Please help, swim bladder disorder?!?

[creamcookie]

I realise that swim bladder disorder comes from overfeeding, but this came out of nowhere! I feed my male veiltail betta 3 hikari biogold pellets each day, with one day of the week fasting. Today, I saw his tummy was a little rounder than usual so I only fed him two pellets. Immediately, he floated onto his side! Oh no! He only floats at the top and tries to lean agaisnt the tank wall to keep upright. Last month, he had swim bladder disorder, but after two days of fasting an eating a cooked, shelless pea, he went back to normal. What was the cause of his sideways swimming, and what can I do to help? Thanks.

[BettaxFishxCrazy]

He could be just really bloated. If you fast him for a couple days he should be fine. Has he been pooping regularly? I feed mine Wardley's pellets and they're pretty big so I always have to crush them, I don't know about hikari. I've heard that they're smaller pieces. When a betta eats a dry pellet, it expands in the bettas stomach. Their stomachs are the size of one eye so it's VERY small. In order to prevent this, you can soak the pellets before hand for 15-20 minutes. You can also buy daphnia and encorporate it into his feeding regiment. Daphnia helps with constipation. Peas aren't good for their digestive stystems so I'd stay away from that and get daphnia instead.

[Oldfishlady]

Swim bladder problems can be caused by several things, some Betta can be born with a short or deformed swim bladder, some get over it as they grow and some will show symptoms later as adults,
bacterial infection is another reason usually cause by poor water quality or when constipated the duct between the stomach and swim bladder will get clogged and get infected,
sometimes it just constipation that is putting pressure on the swim bladder causing problems.

The best natural treatment I have found is using Epsom salt, the salt reduces edema/swelling and works as a natural laxative.
I treat in QT making daily 100% water changes with the Epsom salt 1tsp/gal for at least 10 days, I hold all food for 3-4 days, lower the water level if the fish is struggling to swim/breath, some cases are advanced bacterial infection and will need a broad spectrum antibiotic.
Then I try to figure out why the fish was symptomatic in the first place so I can avoid or fix the underlining problem if possible.