Betta fish are exponentially increasing in their popularity right now and although they have always been a very popular fish, their popularity has been given a boost due to a number of photographs of the rare betta fish going viral recently.
On top of that, the prices of these rare betta fish have drastically reduced over the last couple of years due to more and more breeders being able to consistently produce the betta fish with rare colors or patterns.
As you can probably guess, the increase in popularity has resulted in a spike in the number of people asking various questions about betta fish each month with more and more people reaching out to ask about how they can calm an angry betta fish.
Although this may sound like an easy task, if a betta fish is mad then it can work itself up and be aggressive to any tank mates it has while also being difficult to calm down.
We have seen a number of people on social media talking about various ways that they calm their betta fish down but in all honesty, most of them should not be done with some of them actually having a chance of making your betta fish even angrier.
This is why we decided to publish our own article going over how you can calm an angry betta fish in the hope of being able to help as many of our readers as possible. On top of that, we also have our table of contents below to allow you to quickly and easily navigate the article.
How Do You Know When A Betta Fish Is Mad?
The easiest way to know if your betta fish is mad or angry is to check its gills as an angry betta fish will flare its gill covers out making it obvious that your betta is mad.
If your betta fish is particularly angry then it will often flare its fins and gills too making it even more obvious that your betta fish is mad with this often being an indication that you should look for the cause of the angry and do something about it.
Betta fish, especially male betta fish can be surprisingly easy to anger too so it may be common for you to see these behaviors in your betta fish. Another less common sign that a betta fish is mad or angry is for the betta fish to face into a rock or other decoration in its tank and not move.
Think of this more as a child sulking rather than being angry in an aggressive manner and as your betta fish just staying in this position as a way to signal that it is angry and doesn’t want to be interacted with.
This is rarer in betta fish though and the majority of the time the fish will calm itself and return to its normal behavior provided none of its tank mates are bullying the fish.
Why Is My Betta Fish So Mad?
Male betta fish are very territorial and can be aggressive in some situations with the fish often being angry or mad when females are spawning.
If a betta fish is in a tank that is too small for it then there is a very high chance of your betta fish being angry and this is totally understandable but unfortunately very common due to people thinking you can keep betta fish in jars.
A healthy betta fish actually needs an aquarium of at least 5 gallons with an aquarium of at least 10 gallons being highly recommended if possible.
This is for a single male betta to be in the tank but if you are specifically looking to keep female betta fish then you can technically keep a betta sorority in a 10 gallon tank but a cheap 20 gallon tank would be highly recommended.
Although betta fish are often the aggressors, it can be common for them to be bullied by some potential tank mates and this will obviously stress the fish out and make them angry.
Another very common, often easily avoidable cause of a mad betta fish is poor water conditions where the betta is kept in an aquarium with unsuitable water parameters.
How To Relax An Angry Betta Fish!
It is generally easy to relax and angry betta fish once you workout what is making the betta fish mad.
The most common causes of an angry betta fish are being in a tank that is too small, being in an overstocked tank, having tank mates that attack it, and poor water parameters.
These four are all easy to fix and relatively easy to identify once you know what you are looking for making it easy to calm your angry betta fish.
It is easy to work out if the cause of the anger in your betta fish is due to its tank being too small as anything under 5 gallons is simply too small.
Although you can technically keep an algae eater with a betta fish, most other tank mates in a tank that is 20 gallons or less will be considered overstocking for a male betta fish.
To fix this causes of anger in your betta, simply upgrade to a cheap 10 gallon aquarium if you think your tank is too small or a cheap 20 gallon tank if you think your tank is overstocked.
If your betta fish is angry due to being attacked by one of its tank mates, removing the offending tank mate or the betta and putting it into its own tank can be enough to prevent the issue and relax your betta fish.
If your betta fish is mad due to poor water conditions in its tank then a water test kit will let you know exactly what’s going on so you can work on fixing it and once your betta fish has suitable water conditions they do tend to calm quickly.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over why your betta fish is mad as well as how to calm an angry betta fish to an end. We hope that we have been able to help our readers better understand why their betta fish may be angry or upset as well as how to calm it. The most common problem by far that we see time and time again from our readers is that they keep their betta fish in an aquarium that is far too small for it so simply upgrading to a suitably sized tank can correct the issue.
