As elders say, buying is easy and maintaining is difficult; it correctly suits the betta fish hobby. Many betta fish keepers often have their bettas fall into stress and boredom, thereby leading to illness. All of us want our bettas to be happy, except Betta Vets, 🙂 lol.
You can provide a healthy environment, but keeping your betta happy is different. Follow the below enrichment tips to keep your betta happy with you.
I’m sure that you cannot find this type of detailed content related to these topics anywhere else, so consider reading till the end.
Welcome to AngryFishes, I’m Thaha, and let’s get started.
Do Betta Fish Get Bored?
The short answer is, yes, Betta fish do get bored while growing up in a tank. To solve the boredom, people often introduce tankmates to the betta, but over time, it won’t be effective since betta fish are aggressive and often engage in conflicts with their tank mates.
So, keeping snails is one of the choices to have peaceful betta tankmates. But it is not guaranteed to solve the betta’s boredom.
Betta beginners often neglect this boredom; however, the reality is that boredom steadily develops into stress, and stress develops into disease. So, you will learn how to keep your betta fish happy in the section below. Stay tuned.
Reasons & Effect of Betta’s Boredom:
The main reasons for boredom in Betta Fish are loneliness, lack of entertainment, or insufficient attention from the owner. So, it is simple to solve boredom by playing with your betta daily and spending quality time with it (as shown in the above pictures).
If you neglect your betta’s boredom, it will lead to stress. In this case, the betta will develop stress both mentally and physically. The color of its tail and body may fade, and the betta will appear tired and less energetic. It may also start refusing to eat food at times. If the situation continues, there is a high chance of losing your betta.
Methods to keep your betta fish happy
The methods to enrich the betta’s life can be achieved through two methods:
- Providing a good tank environment
- Adding toys and decor items for playtime.
It is understandable that if you’re looking for ways to keep your betta happy, it’s highly likely that you already have a good tank environment (I assume). So, I will provide more enrichment ideas regarding toys and decor to keep your betta happy.
Good tank environments:
When you provide the betta with a good tank size, conditioned water, suitable tank parameters, good filtration, and lighting, you are doing things correctly about 90%. The remaining 10% involves the feeding method.
If you feed your betta too frequently and with excessive food, it will face difficulty in digesting the food, often leading to constipation problems or bloated stomach disease. Consequently, it may become bored with the tank and resentful of its life.
Therefore, it is suggested to feed your betta 4 to 5 pellets with a time interval of 7 to 8 hours.
Introducing Toys for Your Betta:
Similar to indoor and outdoor games for humans, bettas can also happily enjoy their time with different types of toys and activities. Many of them are addressed here.
Playing with your betta:
Bettas are human-friendly; they often interact with humans. Give your betta fish a name that reflects its character or color, and use that name regularly when interacting with it during playtime or feeding. Here are some ideas to keep your betta fish happy by playing with them:
- Keep your hands close to the tank and move them for the betta to follow.
- Repeat this action and reward them with a treat, like one pellet. They will learn to follow your hand (Follow this Guide to train your betta fish to follow fingers).
Another method is using a stick with contrasting colors.
- Repeat the same action as you did with your hands.
- If your betta follows the stick, it shows active interaction and makes them happy. So, try to play with them regularly.
Caves type decors:
Placing cave-type decors such as collaged stones or driftwood is good enrichment for a betta fish tank. This allows the betta to explore hidden spaces in the tank and makes them happy to swim through the gaps, which imitate natural habitats.
Additionally, placing some cave-type decors can be beneficial for the growth of beneficial bacteria.
Adding a sinking betta log:
There are plenty of ideas out there for you to make a custom sinking log for betta fish, and the best part is, you can create one yourself too. This is so simple, handy, and entertaining for betta fish. Also, there are listings available for this type of log for bettas.
Once you introduce this, the betta will love to explore it and enjoy spending time in it. Make sure to change its position when you clean the tank, so the betta can have prolonged entertainment and happiness.
By adding a log, bettas can have some private space. Betta fish also sleep often, so the addition of this log idea can be great for your betta to take some rest.
Betta tunnels:
Here comes the tunnel for your betta idea. Yep, adding a tunnel as a decor can be a good idea for the betta tank, since bettas are slow and love to explore places. Adding a tunnel inside the aquarium can be a great option.
Look at the picture below, how awesome it is, and the betta is also enjoying its time there by exploring it. So, if you feel that your betta is bored with your tank, add a tunnel for it so that he/she can go through it and have some engaging time.
Adding Betta Hammocks
The next thing to keep your betta happy is giving him a hammock. People often ask whether they should add a hammock for bettas or not. My suggestion is to go for it because betta fish can explore things and understand the items you provide for them.
They may not give their full attention to it at first, but with patience, you will slowly see your betta happily playing with the hammock you provided.
Note: Try not to add all the decor items or toys together as it can make the betta feel its tank congested. Give your betta, toy items one by one and have some training sessions.
Breeding can make bettas happy:
Of course, yes. If you understand or feel that your betta fish is bored and not happy but looks healthy, consider breeding him/her. Sometimes, when bettas engage with other betta fish for breeding, their biological behavior and stress can be reduced, thereby reducing their overall stress. So, try giving him or her a perfect breeding session (Follow our guide for a clear understanding and successful method).
What does a happy betta fish look like?
If you have a betta fish and wonder how to identify if it’s happy or not, you can simply observe it without needing to take it to the vet. A happy betta fish typically displays beautiful and natural colors on its skin, clear eyes, no shrunken tails, and keen attention in the tank.
When you feed it pellets or live food, the betta will eagerly consume it with good attention. It will actively explore the tank space and not fear you when you observe it. These are some signs of what a happy betta looks like.
Happy Betta life expectancy:
It is just a simple calculation: when your betta fish is happy, it will eat well and swim around healthily inside the tank. When your betta is healthy, it reaches its maximum life expectancy. On average, a happy betta fish lives from two to four years; this depends on how you care for them, the type of tank you keep, and so on.
So, one of the best keys to enjoy the betta-keeping journey along with your betta is by keeping him/her happy.
To sum up:
I hope that worrying about how to keep your betta fish happy is over from today. Offer these enrichment plans to your betta fish, and you will definitely see some improvements. Keep sharing your experiences in the comments section.
I hope you find this guide helpful in your betta-keeping journey. Feel free to ask any doubts related to betta fish in the comments; I will help you and reply with the experience I have. Thank you so much, and see you all in the next post.
Beginner’s Questions (FAQs):
1. are betta fish happy in a bowl?
Yes, betta fish can be happy in a bowl. By adding enrichment setups in betta bowls, such as logs, tunnels, hammocks, caves, and tankmates, you can help bettas stay engaged. Also, playing with your betta regularly can contribute to their happiness, even if you keep them in a bowl.
2. are betta fish happier alone
It’s 50% yes and 50% no. Betta fish can feel lonely when there is no entertainment for them inside the tank or bowl. So, by adding enrichments such as toys or decor, you can help them stay engaged. This can keep your betta happier even if it is kept alone.