I'm so sorry Danny, please don't be hard on yourself. As you stated, there may have been unforeseen factors prior to you bringing her home. You are truly great with your tanks, plants and birds, so this is NOT a reflection on you. These things do happen, even though we do our very very best. You have helped me so much with orchids when I thought I was a forever destroyer of them since relocating to a different climate. Now I have quite a few orchid, some of them are blooming or in spike and I couldn't have done it without your beginner's tutorials and how to care videos. I'm sorry this happened to you but as you have stated many times, this is an opportunity of learning. Mera is in excellent care!! I truly know this.
Sorry, for your loss Danny. Hera was a very beautiful fish. Don't blame yourself for her death. You did everything humanly possible to prevent this kind of thing happening. Hera tendencies towards jumping may of been psychological not environmental. Sometimes, fish just do weird things that has nothing to do with us. I've had a long tail betta jump out of its bowl for no reason whatsoever. This happened back in the 80s, before we all became consciously aware that bowls were bad for fish and it was my very first store bought betta. I lacked experience and the fish paid the price.
Alien bettas are a human made hybrid. Very hard to breed tho as they can be savage! I used to breed wild bettas ( imbellis, rubra, channoides, hendra, smaragdina and stiktos). It was hard but very rewarding work. Unfortunatelly when the rising cost of living hit the UK i had to get rid of all my tanks... The electricity usage was simply to high. I hope to return to fish keeping one day
I am so sorry, Danny. Honestly, it sounds to me like you did everything you could do. It seems like she was just sick and running from nothing because she was unwell. We can never know their breeding conditions, their possible genetic malformations?- you gave her an extremely comfortable life. You did well! Love your videos as always xoxo 🫂
I’m someone with marine fish, and I will say you definitely run into countless deaths, the other day I got a Pygmy whitetail angel, and she totally got sucked up by the pump and passed, it was super sad and I’m still not over it :( my poor baby, but you keep them in your thoughts and learn from the mistakes, I miss all my fish that have passed but it makes you an experienced hobbyist, the good days are a blessing and the bad days are a learning lesson. I love all my fish today and just got a teardrop butterflyfish, hopefully he does well, no big signs of stress and he ate tonight. Wish me luck! And yes I do miss freshwater fish so much but I’m absolutely obsessed with marine, they have so much character and pretty colours! Love watching the videos on freshies tho 🥺💖💖💖💖💖💖
In 27 years of keeping bettas. I’ve lost a couple from jumping. I had one who would jump into the lid to get my attention. He trained me to feed him on demand. My current female jumps into the lid of her tank when she gets riled up. I try to keep her calm but when food is involved, all bets are off.
I'm sorry to hear this. I recently had a Siomorentalis Betta and ended up jumping during the night. I woke up and found him on the floor...it was too late. I feel so bad because I had a lid aside the area where the hose comes out for both my CO2 system and external filter :(
I knew the voice was familiar, you’re the orchid girl! I just got my first alien betta today, got it as it looked rare and swimming in the bottom. Got home and feed it and it was just hungry…like me. And yes, was sold as a male to me but in my mind I knew was a baby girl. Let’s see how she goes.
The females would come out relatively simple looking fish and the males wouldnt look a lot like the hellboy parent assuming the alien parent doesnt carry any marbling genes.
That is so sad 😭 I've had hundreds of bettas (I'm a breeder) but I haven't ever had one of my betta jump out of the tanks or swim with it's head above water like that I also have an alien betta and she definitely jumps but only when I have her in the breeding isolation tank I have her in a mixed sorority tank currently but she never tries to jump out of the big tank
Im so sorry about your fish.. You gave her a beautiful home while she was there.. Many years ago I had a fish that kept jumping.. I always found him on time until 1 day when I came home from school and found him covered in carpet fiber and passed away.
I had a few bettas before and had 2 of them jumping out of the tank. One was also an alien 😢 They have very different personalities and you just have to be lucky to get one that fits your expectation. I had one very agressive betta killing machine which i had to give away once. Now i keep Danios since i like community tanks and schooling fish but with bettas you need to mostly keep them alone. Cheers from Austria!
