# Your Betta's Personality



## Poltergeist (Jan 25, 2010)

I know many people have bettas, and bettas are known for their unique personalities. 
My yellow betta, Nos, a yellow veil-tail, is about 3 years old and full of energy. He seems to be constantly hungry, even though I feed him twice every day. He seems to take everything by flow, not much scares him, even if I have to stick my hand in his tank or close a drawer on the dresser his tank sits on. He loves the sight of me...but my face. Anybodies face for that matter. If you hunker down and stare at him, he flares his little gills at you. He must not like the way people look, or just dosn't like being stared at! :icon_roll

Jasper, my new blue/white crown-tail betta is still adjusting to the way things go around here...he seems very playful and loves to have staring contests with the 3 ghost shrimp that inhabit his tank. He casually touches them with his tail or mouth (not in an aggressive way at all) and watches them sproing away, looking pleased with himself.
Seeing my hand hover over his tank still seems to spook him from time to time, and even a little accidental bump to his tank sends him across it. He is still adjusting, and I hope to learn more about him as he gets comfortable. 
He is not aggressive in the slightest, not once flaring at me or his shrimp buddies. Hes pretty young, as he is smaller then Nos. 

Tell me about your bettas! :icon_smil What are they like, and how long did it take for them to adjust to you?


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## paludarium freak (Jan 26, 2010)

I have two bettas myself... Mine are pretty calm. One is red named Strawberry and one is blue named Blueberry. I also have a Hermit Crab in a 10 gallon tank but Im planning on doing a Paludarium with it and put my Bettas and buy Red Claw Crab...


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

I had a few female bettas that would greet me by nibbling on me when I do maintenance on the tank.

I think the girls have more personality, more interactive.


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## isu712 (Jan 11, 2008)

I have a female betta named Sam. She has a monstrous appetite and is full of energy. She goes crazy every time I come close to the tank. Every once in a while she will nibble on me when I'm doing maintenance in the tank too.


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## GlassCat594 (Mar 20, 2009)

I had a female betta that would jump out of the water and nibble your finger when placed by the water. It was so cool and very funny. RIP Bertha

I have both a female and male right now at work. The female is named "Free-Free" because I used a petco 2$ coupon to buy her, and i got another 2$ coupon on that transaction.

the male betta i have right now is pretty tame. I have had some that flare up when u get near them as a way to try and get you to feed him.


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## Phoenix-cry (Dec 25, 2008)

I have a TON of betta and *each* one has it's own personality.

There is my SUPER aggressive female red dragon halfmoon (more aggressive than any of my males).

There are my Giants, which are fairly passive about anything going on.

There are my two halfmoon plakats, that think they are tough as nails and always flare, even at me.

My red dragon halfmoon male is a shy boy, but a great father.

My crowntail female is very, very shy.

My king plakat is lazy, but flares big when he's in the mood.

My halfmoon butterfly is a pretty boy, he swims, stops, flares, swims, stops, flares, all day.

My baby fry are all as bold as the day is long!

Giggle


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## stelci (Jan 26, 2010)

My red male, Betta Fett, is gorgeous and funny. He is in a one gal. glass cube in my kitchen. He is so social and interested in everything I am doing. Just recently we started buying sushi roe for our Mandarin in our saltwater tank and I figured that the betta might like it. Needless to say he went crazy for it and now eats right out of a plastic spoon. He won't touch his pellets at first anymore. It's like he's waiting for more fish eggs! I had to start giving him roe every other day so he would eat the pellets.
He has two live plants that he sleeps in. It is so cute to see him laying on the foliage after a big meal of roe.


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## psybock (Jan 12, 2007)

I had a dragon plakat when they first started appearing locally and that thing had a napoleon complex. As long as no one came in his 6x6x6 inch cube of water in the semi aggressive tank he was in they were fine. As soon as they came into his territory he would chase them to the other side of the tank biting at them the whole time... fish twice his size swam in fear of him...however, if he was visiting the other side of the tank he was nice as could be, unless a fish swam into his vacant territory. I saw him swim like a bullet one day to his territory when a moonlight gourami entered it, even though he was on the complete other side of the tank...


