Betta Flashing Gills

Question
We have had our Betta for about a month now. He's in a glass bowl that holds approx. 1/2 gal of water, we change the water once per week and use a de-clorinator.  He's very happy.. always swimming about and does a fantastic job of displaying his fins. His colors are wonderful.. red fins streaked with blue and his body seems to change various colors of blue.  I've never owned a betta before and found your site looking for answers on how to best care for him and to determine what he was doing when earlier today I noticed that his gills quickly **stuck straight out** but then when back to normal (quite frightening(for me anyway). He's in his bowl by himself, no heater or filtration. I did notice that before he did this he was looking at his reflection in the small jem stones in the bottom of his bowl that are almost like mirrors they are so reflective. He wasn't just glancing at them he was bending his body almost in half to get a better angle on the view. Just wondering if this is bad, should I take these stones out of his bowl? Also, I noticed that there was a white film on the top of the water when I changed it. Do you know what causes the film? We feel him once daily, just a few pieces of dried blood worms, that he consumes immediately and seems to want more, but I don't give him more. We have betta flakes, but he doesn't seem to like them as he spits them out after he tastes them and then refuses to eat them, so we don't give them to him anymore.

Sorry for the long question, I've always wanted a betta and want to take proper care of him.

Happy Holidays!
JoAnn

Answer
Hi JoAnn;

Merry Christmas!

Your little guy is trying to look bigger to chase away that other betta he sees. He turns sideways to intimidate 'the rival' and scare it. Sounds like he is perfectly fine to me!

The stuff on top of the water just indicates maybe more water changes are needed and/or overfeeding. It is usually oils from the food.

Here are a few sites that can help you know more about these fun little guys and how to care for them;

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/anabantids2/p/betta.htm
http://www.healthybetta.com/
http://www.bettatalk.com/

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

Come on over and join us on the freshwater fish forum at About.com to get even more information too;
http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/questionsanswers/a/naavigateforum.htm

My member name is ChrisR62. See You There!