# Help! Nonstop Flaring at Reflection?



## bluebeard (Jan 6, 2012)

Hi, I got my betta fish 2 days ago. 
He found his reflection on the sides of the tank pretty quickly and will NOT STOP flaring. At first I just left him alone to see if he would give it a rest but on the 2nd day he was still in the same spot, going crazy, and so I moved the tank and fiddled with the lighting. He found a new spot to fight his reflection and seems pretty stubborn about it. I'm scared he's going to run himself ragged!
Can bettas die from this? Is it stressful for him to be seeing his reflection constantly? Will he give up eventually or will it cause him to become ill? I've read A LOT of conflicting info... some sites say that flaring up stresses the fish out while other sites say it's healthy. Anyone have any input?? 
I have him in a 5 gallon, heated, filtered tank with tons of live plants. The tank itself has been cycling for a while and there's lots of other stuff in there to distract him... I thought maybe the plants would break up the reflection a bit, but he actually just swims right through them to get straight to the 'rival' betta.... below are two pictures of him glaring at his invisible evil twin, and the 3rd picture is of his tank.
His name is bluebeard 

Any advice or input will be appreciated. Thanks!


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## Roxy (Nov 16, 2011)

If you have a black background, or any dark colored background for that matter... he'll be able to look at his own relection and flare at it.

According to your picture, it seems that you do have a dark colored background.

Try removing it.


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## bluebeard (Jan 6, 2012)

Can't remove it. Bought the tank 2nd hand and the back is painted on.


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## newarkhiphop (Apr 22, 2011)

he will settle, my delta tail did the same the first few days in his kritter keeper, and even til today couple of weeks later, he will spend a good minute or two flaring @ himself, it goes aways eventually


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## bluebeard (Jan 6, 2012)

Good to know. Is flaring bad for them?


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## fishy friend2 (Aug 28, 2011)

only when they flare for prolonged periods of time, it stresses them out to much.


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## WiggleSwim (Dec 31, 2011)

mine does this too, minus the gill action, when his tank light is on. I decided to just turn on the overhead light next to his tank instead. Causes less distress and makes less heat on these rather warm January days.


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## newarkhiphop (Apr 22, 2011)

beautiful betta by the way where did you get him AB?


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## Banicks (Aug 20, 2011)

Very beautiful tank. Lucky dude has it all to himself!

After introduction period where it was very dark, Victor would flare at his reflection initially for a few days when lights were on. Only on and off though, he’d do a territory swim, come back and flare for a minute. Swim, flare. Rinse, repeat for a couple of days. Nothing I could do stopped him unless it was a completely dark environment. 

I staggered light exposure to slowly introduce himself to, himself…reflected. So for example, day 1 and 2 were no light. Day 3, one hour light. Day 4, two hours light and so on. He eventually caught on before I exposed a full days worth of sunlight.

If he is non stop flaring, you could do a one hour light, next day no light, 2 hour light, next day no light and such.


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## bluebeard (Jan 6, 2012)

Thanks for all the help! He finally settled in and isn't flaring anymore. Only occasionally does his reflection catch him by surprise, and very briefly. Nothing like before. I got him from the LFS, they have tons of amazing and healthy bettas... even their VTs are stunning. Their bettas always look so much happier than the ones at Petco or Walmart and I'd rather support the LFS than the big chains. He was only $5 too. I feel like I got pretty lucky :grin:


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