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## paludarium freak (Jan 26, 2010)

My males eat alot... And I mean alot, I feed them 4 times a day and the food is gone in 5 mins


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

I used to have a bright blue Plakat Heart Tail male a while back that would pluck hairs out of my arm when I was cleaning his tank.


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## Matthew Gabrielse (Jan 23, 2010)

Herman is a very bizarre pretty boy. He spends most of his day staring and flaring at himself, he's been staring at his reflection for about the last half hour. He'll swim back and forth a lot with his fins spread as far as they can go. Then he'll just flop down on the wood and lie motionless. One time he even dove full speed into the stem plant forest, wedged himself between some of the plants and remained completely vertical, facing the ground, for about fifteen minutes. Every time my hand goes in the water he seems to have this uncontrollable desire to be near me, he's constantly in my way. 

He makes me laugh frequently.


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## x2h (Dec 23, 2008)

my male betta fish, "Alpha", has no personality.  I guess life is boring for him.

I used to have a turtle (red slider) that would eat food off of my finger tip though.


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## GTR (May 27, 2009)

^^^^

I'm with you, both of ours act like fish.

lol

SteveU


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

I've got a Black-Copper halfmoon plakat male - super aggressive and will flare at anything. Super active as well. Very rough with the ladies, but they like him in the end. Not so good of a father. At least he hasn't proven it to me yet. 

Green Red dragon HM plakat male - a bit more passive and shows off to only his females. Gentle with the females. Very good father. 

Blue dragon HM plakat male - very mellow and is a ladies man. All my females love him. Decent father, just a bit lazy.


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## mumushummus (Sep 16, 2009)

I had two blue betta males, one is still alive is the dominant one, the other one who pased out last summer, was a very cool dude he survived for about 4 or 5 hours on the kitchen floor one day when he jumpt out from his separated tank, he was very docile one always come and beg for a little treat! lol!
RIP my dear fish!


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## AshleySix (Dec 18, 2009)

I am a victim of the bettas with neverending pits of stomachs.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

don't feed your beta too much.. skip a day even.

Have you guys taught your betas to jump yet?
Dangle its favorite food an inch or 2 above the water surface and watch it jump for the food. I used to put little bits of raw shrimp on the end of a tooth pick.


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## florafan (Jan 21, 2006)

I also find the females tend to have more personality. Right now I have 4 and the crowntail girl is both curious and fearless. When I do water changes, she is there right against the siphon tube watching the gravel moving inside the siphon. The boys will dart away. All of them are super attentive at meal time. My yellow super delta boy is in a tank near the patio door and every morning when I pull the blinds he is expecting to be fed.


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## Bettalover13 (Jan 8, 2012)

*Help*

I just got two male bettas last week. I know this is probably bad but im not entirely sure what kind they are.

One of them is named Aaron. He's a smaller red betta but some some lighting his scales look like they have a hint of green. He's very la-di-da, like his in his own little world but he's also very shy. always hiding under his pink plant.

The other is Ryan. He is much bigger then Aaron and much more beautiful. his body is a whiteish purple, his fins start out blue towards the body but then fade into a bright read and his head is like a black color. He is always flaring at Aaron and whenever i wake up in the morning he's always there to greet me.

Neither of them like to be touched much and they don't seem to eat a lot. I'm not totally sure if thats normal since ive only had a few bettas before them but sometimes i worry. the tips of their fins are starting to loose color and I don't know what to do. i clean their cages regularly and make sure to feed them but they only seem to eat one pellet. Ryan also constantly rams into the divider in the tank and im worried that might hurt him. please help me. :frown: if i need to ill see if i can post any pictures.


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## Storm (Aug 7, 2011)

Hi Bettalover13 - it usually takes bettas a little while to get used to a new type of food, so don't be discouraged if they don't eat much at first. They will get used to it after a short time.

