Why does my Betta fish do this??

Question

I have a male betta fish and i have had him for two years now. I just saw him do something i have never seen him do before ( or i just never noticed it.) Immediately after i fed him, he opend his gills around his face/head (whatever) and it looked like a "crown" i guess you could call it that went all the way around his face. What does this mean? I was watching him eat through the side of the tank, was he maybe intimidated by me watching him or something?? I dont know.. maybe you do

Answer 1

You triggered his territorial response. Some more aggressive bettas do this all the time. I wouldn't worry. I generally reccomend giving a betta a 1/2 hour of mirror 1-2 times a week. It keeps them more active, and they seem to enjoy it. (My males get a 1/2 hour of smack talk time twice a week. Generally it's followed by an afternoon of bubble nest building.)

Answer 2

Bettas are territorial. In the wild they do that to make themselves look bigger to intimidate enemies. Your betta is fine. Nothing is wrong with him, he may be scared of something in your house. Since you kept him for a long time, he recognizes your face and it's most not likely that he's scared of you. It's still possible that he's scared because of how big you are if you've only shown your face to him so far. Maybe he's showing off. I hoped this helped.
:)

Answer 3

In the wild, when a male betta is confronted by another male, he responds by flaring out the gill covers (operculum) and showing the underlying branchiostegal membrane (that beard thingy!) to his competitor. Flaring makes him appear larger and more fierce to his would-be aggressor than he would otherwise look. Pet male bettas may flare at their food, at each other, at reflection, at certain colors and often enough at people too. Males will flare at females as part of the courting behavior during spawning. Females sometimes will flare too.
A

Answer 4

Bettas do this all the time. They stretch thier tail and fins out and puff up thier gills. They do it when they see another fish and sometimes do it when the see a finger. But some of mine do it for no reason, or no reason that I can think of.

Answer 5

Betta fish are fighting fish so maybe he got intimidated by you being right there..

Answer 6

He most certainly is defending his territory and feeding grounds. They're cool fish that's for sure. I had one that lived eight years. He didn't do much of that behavior, so you've got a feisty little devil!

Answer 7

That's just a male display. It is like a peacock opening up his tail feathers. Hold a mirror up to the bowl and he will do it again.

He is making himself look bigger.

Answer 8

http://www.forumsvibe.com/betta/index.php?mforum=betta

bettachris has been breeding/selling/and researching bettas for the past 12 years.

http://www.freewebs.com/bettachris/index.htm

that is his main betta only site, the first is the forum where you can reach him faster.

Answer 9

i hav a male betta too and it thinks that it is getting territorial ..... nothing bad :)

Answer 10

you have a cool beta. one of my sister's beta hid in the shell, it got trapped & died. and we bought her a new beta, and it doesn't do anything so cool as your betta..