Apologies for any typos, posting from mobile
I posted about this a couple weeks ago, and the behavior hasn't changed. My betta fish (Rory) has been obsessed with the air stones in my 20 gallon community tank to the point where he is more concerned with protecting his 'territory' around the air stones than his preferred hiding spot. I recently reorganized the air stones so that one remains in the spot where he was previously protecting (first and second pic), and another one has been moved to an area in the tank where the schooling fish like to hang out (third pic). Now he seems even more obsessed with the one that was moved than the one I left in place. Should I be concerned with this at all? Is this normal betta fish behavior? Is he bored, dumb, or just exploring since I moved some stuff around? He appears perfectly healthy, and his diet and general non-overally aggressive demeanor have been consistent.
So far, he has had no interest in floating leaf hammocks near the surface of the tank, either in calm areas or near the air stones, nor does he really hang out in the floating log decoration I've added aside from getting his food there in the feeding hole.
He still approaches me whenever I come over to feed and his physical appearance hasn't changed, so I don't think he's sick or anything. Maybe just dumb, bored, or curious?
But this is my first community aquarium tank, so just wanted to see if any differing opinions are out there.
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1ey47km
Posted by sabeche
2 Comments
Current community tank fish. There were more cherry shrimp at first, but I fear Rory or the tetras may have eaten the smaller ones, so only 5 remain 🙁 But there has been no aggression or fin nipping from the tetras, and Rory doesn’t do much other than chase them off if they get too close. He has no issues with the corys or ottos in his space.
https://preview.redd.it/2tfb8ejpp3kd1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=61d6191a0ae8a131cf2bcab3f47a178117ecfb01
All good bettas are a healthy mix of the 3. But in all seriousness he’s most likely fine. I’m pretty new to the hobby so I could be wrong but from the research me’ve done betta fish pretty smart especially for fish. So they’re smart enough to wonder, be curious, like things, etc. if I had to guess he might like looking at the bubbles or the noise it makes.