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I'm not really sure if there's anything I can do to stop her, but I'm starting to get worried she'll hurt herself.

About a week ago, one of my female Bettas (I have three), started jumping. She never did this before, and I've had her for almost two and a half months. Nothing has changed in the tank or in the surroundings.

I thought it might be the water, so I did a 100% water chang, trimmed the plants, cleaned the gravel, but left the filter the way it was. This was four days ago.

I noticed when I had them in the glass jars during the cleaning that they had developed Ick. It was on all three of them, so I'm treating the entire tank with Cure-Ick. I've also raised the temp to 81 degrees, and added aquarium salt.(Quarentining them would be disasterous in my house. It's only about 68 degrees, and I have three cats. My 5 gallon is heated and cat-proof.) Could this be the cause of her jumping? It's been three days, and it's cleared up completely, but she's still jumping.

She's jumping so far out of the water (I lowered the water level an inch) that she's actually smacking into the lid! She'll wake me up four or five times a night (I'm a light sleeper), and during the day I can hear her hit it from the other side of the house! She looks great. The three of them aren't fighting. And when she's not jumping, she's acting perfectly normal. I don't even think anything is startling her into jumping, she'll be fine and then WHAM, she jumps.

What can I do to get her to stop!?

What other species do you have in the tank? If you have any fin nippers in there that only realised that fins taste good (cause they do ) then she is bound to jump and try and get out. Also, maybe she is doing this if you have a male in the tank. But my best bet is you having poor water conditions. In the wild, say a betta is in a murky puddle. They can flip out of water and survive for a while outside in order to seek a better puddle with better conditions. Maybe that is why - instinct. Not very sure though. People who read this: REPLY, BECAUSE THIS GUY'S BETTA NEEDS HELP! Sorry, I just will do anything for bettas. Oh yes, and if the water conditions ARE bad, do another water change.

one of my fish (it's not a betta... but eitherway...) will jump and hit the top of the tank when she wants something!!! if i'm at my computer and haven't fed her in the morning, she sits in the corner waiting for food - if i don't feed her fast enough, she starts jumping and hitting the lid to get my attention!

I seriously doubt it has anything to do with water quality. I just did a complete water change and scrubbed the tank down four days ago.(I'm having a small problem with cyanobacteria, to the point where I tear down the tank once a month.) She was doing the jumping before the water change, and after. I use the same brand of spring water, treated the same way every time, and there's never been a problem. She also has two sisters living with her who aren't having any problems whatsoever, and aren't jumping.

I wish I could just write it off as her being hungry. But they have set food times, and they don't bug me for food in between, usually. (They're on my computer desk, so I'm right next to them now, and they're completely ignoring me.

i would bet the ick is causing it. it may not be visible, but even after 3 days of treatment, i would guess some die hard ick nasties are still irritating its skin. having an itch you cannot scratch would be very frustrating.

You're right, but it's not ick. What I had taken for ick (or maybe it was since it had cleared up completely) is actually a fungus.... I put fungus cure in ten minutes ago.

I had brought home four girls originally, and lost one the first week due to a fungus that killed her within 24 hours. I've always been super careful to watch since then, but this time the fungus decided to disguise itself.... All three of the girls have puffy white patches, and two of them have it concentrated heavily around the gill and mouth area.

I hope I'm not to late!

don't worry I'm sure there is still hope! My female betta developed fungus on one of her gills two months ago. I separated her from her main tank and treated her with Fungus Clear and followed the directions. After a month, it was completely gone and she was all better I hope things work out for you! I hope this somewhat helped

It's fungus and parasites. They've all started to jump out of the water, and run into things. One scraped the side of her gill, she's missing a portion of it. The otocinclus died this evening.

I just got through with another 100% water change. They've regained much of their color, and they don't seem as frantic. The damage is done, so here's hoping they make it through the night. Only the one who had started jumping a week ago, the one for whom I started this thread, looks normal.