yea, my guy flips, & dances, & flares when he sees the color red... He knows its feeding time.... And the one time I tried to put in a totally red silk plant, he flared at it all day... I took it out, cuz I thought maybe it was gonna stress him! But, when I put in a plant that has a red tinge w/ green, and slightly purple on it, he's fine! Lol ...Wacky Fish  

@Stone: LMAO! That is hilarious!!  You might have to go find a new g.f. Cuz I think urs has been stolen! Lol


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## Blue Fish (Jun 11, 2012)

He may still be pouting over the blue color/your hands. Mine get irritated if I have to cup them for any reason, and will pout for a week or so afterwards, darting away just like you described when I feed them. 

One thing I realized yesterday which really shocked me was that mine notice far more than I had ever realized about their environment. Three of my tanks are close together, and the fish can, presumably, see one another in the different tanks. (I have no idea how good their eyesight is.) I cupped one fish out of one tank...and the others in the OTHER TANKS darted and got stressed over the single cupping in a different tank, several feet away. They saw what had happened to Somerset, and were stressed that it might be going to happen to them as well. I had no idea they were that observant about things happening a fair distance away, and in *another tank* from their own environment.


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## Fishy Mom (Feb 11, 2013)

LOL 

These stories about betta tantrums are cracking me up. Is it me or are the boys more dramatic than girls?

Blue fish, I found out how good their eye sight was when I came downstairs & my baby matured overnight. Her tank was several feet away on the opposite counter in my kitchen from my boy. I came down one morning to my boy pacing with the biggest, most dense bubble nest I've ever seen him build & my girl was pacing sporting her breeding stripes. 

Bettabetter, did you figure out what is causing it yet?


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## sainthogan (Sep 27, 2012)

My male sulks if anything changes in his environment, inside or outside. He sulked when I upgraded his tank, then he sulked when his Lilly bulb sprouted leaves, until he realized he could sleep on them. Now he's sulking because the some of the leaves are starting to die. He sulked when I changed the scenery outside of his tank, they were pictures of my friends. He stared at the area where they were until I put them back, then he perked back up again.
My female on the other hand, loves scenery changes and gets very excited anytime I change anything in or near her tank.


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## bettabetter (Sep 26, 2012)

One thing I realized yesterday which really shocked me was that mine notice far more than I had ever realized about their environment. Three of my tanks are close together said:


> I have observed that there eyesight is actually really amazing! yesterday I was sitting on my bed across the room from my fish and I stretched my arms up and he went crazy (he knows that if i put my arms above the tank he gets food) ;-)


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## bettabetter (Sep 26, 2012)

Fishy Mom said:


> LOL
> 
> These stories about betta tantrums are cracking me up. Is it me or are the boys more dramatic than girls?
> 
> ...


well he has seemed to relax and calm down now that I took it off, I do think it was just the nail polish  I have done so more research and found that if i wear a blue long sleeve shirt and try to play with him he flips out again!


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## Fishy Mom (Feb 11, 2013)

bettabetter said:


> well he has seemed to relax and calm down now that I took it off, I do think it was just the nail polish  I have done so more research and found that if i wear a blue long sleeve shirt and try to play with him he flips out again!


Well, you can never wear a blue shirt in your home again. Your fishy will not allow it, lol. I'm glad you figured out what was causing it.


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## katmandew (Jan 17, 2013)

*darting around tank is this normal?*

I recently set up a 28 gallon bow front aquarium, did a fishless cycle and when it was ready I added my two headlight tetras to it. After a couple days I bought another one and they all seemed to get along. Last Saturday I bought two more and again they all seemed to get along. The one I bought by itself is much smaller and I worry he isn't eating enough even when I drop the food right in front of him but I have seen him manage to get a couple bites before the others took it all.

Here is the problem (maybe, maybe not), I noticed last night one of the fish is darting around the tank, up and down and across. I inspected them all the best I could and I don't see any signs of ick or anything else odd on their bodies and he doesn't seem to be rubbing against anything. I checked the temperature and it's 77.4 and that stays pretty much consistent. Tested the water and the ph is 7.6, ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrates between 20 and 40, hard to match the color but not excessive. I have a few plants, java moss, water wisteria, small sword, anubias and a moss ball. The water has a slight odor of dirt which I understand is normal in a healthy tank.

All of them at one time or another swim up and down the sides of the tank because I think they see their reflection and are trying to swim with the reflection. I feed them flakes once a day and very little hits the bottom, they all seem to eat good and come straight up to the top when I open the hood. The runt doesn't seem to eat as much but he seems fine. There does seem to be some aggression or perhaps playing with each other by chasing each other around.

Has anyone else had a problem with a fish darting around the tank? Is this normal behavior? Am I missing something or just being paranoid? I'm new at this but have learned a lot from this forum and do my best to monitor everything and keep up with maintenance. I did a pwc a couple days ago so I really don't think there's any problems with my water. Any thoughts on this behavior?


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## katmandew (Jan 17, 2013)

*hello??? anyone??*



katmandew said:


> I recently set up a 28 gallon bow front aquarium, did a fishless cycle and when it was ready I added my two headlight tetras to it. After a couple days I bought another one and they all seemed to get along. Last Saturday I bought two more and again they all seemed to get along. The one I bought by itself is much smaller and I worry he isn't eating enough even when I drop the food right in front of him but I have seen him manage to get a couple bites before the others took it all.
> 
> Here is the problem (maybe, maybe not), I noticed last night one of the fish is darting around the tank, up and down and across. I inspected them all the best I could and I don't see any signs of ick or anything else odd on their bodies and he doesn't seem to be rubbing against anything. I checked the temperature and it's 77.4 and that stays pretty much consistent. Tested the water and the ph is 7.6, ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrates between 20 and 40, hard to match the color but not excessive. I have a few plants, java moss, water wisteria, small sword, anubias and a moss ball. The water has a slight odor of dirt which I understand is normal in a healthy tank.
> 
> ...


thoughts?? anyone? please??


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## DoctorWhoLuver (Feb 23, 2012)

It might be a better idea to make your own thread...
Unfortunately, I'm no help with tetras X]


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## katmandew (Jan 17, 2013)

ok thanks anyway


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