How to Entertain Your Betta Fish

Place enrichment items such as live plants in your betta's tank to keep him from getting bored.

Bettas are generally curious and social fish.These Siamese Fighting Fish have a degree of intelligence and are interesting little critters. The tiny bowls and cups in which they are shipped and sold are supposedly reminiscent of the tiny mud puddles in rice paddies in which these living jewels are found. Hopefully, they don't have to live in them long and they are liberated into much larger tanks when they arrive home.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• A Betta Fish
• Some ping-pong balls
• Balled up pieces of paper
• Various objects of shapes, colors, and sizes
• A mirror

1. Place a mirror by your betta's tank. Move it around from day to day. Hemera Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images

   Hold a mirror up to the side of your betta's tank. This is a typical way to get a reaction from your betta (especially males) as he will see himself and think it is a rival. This usually (but not always) triggers the fighting instinct and he will move about, waving his fins at the perceived rival. Also, his gills will expand (called flaring) and some bettas may get particularly hostile, attempting to attack the image. Though some betta fish bloggers believe this is teasing the fish, it is actually arousing his natural instinct and help him gain confidence. When you move the mirror away, he will think he won the fight.

2. Ping pong balls will float on the surface of the water. Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images

   Pop some ping-pong balls in the water. Wash them first if they were used for something else or you just bought them. Ping-pong balls will float and move around with the current, which can get your betta interested. Try to get balls of different colors because bettas can recognize colors and even have preferences (or hatreds) of certain colors.

3. Freeze brine shrimp in ice cubes and then place the ice cubes in your betta's tank. Only place one ice cube in the water so as not to bring down the water temperature too fast. Your betta may bat the ice cube around with his nose, and as the ice cube melts, your betta will eat the brine shrimp as it is released from the ice.

4. Place objects around the aquarium for your betta to look at. It may not seem like it, but they do notice a change in environment outside the aquarium, and changing what's in front of/behind/around the aquarium is a "change in environment" as far as their minds are concerned. Anything is fine. Small lamps, pictures, rocks, fish statuettes,candles, or colorful patterns. Your betta may even flare at it, especially if it has bright/multiple colors or patterns.

5. Dip a piece of thread in the tank to get it wet, then dip the thread into your betta's food container. The food will stick to the thread. Then hold the thread, and the bit of food, such as a dried worm, just above the water level to see if your betta will jump for it. Betta's are capable of catching insects in the air. Though your betta may never have done that because he never had to do so before, he has the capability and he may surprise you, and himself, in the process.

6. Add enrichment items such as tunnels, rocks, living plants and other aquarium items into his tank and rearrange them every few weeks to keep it fresh. Your betta likes to have a place to hide and places to explore. Adding and rearranging the "furniture" in his tank will keep things new for him.

Tips & Warnings

• You can move other things in the water like shoe strings and such if you hold them and drag them along the surface of the water. Often, you'll catch their attention and they'll chase it and/or flare at it. Your finger works well for this.

• Bettas have good memories. Once they see something, they can remember what it is and how they reacted to it last time. They also recognize when they are seeing something new.

• Be careful about what you put in their water. They can move pretty fast and suddenly when they want to. They might catch up to and try to eat/bite/attack whatever they are seeing. Try not to use something they might bite/swallow that would hurt them (using their food is okay if not over feeding, but a thumbtack would be a bad idea).

References

• Tropical Fish Keeping: Betta Buddies
• E Betta: How Well Do Betta Fish See?

Resources

• How To Entertain Your Betta Fish: Home