Maybe there was too much light? My alien betta is super skiddish and got stress line from the shelf to the check out and it was maybe 20 steps from the shelf to the counter. By the time I got home, it was PALE! So I decided to put in a quarantine bucket and slowly add aged water so not to freak him out and let it chill out for a bit.Aafter 2-3 day, it was still pale but I see a little metallic sheen to the coat. It would seem to get more pale when I looked at it though. Added a Cappa leaf and it looked like it colored up the next morning. So I decided to cup it gently just to look to make sure it wasn't sick. It visibly got paler just from that. Then decided to just clean an old tank as a quarantine seeing how it might be the environment and that I could monitor it better with out lifting it as it doesn't like to be bothered. I kid you not, since it was in zip locked bag to acclimate, it immediately colored up as soon as I dropped in the tank -changed like a magic 8-ball. I thought he'd freak out having to stay in a tiny bag for 30 min. He was fine but still jumpy like he was in prison. Then when I tried to open the bag to drip in some tanks water, he lightened up again and stress lines from touching the bag. Zipped it up and let him float again, colored up. He seemed stressed so I did a two part acclimation so he would get shocked. Finally, I tried to slowly turn the bag so he would swim out to not stress him but he just stayed at the back with little to no water trying to suffocate himself. 😵💫 He got real dark, I was like phew! Okay he's doing better but then I tried to turn the tank light on to make sure he doesn't have any other heath probs I need to treat and he went pale again. 😵💫😓 Turned the light off, got dark but with stress lines, and he started bowing up at his reflection. Blacked out 2 side with cardboard to chill him out and he's swimming with dark colors again. I'm going to leave him be with a blacked out room so he can chill out. I tell you all that just to say some bettas are weird and def have dif personality. This one is an anxious one. But at least I know to put him in a low traffic area. But it seems your RIP Betta, just wanted to tumble and need a turtle-like tank set up with super low but wide waters? My alien betta doesn't seem scared at all when I feed him but, if I happen to look at him at the wrong time, he darts from the from open tank to the back and hides behind plants for like 2 sec and peeks his head out. 🤭He's a beast. Hides bc of everything but comes out like a piranha when I drop a pellet.
Add catappa leaves. And have some floating plants. All your bettas will appreciate both very much! You will see more natural behaviour. And less disease/stress, etc.
My female alien when I got a pair was so so funny, she wouldn't jump out of the tank, she'd do a run on the top of the water, above the surface like a skipping stone! and I had to put her in a massive aquarium so she didn't keep smacking into the glass.. she'd do it on demand though, she was a little show off which was the opposite of the male, he was a neurotic nightmare!
Fun Fact: Part of the reason they're called aliens was because originally a lot of them had a prominent head bump. They still pop up occasionally in some individuals. Edit: I watched the whole video, my condolences. A tip for the jumping would be floating plants, be it elodea or salvinia. A few hides or more plants would help as well. Lids are a must for plakats, hybrids and wild-types especially. Oooooo Mera is such a beautiful baby boy... I'm hoping he doesn't grow up to be too vicious when the hormones hit...
😵💫 I didn't get the memo that male aliens have an ovipositor lol but yeah I am doubting he / she is female now.. It did not fully enjoy the community and now has its own tank that became very territorial about so... Maybe male .. with a white egg dot 🤣 it's not a jumber tho 👍
@@Danny-MOG Oh yeah young males sometimes develop a false ovipositor. It happens more often in domestic bettas, usually males grow out of it when they mature but sometimes they retain it into adulthood. You can usually tell males with false ovipositors from females with the presence of ovaries which is a little bit of yellow on the belly that extends down almost to the tail peduncle, easier to see when you light them from the back. The presence of well-developed ovaries also gives mature female bettas their signature chunkiness. And in plakats the contrast between male and female fin development is not as stark at first glance as in longfins but if you put a pair of plakats side by side the difference becomes more clear.
I have a exact female color that Jumped two days ago, I heard the splash right before I went into my bed and didn’t think much of it until the next day I couldn’t find her. I put her in the 2.5 gallon tank with a make alien free roam and maybe she didn’t like it.
