I've been doing an in fish cycle for my betta Lurtz and his snail friend Rusty Shackleford. Water parameters have been good. Im using seachem stability. Its a 10 gallon tank with an HOB filter and a handful of live plants i tossed in from a different tank today. The tank has been going for 1 week today. Lurtz just glass surfs for the most part. Is he bored? Stressed? Fiesty? Exploring? He does it to all sides but mostly the one I videoed. Its been a few years since I've had a betta so im relearning their habits.
https://v.redd.it/d4sf6kbftefg1
Posted by Hippieassbutt
2 Comments
definitely a little stressed imo. a lot of people will say he’s settling from being new which can be true but to an extent so it’s worth keeping an eye on. if you’re doing a fish in cycle it will be almost impossible to know if it’s something other than the water parameters until the cycle is done unless some other obvious symptom arises.
I will tell you what my experience was just so you have an anecdote from someone’s recent betta adoption. I posted a couple times worrying about glass surfing. I also noticed that it looked like she was doing something that kind of looks like flashing – that kind of erratic swimming back-and-forth.. because I was doing a fish in cycle pretty much everyone told me that it was the water parameters irritating her – it’s WHY a fish in cycle isnt recommended because it’s like torture for them 😅. but. Something in my gut told me that it wasn’t just that – but because that’s what everyone I asked plus all the research I did online indicated I sort of had to wait it out.
Finally, luckily my tank cycled but I felt like the symptoms were actually getting worse. I decided to do an API general cure treatment because I suspected parasites/flukes – which are common in pet store adopted betta. I also added an air stone because medications can deplete oxygen in the water.
She’s been a completely different fish since. She doesn’t surf at all anymore and no more erratic swimming.
I will say your light looks really bright compared to the ambient room which will increase reflections for her – the tank needs to be dimmer than the room. and I also found black tank liners made it worse and patterned was better.
Mine does this too. Probably being territorial with his reflection. I’m switching to a 20gal with lots of plants to break up the line of sight on the wall and give him much more space to claim territory other than the 5gal he’s currently in so he doesn’t feel like he needs to fight and stress out over such a small space. I’m hoping he relaxes after moving him.