Can the bettas see each other through the divider in the tank? If one male betta can see the other one, it might cause aggression which could cause them to hurt themselves by ramming into the divider. A lot of betta breeders put dividers between their tanks so that the bettas can't see each other, so they don't try to fight the fish in the next tank. Try to block off the view if you can.

Bettas are pretty easy to take care of. Just change some of their water once weekly, keep their water heated to 78 degrees or so, and feed daily, and they're usually very hardy.


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## Storm (Aug 7, 2011)

My betta has a real personality. He is constantly flaring and very territorial. If you get near his tank he reminds me of a dog when the mailman walked into the yard... Also, the flow in my tank is a little fast for him - it's a Fluval spec, so he likes to rest on the plants. He would often swim really fast and wedge himself in between two plants, or foreground plants and gravel, just to gain a nice resting spot where he doesn't need to constantly swim against the current.

Also, he doesn't like pellets, but he does like flake food. It's funny because I will put 1 or 2 flakes on the surface every morning. He will swim up, and eat one, just attack and inhale the whole flake like a ravenous beast, but then, if there are more flakes, he will just ignore them after that. It's like he got his fill, and he doesn't want any more. I had to really control myself not to feed him too much, or it will just fall to the bottom of his tank and I have to vacuum it out.

Bettas are wonderful fish - I've never seen fish with such personalities. Also, when you take good care of them, their colors and fins become much more beautiful than when you see them in the pet store in those tiny plastic cups.


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## Jaguar (Oct 13, 2011)

My $3 Petsmart betta, Dalton, is a complete ham... He sleeps in the most awkward places, usually jammed behind the sponge cover on my filter intake. Also on the bottom of the tank... scares me because he looks dead. But as soon as he hears the vibrations from me moving or touching the tank, he bolts to the surface to beg for food. He flares at random things, and chases the shrimp/rasboras in his tank, but he's never inflicted real damage on them lol.


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## Eldachleich (Jul 9, 2011)

I have a knack for picking complacent bettas... 
They love to say hi and explore the tank. Normally they have some odd habits.
The one in my betta bowl goes around the tank after a water change and picks up all the pieces of duckweed stuck to the plants and carefully places them back at the surface.. its cute...
They never react to anything though. They just swim up slowly and look at me for a minute before swimming away. They wont even flare at other betta's... Its always been like that.. The cool thing is that I can pair them with anything I want. 
Not my friends betta.. hes super active.. super super active.. darts everywhere and flares at everything. She tried adding a nerite once... It didn't go well at all..


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## TheJadeShrimp (Oct 13, 2011)

My crowntail. female is a little Explorer. She is all over my 25 gallon. But she always comes up to me and begs for food.

My veiltail male is kinda boring. He comes up and greets me. But he mostly stays by the internal filter.


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## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

I keep a betta in the water part of my emersed tank. So far he seems pretty chill, but I can't get him to flare. He made a bubble nest once, but I destroyed it when cleaning his tank. I feel like I need to get him a lady. I think he could have a tankmate, considering he is in like 20-30g by himself with a 4'x2' footprint :hihi:

I am now going to see if I can get him to flare 

-Caton


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## Calmia22 (Aug 20, 2011)

I have a platinum white halfmoon. He believes that Bacopa is a tasty treat. He will grab at a bigger leaf and pull at it till he gets it off, then spends the rest of the day pecking at it. He ironically leaves the shrimp in the tank alone. Go figure.


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## allaboutfish (Oct 14, 2011)

my betta, Poseidon, is very calm and lazy, he kinda seems bored alot (which is why he's being upgrade to a 10 gallon with some tankmates), he doesnt get very excited with food either. he's just very laid back.


