You’ll often hear people say bettas like ‘natural’ colors, but they never back it up. Turns out, the science says that’s just not true.
Many of the naysayers will say that bright colors will scare and stress the fish. However, all of the research on environmental enrichment benefiting fish all focus on sensory enrichment that stimulates sensory organs and the brain. A fish will gain mal-adaptive and aberrant traits in a stimuli-deprived environment.
Unless your plan is to release the fish back into the wild, there is no need to keep them accustomed to only “natural” environments.
Additionally, a study has shown that artificial vegetation actually reduced the startle response in fish.
Natural environments are full of sensory stimuli. I don’t care how many live plants and natural rocks you add to your tank, you will not match the wealth of sensory stimuli in nature.
In a test where fish could build a bubble nest next to a live plant, an artificial plant, or a decoration in the colors of white, black, gray, green, and blue, the betta preferred to build their nest next to the white decoration.
When betta were raised with a background of transparent, white, red, blue, or black, the ones raised with a blue background were significantly healthier.
Betta were one of the few fish that showed no interest in laser pointers, regardless of color.
The maintenance of enriched tanks can be more difficult as there are more places for feces and uneaten food to lay. Additionally, some decorations can leak hazardous chemicals or create places for a fish to be trapped in and suffocate.
Finally, if you think it’s more important for them to have a natural environment, then leave them in the pond, stop giving them antibiotics, and keep your cats and dogs outside, and stop buying them toys, colors, and vaccines.
Literature Referenced
Näslund, J., & Johnsson, J. I. (2016). Environmental enrichment for fish in captive environments: effects of physical structures and substrates. Fish and Fisheries, 17(1), 1-30.
Einfalt, L.M., Wojcieszak, D.B. and Wahl, D.H. (2013) Behavior, growth and habitat selection of hatchery esocids reared with artificial vegetation. Transactions of
the American Fisheries Society 142, 345–352.
Baynes, S.M. and Howell, B.R. (1993) Observations on the growth, survival and disease resistance of juvenile common sole, Solea solea (L.), fed Mytilus edulis L. Aquaculture and Fisheries Management 24, 95–100
Harlioglu, M. M., & Mise-Yonar, S. (2008). The importance of temperature, individual size and habitat arrangement on the bubble nest construction of Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens Regan, 1910). International Journal of Science & Technology, 3(1), 53-58.
Saekhow, S., Thongprajukaew, K. & Phromkunthong, W. Blue aquarium background is appropriate for rearing male Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens). Aquacult Int 27, 891–903 (2019).
Eisenbeiser, S., Serbe-Kamp, É., Gage, G. J., & Marzullo, T. C. (2022). Gills Just Want to Have Fun: Can Fish Play Games, Just like Us?. Animals 2022, 12, 1684.