# My Betta is now terrified of me.



## Vladrick (May 14, 2018)

I Just bought a Betta - he has been with me now for about 5 days. He perked up and has been a happy little fish. I even have a tank ordered that should be here in a few days to give him even more space. But today something unpleasant happened. Some friends on Facebook wished to see him, so I tried to take a photo of him. But he started acting like he was absolutely terrified. 

I had been getting near his tank (talking to him like a moron) putting my finger on the glass, and he would come up to it and follow it, would float there and look at me intently. I know he is just a fish but I was starting to see a personality in him. But when he saw me with that camera he freaked out big time, and I mean big time. He tried to burrow himself into the gravel, and jumped outta the water twice, bashing his poor head into the tank lid. Now when I get near his tank (without the camera). He is still behaving that way. He also knew and could see his food bowl, and before when I saw me reaching for it, he would swim under the feeding hole in the lid. Now when ive tried to feed him he is doing what he was doing when he saw me with the camera. 

I could understand where he would be afraid of the camera, it was a very bright red color. But now hes associating that fear with me, and I am incredibly worried that this will continue. So I am asking if this will wear off over time. It hurt my feelings to bad at the thought of making him permanently afraid of me, that I have cried a little. (a 33y.o. man). So if there is anyone out there that can help me by assuring me it will pass given time - I would appreciate it.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Welcome to the Forum! :wave:

Give him some time and wait at least a week before you try to take a photo. If you have a photo editing program you can take the photo from a distance and zoom in to edit out all but your Betta.


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## Vladrick (May 14, 2018)

Tanks (see what I done there) for the welcome.

Actually I just got up and started walking around his tank and he swam up to inspect me like he had been doing prior. I can tell he is still a little skittish so I didn't make any sudden movements, which was quite pleasing for me to know that he is "getting over it". As for pictures for the future, after today I am not even going to attempt to again. (all I have is a poor quality camera on a Kindle Fire - so I have to get close or it will look blurry). So I told my friends if they wanted to see him they will just have to come visit me. But he is a gorgeous little thing. a Silver/Lilac body with royal purple fins.


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## mjfa (Apr 23, 2018)

Turn-off the flash and the red eye reducing light when taking pictures of your fishes.


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## Vladrick (May 14, 2018)

The camera hadn't even been turned on yet. I was holding it, getting ready to turn it on. But when he started acting terrified I just immediately put it down.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Vladrick said:


> The camera hadn't even been turned on yet. I was holding it, getting ready to turn it on. But when he started acting terrified I just immediately put it down.


This is why I said to wait a week.


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## Vladrick (May 14, 2018)

I actually just realized my Kindle Fire can zoom in to take a shot (I had never really played around with any of the other features on it, just had used it for reading) that I plan on trying to utilize to take a picture of him after his new tank comes tomorrow. After that incident - I was not going to attempt to take a picture again. But we will see how well the zoom works on the Kindle Fire. I know innately the Kindle Fire (without zooming) takes blurry photos. My computer is also a gaming rig that I built myself, so I don't have programs on it for photos to try to edit them. (I didn't like the idea of useless programs on my rig that would bog down my RAM and CPU that could effect my games frame rates). So we will see eventually about actually taking a photo of him and posting it on here.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Photoscape is a free program I use that might not be too intrusive into your system. However, I know absolutely nothing about such so I could be totally off base.


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## Tree (Sep 29, 2013)

No worries, it frustrates me when my fish do the same thing. all of my fish but one come up to the glass to say hello. I have two bettas, and Neon Tetras and Corys. It's my Puffer that is skittish and it makes me kinda bummed. lol but like RussellTheShihTzu said, wait a week until he chills and use a zoom.


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