Is Your Betta Fish Depressed?

I have been getting a lot of questions about this recently. The short answer is that no, your betta fish is not depressed, but it is probably stressed, though not in the sense of the word "stressed" that we use to describe a hard day at work or exam week.

Depression requires a fairly large brain and bettas simply don't come equipped with large brains -- their brains are about the size of their eye. Aquarium fish also have very poor memory capacity, which would definitely be another requirement of depression. Bettas and their fellow aquarium dwellers have been tested to have short-term memories about seven to ten seconds long.

Apparently Myth-Busters did a show about small fish memory length recently that showed fish have a longer memory than the seven seconds traditionally believed. I think that's great they did the test, but MythBusters people are not scientists, and did not use a large enough sample size to have valid results for the scientific community. By "sample size", I mean they did not test enough fish, or enough kinds of fish, or how the fish performed in different water conditions. So it was a cool show, and fish probably do have short term memories longer than seven seconds, but just because MythBusters does a segment on something does not overwrite decades of scientific research.

Aquarium fishes' (and betta fishes) long term memory is better, because they can be taught very, very simple tricks (like jumping out of the water on cue, or swimming through hoops), but even their long-term memories don't give them enough emotions, much less emotional complexity, to meet the requirements for "depression" as it is understood in humans.

You might be interested to know, though, that cats and dogs have been diagnosed with depression by legitimate scientists, and there are treatments for depression for them. Please consider, though, that a cat's brain is about the size of a large walnut, and a dog's brain is about the size of an egg (roughly). Those two items are considerably larger than your betta fish's little eye, and depression in cats and dogs is still raising eyebrows. Bettas just don't have enough brain to experience depression.

So while your fish may not be depressed, it is highly likely that it is stressed. Usually people see their fishes hiding in a corner of their bowl, not eating much, not moving a whole lot, and they call that "depression". It does look like depression, but actually what you've got is a betta that may be cold, may have been stressed by a move or vibrations in its bowl, or that may be developing an illness.

The solution is not fish Prozac, but going back to your betta fish care basics and making sure your fish is warm enough, the water is clean enough, and that the tank is in a good place for your betta (away from direct sunlight, temperature changes, sudden bangs or shocks or vibrations).

One thing that does come to mind is betta fish bowl size. I am very big on keeping bettas in bowls that are two gallons or larger. Five gallons or more is best. This goes against what the pet stores say -- that bettas are fine in bowls of two pints or so.

Frankly, if I was a betta fish in one of those pint-sized betta bowls, I would be acting like I was depressed too. Not to be mean, but if you were kept in a room twelve feet square (or smaller) for your entire life, wouldn't you start to sulk and get sick, too? If you're really worried about your betta getting "depressed", how about giving him enough room to really move around and explore a bit? Exercise is one of the best treatments possible against depression.

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