Part of me thinks if you bring them in from the wild where they were established they can feel trapped when domesticated. The behavior would probably change if domesticated from a fry. Similar to the struggles of taking in an older cat vs being able to mold a kitten
What are the concerns with a tight lid? I’ve had tight fitting glass lids on all of my aquariums to prevent jumping and heat loss(I live in a cold climate).
Hi Danny it's been 4 months since I've bought an alien betta and he's mostly peaceful, he lays on the plants, also hides at the bottom of the fishtank, he shares the tank with small fish.. but I feel he's not 'happy' enough, or maybe that's just the way they are.. this one is very different to my plakat betta ofc! Do aliens like sharing the tank? what's the best temperature for an alien betta? do you feed them with blood worms? I've seen that you have the bottom of the tank filled with gravel, is that something i should do?
This has happened to me even with a lid. I just was less experienced and even though I had a lid there was the smallest opening and my betta made his way out overnight. Very awful feeling...but we're only human so better to let it go than feel bad about yourself..at least not too much.
My daughter bought a Betta you look at this fish straight on its red with white lips then it turns and it turns a metallic blue with purple highlights its crazy.
Same story with mine bought a "male" and received a female , my betta is very shy she is not jumpy at all . She has spots maybe from stress , I've noticed you have a lot of plants does that help with alien bettas ? Im worried shes not happy , she kind of isolates herself. And i want her to enjoy her tank . Shes in a 20 long and has plants almond leaves with tank mates kuli loaches , tetras and yoyo loach . Unfortunately the yoyo loach is huge compared to my betta , do you think shes affraid ?
Do you have a video on what to look for when buying a beta? I have read a few articles on caring for betas and they say not to buy for the main stream pet stores like the ones that come in those deli containers and it's like puppy mills but with betas. I have a tank I am looking at and I've tried to research media to put in the tank (its all very confusing) we had saltwater tank years and years ago and I absolutely loved it.
It’s funny because once a betta is established in a 10 gallon aquarium, and they feel it is their home, almost nothing stresses them. The net doesn’t stress them. Siphoning the tank doesn’t stress them, almost nothing stresses them. Besides absolutely fouled water of course.
That being said. These alien betta behaviors are very abnormal to the average betta’s behavior. My alien betta loves to lay down on the floor all the time. And let me tell you he is absolutely fine and in perfect health. Just lays down the same way 50% of the day. 🤷♂️
@@cornholio324 mine does the same, completely different to my other plakat betta, the alien betta is super peaceful but he hides or just lays on the anubias.
I did find that a sad story that happened to my goldfish I owned mealworms and I assume that the goldfish saw thems jumped out of the tank and tried to get one but then it just stayed in the bowl and past away and it's just the thought that it was enjoying it's self and died it's really sad one minute happy the next struggling to stay alive
I’m so sorry, my baby is amazing. His name is Lotus, he is not a jumper. He is currently not well. It looks as though he hurt himself. 🥹 So I feel your pain. I just hope he pulls through.
The skipping over the top of the water and swimming with her head out seems like really strange and abnormal behavior for any fish. I wonder sometimes about the genetic cross with wilds, and if they would prefer whatever wild species was used, preferred water conditions instead. I know they are a genetic mess, so maybe that is part of the equation. Sorry for your loss.
I'm so sorry Danny, please don't be hard on yourself. As you stated, there may have been unforeseen factors prior to you bringing her home. You are truly great with your tanks, plants and birds, so this is NOT a reflection on you. These things do happen, even though we do our very very best.
You have helped me so much with orchids when I thought I was a forever destroyer of them since relocating to a different climate. Now I have quite a few orchid, some of them are blooming or in spike and I couldn't have done it without your beginner's tutorials and how to care videos.
I'm sorry this happened to you but as you have stated many times, this is an opportunity of learning. Mera is in excellent care!! I truly know this.
Sorry, for your loss Danny. Hera was a very beautiful fish. Don't blame yourself for her death. You did everything humanly possible to prevent this kind of thing happening. Hera tendencies towards jumping may of been psychological not environmental. Sometimes, fish just do weird things that has nothing to do with us. I've had a long tail betta jump out of its bowl for no reason whatsoever. This happened back in the 80s, before we all became consciously aware that bowls were bad for fish and it was my very first store bought betta. I lacked experience and the fish paid the price.
