Question

[Rockandrollgirl09]

So I am not sure if I posted this in the right spot or not. The thing is my one betta I feel is getting fat. Like almost to the point that I am concerned for his health. I am feeding him the same I do all my other fish. He has such a round belly and then as you look at the rest of him he is skinny. I am thinking that he is almost bloated or something. What should I do to fix this?

[DragonFish]

Could you perhaps provide a picture of him? What is your feeding schedule? What brand do you feed? How is his poo?

[Rockandrollgirl09]

Its really hard for me to get a picture of him. I can try find one on the internet to show you similar how he looks. Other than that I feed him Aqueon Betta Food the pellets. I feed him in the morning 3 to 4 pellets, and at night 3 to 4 pellets. His poo seems ok. He doesnt seem to be going as often as all my other ones which makes me wonder if he is not backed up?

[Rockandrollgirl09]

He almost looks like a combination if these. He is acting normal. He isnt staying at the bottom or anything. He swims around good. With the blue fish his belly isnt that prominent but it has a lighter color to it than the rest of him.

[DragonFish]

Hmm.....It does sound a bit like hes constipated. 3-4 pellets twice a day is a little much....2-3 is generally, with most brands, what you want to feed.

Aqueon is an alright brand, but its not really the best quality(I have personally had some trouble with it causing bloating/SBD in the past)....assuming hes got a nice amount of space to move around and his tank is heated, I'm going to guess that the constipation is due to maybe one pellet too many of a slightly lower-quality food built up over time. Not all bettas process their foods the same, so while your other fish might handle this schedule, this guy may just not be able to process all the fillers and just over time hes become bloated and constipated.

First, fast him for a couple of days. Watch his belly and poo closely. If after a few days it hasn't really gone down/has gone down very little offer him some Frozen Daphnia, which will help clear out his system.
After he is back down to normal, I'd suggest switching over to a higher quality Pellet like New Life Spectrum or Omega One.

[Rockandrollgirl09]

Ya I tried Omega One and he just refused the food. This was the only food that he would eat. He seems so hungry all the time. It sounds like hes eating just to eat. Like he gets so crazy when I reach on my desk which is where the food is even when I am not getting the food. He really loves food.

[DragonFish]

Ah yes, that is very normal behavior.....bettas are opportunistic feeders, they don't have that "I'm full I need to stop eating" switch in their little heads....so they always appear 'hungry'.

You know, I had that trouble as well with Omgea One pellets....at the time I had about nine fish, and every single one of them turned their noses up at it. With all the great reviews on he brand I thought maybe I just ended up with a bad batch....though maybe it wasn't just me!

New Life Spectrum, however, I have had FANTASTIC success with....and its the best out of the two anyway. xD After struggling with one of my boys, trying to get him to eat for over two weeks, I was finally able to get him to chow down on NLS. I would highly recommend picking up some of that.

[Rockandrollgirl09]

Ok awesome. Can you pretty much find that at any pet store. I usually go to Petco.