suicidal king bettas! why?!

lycaon said:

so i set up my s.e. asian biotope tank and i decided to add a king betta that i purchased from petco (petkill) and i came home one day only to find him missing from the tank and on the floor all dried up.i couldn't think of any reason why he would leap to his death so i bought a new one and about two weeks later i found him on the floor as well. i have a cover on the tank and some danios,hillstream loaches,kuhli loaches,and cherry shrimp.none of them decided to swim on the floor.does anyone have any idea why every betta i get kills themselves? i have never had anything like this happen before with the exception of one goldfish and a dojo loach which i heard love carpet swimming anyway

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Bettas will jump when their tank is too small or something in their environment is not satisfactory. That is how they get themselves to large bodies of water when the rice paddies dry up in the dry season.

But how did your betta jump out of a covered tank?

I'd plug the little hole and lower the PH. Bettas like slightly acidic to neutral water. The temperature should be between 75 and 82 degrees. Do you have plants for him to hang out in?

dont feel bad i cant even count the betas ive lost over the years! most recently though, i had 2 rescues. poor fellas were swiming n mud the day i got em! one was n a little triangle shaped corner tank with a lid thats got only one tiny hole up top. i made the mistake of topping off the tank one day n found him on the floor next mornin. also topped off my 29 the same day and wasnt anything n there BUT the beta and sti.l 3 days later o found him on tha floor too! :-( SO....my advice is to plug holes n if you cant, then lower the water level a little and that will help some. it had been so long since i had a beta i forgot what jumpers they are! i had those 2 for almost a year after rescue n then lost both n 3 days, so you neeeever know! Sheeeesh this takes forever on a phone! lol! ill be SO glad when im back online! Good Luck!
Beaux

Is there anything that could have startled him? In the tank or outside the tank? Lots of fish jump when something startles them.

Just a thought, did you leave room for him to breathe at the surface? I accidentally did this with my scarlet badis tank. Fortunately, I realized the mistake within a few minutes.

No, leave your pH alone. There's never a need to screw with it. If you know enough about pH to mess with it then you aleady know to leave it alone.
The Betta wasn't 'commiting suicide'. He was just doing what Bettas do-jumping. Just cover your tank properly and they won't be able to get out.
I know, I know...that just sounds so simple lol But it is

cover all openings and you'll be fine. ive had some bettas jump for no apparent reason.you could also lower the water level a couple of inches or ad some duckweed or some other plant to cover some part of the surface and make mr.betta think he has a roof,or all of the above.
if your betta is jumping he may be unhappy with some of his tankmates or just dislikes sharing his house.
hope this helps!

Yup...not too many people realize that Bettas are jumpers. I've had a few that I put out in my water tubs outside during the summer season to find 80% have jumped up.

Bettas are jumpers. They seem particularly intersted in the world outside of their tank so it's easy for them to be startled/or think they are going to be fed. I had a female that would try to jump out every time I opened the lid to feed her. She succeeded 3 times but I always got her back in. Block up that lid.