Alien bettas are a human made hybrid. Very hard to breed tho as they can be savage! I used to breed wild bettas ( imbellis, rubra, channoides, hendra, smaragdina and stiktos). It was hard but very rewarding work. Unfortunatelly when the rising cost of living hit the UK i had to get rid of all my tanks... The electricity usage was simply to high. I hope to return to fish keeping one day
As much as you care and your knowledge, I don't think it was your fault. ❤
I am so sorry, Danny. Honestly, it sounds to me like you did everything you could do. It seems like she was just sick and running from nothing because she was unwell. We can never know their breeding conditions, their possible genetic malformations?- you gave her an extremely comfortable life. You did well! Love your videos as always xoxo 🫂
I’m someone with marine fish, and I will say you definitely run into countless deaths, the other day I got a Pygmy whitetail angel, and she totally got sucked up by the pump and passed, it was super sad and I’m still not over it :( my poor baby, but you keep them in your thoughts and learn from the mistakes, I miss all my fish that have passed but it makes you an experienced hobbyist, the good days are a blessing and the bad days are a learning lesson. I love all my fish today and just got a teardrop butterflyfish, hopefully he does well, no big signs of stress and he ate tonight. Wish me luck! And yes I do miss freshwater fish so much but I’m absolutely obsessed with marine, they have so much character and pretty colours! Love watching the videos on freshies tho 🥺💖💖💖💖💖💖
So sorry for your loss! It’s definitely hard losing your loved ones❤
Also my only other suspicion could of been digestive issues? Bacterial infection? It could make fish act odd and sporadic
In 27 years of keeping bettas. I’ve lost a couple from jumping. I had one who would jump into the lid to get my attention. He trained me to feed him on demand. My current female jumps into the lid of her tank when she gets riled up. I try to keep her calm but when food is involved, all bets are off.
I'm sorry to hear this. I recently had a Siomorentalis Betta and ended up jumping during the night. I woke up and found him on the floor...it was too late. I feel so bad because I had a lid aside the area where the hose comes out for both my CO2 system and external filter :(
I knew the voice was familiar, you’re the orchid girl! I just got my first alien betta today, got it as it looked rare and swimming in the bottom. Got home and feed it and it was just hungry…like me. And yes, was sold as a male to me but in my mind I knew was a baby girl. Let’s see how she goes.
Any thoughts about breeding your alien betta to hell boy? How beautiful those babies would be. Love your aquarium videos
The females would come out relatively simple looking fish and the males wouldnt look a lot like the hellboy parent assuming the alien parent doesnt carry any marbling genes.
That is so sad 😭 I've had hundreds of bettas (I'm a breeder) but I haven't ever had one of my betta jump out of the tanks or swim with it's head above water like that I also have an alien betta and she definitely jumps but only when I have her in the breeding isolation tank I have her in a mixed sorority tank currently but she never tries to jump out of the big tank
Im so sorry about your fish.. You gave her a beautiful home while she was there.. Many years ago I had a fish that kept jumping.. I always found him on time until 1 day when I came home from school and found him covered in carpet fiber and passed away.
I had a few bettas before and had 2 of them jumping out of the tank. One was also an alien 😢 They have very different personalities and you just have to be lucky to get one that fits your expectation. I had one very agressive betta killing machine which i had to give away once. Now i keep Danios since i like community tanks and schooling fish but with bettas you need to mostly keep them alone. Cheers from Austria!