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## Big O (Jun 28, 2011)

stelci said:


> My red male, Betta Fett, is gorgeous and funny. He is in a one gal. glass cube in my kitchen. He is so social and interested in everything I am doing. Just recently we started buying sushi roe for our Mandarin in our saltwater tank and I figured that the betta might like it. Needless to say he went crazy for it and now eats right out of a plastic spoon. He won't touch his pellets at first anymore. It's like he's waiting for more fish eggs! I had to start giving him roe every other day so he would eat the pellets.
> He has two live plants that he sleeps in. It is so cute to see him laying on the foliage after a big meal of roe.


HAHAHA!
My Betta sleeps under his anubias leaves.First time I seen him do that I thought he was dead. I've tried taking a picture, but he feels me creeping up on him.


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

I have had two. Neither were aggressive at all. One was territorial and stayed in one spot, but never really went after anyone, just passively held his spot. My other one was really active, went all around the tank, but was super oblivious to every tank mate. Both were males. Unfortunately both jumped, one in an open top, one with a full hood, found a gap where the filter was, not even sure how he got through. Now that all my tanks are open top, I am scared to try a betta again.


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## Naekuh (Oct 19, 2011)

my betta according to my brother looks gross because he's big... but then again, he's old now... i think close to 3yrs... He's a fairly large crowntail... i think his body alone is roughly 2 inches without the tail additions... so yeah, he's large... 

He's also lazy as hell, and he pulls a tantrum if i change something in his tank. 
He will attack the tweezers i use, or my hand if i try to wipe the glass... He just doesnt want me to touch his tank period. 

He spends most of his time chilling on his favorate leaf... 
one time i had to trim that leaf because it was started to collect algae, and oh man was he pissed. 

Everytime he saw me he would flare up vs his normal "whats up" routine he would give me, until a new leaf grew out where he could chill on that. 
Its like stealing the lazy boy off a couch potato and then getting the backlash... 

But yeah... he's like a cat... once he finds a chill spot, its game overs for him...


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## JAM611 (Mar 13, 2012)

*Butch :c)*

My betta's name is Butch. He has a really dynamic personality. All my friends think I'm crazy, but I'm serious--this fish is nuts. I've had him for a year and a half. Shortly after I got him, my roommate decided it would be funny to stick a bright pink knitting needle into his bowl and see what he did. Butch attacked the knitting needle, and I've never seen him puff up at anything ever again. However, every time my roommate approached his bowl after that, he would swim as far away from her as he could. 

This last winter my husband and I were gone for 2 weeks. I asked my old roommate to watch Butch and about 4 days into our trip she texted me and told me he had stopped eating. That is NOT like him at all. I began to worry, but knew there was nothing I could do. When we came back from our trip he was still alive--he must have eaten SOMETHING. I fed him immediately when we got back and as soon as he realized we were home he began to eat. Ever since, every time I come toward his bowl he swims back and forth a TON until I pay attention to him. And every time I pick up his food container he freaks out--but he doesn't eat until I pay attention to him.

Anyone else have a similar experience?


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## ucantimagine (Jan 8, 2012)

My boy Junebug is attracted to pink also. He will follow this pink drink stirrer everytime he sees it. He doesn't flare at it, he just watches it. He was laid back as a teenager but now he's pretty rough. He was co-habitating with a female for a couple months, but then he went from following her sometimes to chasing her a lot so they are separated now. He flips out over bloodworms and will cram 3 big ones in his mouth at one time. lol


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## ucantimagine (Jan 8, 2012)

I won't encourage my fish to jump. I lost a pretty pink girl like that.  She was a jumper.


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## Rosie211 (Nov 25, 2014)

My little guy, kain, is very energetic. He used to be shy but now he's bursting with energy. Though he still seems skittish when I do mantiance, he loves being played with, and when I put his tank near me while watching TV hell swim to the side and watch it with me! He's a halfmoon rosetail, and is a beauty.


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## Kstephens61 (Jul 11, 2015)

*Baby betta*

I have a baby beta that is very chill and calm he likes to stare at me when I enter my room I have had him for seven months and he still looks like a baby with the colors of an adult it's so funny 😂 his name is Leonardo but I believe he may actually be a girl because of his size. I hope to get him/her a companion soon. Any suggestions?


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