Betta Fish Jump

It is complete heartbreak, but it happens. Your treasured betta (or any other fish) has decided to leap out of its bowl or tank into oblivion, and it was successful. Finding them too late is extremely painful, but hopefully you are reading this because you've heard it can happen, not because it has happened to you.

In the wild, bettas jump from puddle to puddle, ditch to ditch. Even there, I fear that most jumps are no more successful than they are in captivity. But they try anyway, from whatever sense of betta courage they have. Their instinct to jump may be prompted because the puddle they are in has run out of food, or is getting too crowded, or who knows what other reason.

While bettas in the wild jump, and bettas in captivity jump, it is important to remember that our bettas have gone through tens of thousands of generations of breeding to go from the drab creatures living in puddles to the long-finned beauties we keep. But our beauties still have some jumping skills left.

Also, while bettas are known for jumping, most aquarium fish jump, and most of them do it when the tank they are in is too small or does not have enough oxygen. This interests me, because so many bettas are being kept in tiny, tiny bowls that are barely bigger than a coffee mug, and many other bettas are living in water that is not filtered or oxygenated and is not being changed nearly enough. If you put any fish into cramped conditions with poor water, it will jump more than usual.

So after all that background, how do you keep your fish from commiting suicide? For starters, put your betta in a bowl or tank that is at least two gallons. Second, change the water (a third will do) every three days. If you are still keeping your betta in one of those quart-sized prisons, you have to change the water every day - the practice of keeping bettas in such tiny containers came from betta shows, where breeders would display them in little quart containers. The thing was, those bettas got their water changed at least once and usually twice a day. With the most perfect water enhanced with all kinds of betta benefitting compounds, like Indian almond leaves. Almost none of the bettas being kept in the tiny containers sold at pet stores get their water changed once or twice a day.

Ok, stepping off my soapbox now... after a good bowl and clean water, the next two things to do to prevent your betta from jumping are either to cover the bowl or to lower the water level so there is 2-4 inches of rim that your betta will have to clear in order to jump out. Covering the bowl can look weird, but many of the betta bowl/tank kits come with a hood and light and so if you get one of those, your cover comes with the kit. If you are buying a standard glass tank, and you are really worried about the jumping, take a look at the reptile glass tanks the store has, which come with fine mesh black screen covers.

I like the "high rim" solution myself, but the big drawback is that you are going to be losing some swimming space. With a ten gallon tank, dropping the water level four inches below the rim will take out a full third of the water in the tank. If you count the water volume taken away by two inches of gravel on the bottom, then your ten gallon tank is suddenly holding about 6 gallons of water. That is still plenty of space to keep a betta and a cleaner fish very happy, but less water means you'll need to clean the tank a bit more often. But its not a huge difference.

If experience is worth anything, I have never had a betta fish jump. I have never kept one in the little pint containers, either, though there have been a couple of times when I slacked off on water changes, until I got smart and started making betta water in 3 gallon batches. Then changing the water just became the chore of watering a few plants with the old betta water (dipping the clean container right into the bowl after swishing the gravel around), and then pouring some pre-prepared betta water back in until the water level was right. It takes about 3 minutes, and yes I have actually timed it. Knowing that it takes 3 measly minutes helps me to overcome my procrastination of doing the chore. Now I have to go scoop the cat litter box, which takes 2.5 minutes.

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