Maybe there was too much light? My alien betta is super skiddish and got stress line from the shelf to the check out and it was maybe 20 steps from the shelf to the counter. By the time I got home, it was PALE! So I decided to put in a quarantine bucket and slowly add aged water so not to freak him out and let it chill out for a bit.Aafter 2-3 day, it was still pale but I see a little metallic sheen to the coat. It would seem to get more pale when I looked at it though. Added a Cappa leaf and it looked like it colored up the next morning. So I decided to cup it gently just to look to make sure it wasn't sick. It visibly got paler just from that. Then decided to just clean an old tank as a quarantine seeing how it might be the environment and that I could monitor it better with out lifting it as it doesn't like to be bothered. I kid you not, since it was in zip locked bag to acclimate, it immediately colored up as soon as I dropped in the tank -changed like a magic 8-ball. I thought he'd freak out having to stay in a tiny bag for 30 min. He was fine but still jumpy like he was in prison. Then when I tried to open the bag to drip in some tanks water, he lightened up again and stress lines from touching the bag. Zipped it up and let him float again, colored up. He seemed stressed so I did a two part acclimation so he would get shocked. Finally, I tried to slowly turn the bag so he would swim out to not stress him but he just stayed at the back with little to no water trying to suffocate himself. 😵💫 He got real dark, I was like phew! Okay he's doing better but then I tried to turn the tank light on to make sure he doesn't have any other heath probs I need to treat and he went pale again. 😵💫😓 Turned the light off, got dark but with stress lines, and he started bowing up at his reflection. Blacked out 2 side with cardboard to chill him out and he's swimming with dark colors again. I'm going to leave him be with a blacked out room so he can chill out. I tell you all that just to say some bettas are weird and def have dif personality. This one is an anxious one. But at least I know to put him in a low traffic area. But it seems your RIP Betta, just wanted to tumble and need a turtle-like tank set up with super low but wide waters? My alien betta doesn't seem scared at all when I feed him but, if I happen to look at him at the wrong time, he darts from the from open tank to the back and hides behind plants for like 2 sec and peeks his head out. 🤭He's a beast. Hides bc of everything but comes out like a piranha when I drop a pellet.
Add catappa leaves. And have some floating plants. All your bettas will appreciate both very much! You will see more natural behaviour. And less disease/stress, etc.
Oh wow they are bful! I have to say I prefer these ladies than the big finned male Bettas, and the Alien colour is incredible!
My female alien when I got a pair was so so funny, she wouldn't jump out of the tank, she'd do a run on the top of the water, above the surface like a skipping stone! and I had to put her in a massive aquarium so she didn't keep smacking into the glass.. she'd do it on demand though, she was a little show off which was the opposite of the male, he was a neurotic nightmare!
Fun Fact: Part of the reason they're called aliens was because originally a lot of them had a prominent head bump. They still pop up occasionally in some individuals.
Edit: I watched the whole video, my condolences.
A tip for the jumping would be floating plants, be it elodea or salvinia. A few hides or more plants would help as well. Lids are a must for plakats, hybrids and wild-types especially.
Oooooo Mera is such a beautiful baby boy... I'm hoping he doesn't grow up to be too vicious when the hormones hit...
😵💫 I didn't get the memo that male aliens have an ovipositor lol but yeah I am doubting he / she is female now.. It did not fully enjoy the community and now has its own tank that became very territorial about so... Maybe male .. with a white egg dot 🤣 it's not a jumber tho 👍
@@Danny-MOG Oh yeah young males sometimes develop a false ovipositor. It happens more often in domestic bettas, usually males grow out of it when they mature but sometimes they retain it into adulthood. You can usually tell males with false ovipositors from females with the presence of ovaries which is a little bit of yellow on the belly that extends down almost to the tail peduncle, easier to see when you light them from the back. The presence of well-developed ovaries also gives mature female bettas their signature chunkiness. And in plakats the contrast between male and female fin development is not as stark at first glance as in longfins but if you put a pair of plakats side by side the difference becomes more clear.
Oh my, I'm so sorry :(
I recently lost one of my beloved honey gouramis and it's a heartbreaking moment to lose a pet.
I have a exact female color that Jumped two days ago, I heard the splash right before I went into my bed and didn’t think much of it until the next day I couldn’t find her. I put her in the 2.5 gallon tank with a make alien free roam and maybe she didn’t like it.
I'm so sorry, Danny
We have had several Beta fish always enjoyed them
Part of me thinks if you bring them in from the wild where they were established they can feel trapped when domesticated.
The behavior would probably change if domesticated from a fry. Similar to the struggles of taking in an older cat vs being able to mold a kitten
Hi, these are captive bred :) personally I try to not buy wild caught fish very often, if at all nowadays :)
@@Danny-MOG ooh i see
What are the concerns with a tight lid?
I’ve had tight fitting glass lids on all of my aquariums to prevent jumping and heat loss(I live in a cold climate).
Hi Danny it's been 4 months since I've bought an alien betta and he's mostly peaceful, he lays on the plants, also hides at the bottom of the fishtank, he shares the tank with small fish.. but I feel he's not 'happy' enough, or maybe that's just the way they are.. this one is very different to my plakat betta ofc! Do aliens like sharing the tank? what's the best temperature for an alien betta? do you feed them with blood worms? I've seen that you have the bottom of the tank filled with gravel, is that something i should do?
This has happened to me even with a lid. I just was less experienced and even though I had a lid there was the smallest opening and my betta made his way out overnight. Very awful feeling...but we're only human so better to let it go than feel bad about yourself..at least not too much.
My daughter bought a Betta you look at this fish straight on its red with white lips then it turns and it turns a metallic blue with purple highlights its crazy.
Same story with mine bought a "male" and received a female , my betta is very shy she is not jumpy at all . She has spots maybe from stress ,
I've noticed you have a lot of plants does that help with alien bettas ? Im worried shes not happy , she kind of isolates herself. And i want her to enjoy her tank .
Shes in a 20 long and has plants almond leaves with tank mates kuli loaches , tetras and yoyo loach .
Unfortunately the yoyo loach is huge compared to my betta , do you think shes affraid ?
Do you have a video on what to look for when buying a beta? I have read a few articles on caring for betas and they say not to buy for the main stream pet stores like the ones that come in those deli containers and it's like puppy mills but with betas.
I have a tank I am looking at and I've tried to research media to put in the tank (its all very confusing) we had saltwater tank years and years ago and I absolutely loved it.
Yes betta jumps up to 6 inches high./..
It’s funny because once a betta is established in a 10 gallon aquarium, and they feel it is their home, almost nothing stresses them. The net doesn’t stress them. Siphoning the tank doesn’t stress them, almost nothing stresses them. Besides absolutely fouled water of course.
That being said. These alien betta behaviors are very abnormal to the average betta’s behavior. My alien betta loves to lay down on the floor all the time. And let me tell you he is absolutely fine and in perfect health. Just lays down the same way 50% of the day. 🤷♂️
@@cornholio324 mine does the same, completely different to my other plakat betta, the alien betta is super peaceful but he hides or just lays on the anubias.
Did you ever try to breed beta fish?
What’s the name of that fish 🐟?
I've never had any of my females jump
My blue Betta was found dead yesterday.
I did find that a sad story that happened to my goldfish I owned mealworms and I assume that the goldfish saw thems jumped out of the tank and tried to get one but then it just stayed in the bowl and past away and it's just the thought that it was enjoying it's self and died it's really sad one minute happy the next struggling to stay alive
alien is quite a jumper more than plakat.. and they prefer black water...
I don't think she jumped during the night, Betta fishes do sleep, jumpy or not.
Tell me, do you ever wake up at night?.. especially if you feel something brushing agains you, even though you (think) you are alone? 😂😂😂
@@Danny-MOG Are you Romanian? 😶
electric in water
I’m so sorry, my baby is amazing. His name is Lotus, he is not a jumper. He is currently not well. It looks as though he hurt himself. 🥹 So I feel your pain. I just hope he pulls through.
your filter flow was too high in my opinion. Bettas like slow flow and high flow stress them out.
Bettas all have different personalities in my experience. Maybe your first girl was just nervy...
The skipping over the top of the water and swimming with her head out seems like really strange and abnormal behavior for any fish. I wonder sometimes about the genetic cross with wilds, and if they would prefer whatever wild species was used, preferred water conditions instead. I know they are a genetic mess, so maybe that is part of the equation. Sorry for your loss.
Mine alien copper betta just jumped yesterday…even with GLASS lid…but ofc there was a smaaaaaal gap…imagine he found it😢