Help! My betta is just floating near the top...

[emirald56]

I've had my betta for almost a year, and I've never seen him do this before. Usually he's very active, and he likes to sleep near the bottom of his tank behind a fake plant, so when he started floating near the top of the tank yesterday I started worrying.

He lives in a 2 gallon tank with no filter system, but I change and treat all the water on a weekly basis. He's also got a heater in his tank. He eats a lot, I feed him those betta pellets once or twice a day and he always eats all that I give him (10-15 pellets). He stopped seeming interested in his food about four days ago, but still ate a little.

Since yesterday he's just been floating near the top of his tank, with his mouth at the surface. He is breathing, but doesn't move much. I changed all his water today, but it didn't seem to help. It also looks like the area right under his head is englarged, but he's a large fish already, so it's hard to tell.

Any suggestions/ideas are very appreciated! Thanks!

Nicole

[fredythefish]

"He eats a lot, I feed him those betta pellets once or twice a day and he always eats all that I give him (10-15 pellets)."

^^^^ 10-15 pellets A DAY?!?! woah, that's toooo much.

please fill out this form and post back here. http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=49233


my first question is though, how warm is his tank?

[Creat]

Yeah your overfeeding the guy most likely and his is probably bloated or has swim bladder disorder. Betta's stomachs are the size of their eye, so one or 2 pellets is sufficent for them. Hold off on feeding him for a while. He probably has a block in his digestion and thats why he is floating you cant feed him until it passes. Also heat up the tank to about 80* it helps them usually and also if he is bloated or has SBD epsom salt will help him 1 tsp/gallon. But more info and pictures usually help.

[ANHEL123]

U definitely overfeed him. One time one of my friend did it. I took betta home to watch him. He had the same as ur fish enlarged area under his head. He refused to eat for about 4-5 days. I think on day 5 he started eat a little bit. And i gave him a few dried blood warms. I started with a little bit. He didn’t have any other symptoms. And i think only on day 4 his stomach got smaller.

I think even 6 pellets at once it too much. I feed my bettas 2 pellets in the morning and 2 pellets at night. And i also give them dried frozen blood worms 3 times a wk between pellets. Betta love to eat, they probably will eat until they get sick.

I don’t know if it can lead to something else like swim bladder disorder but my friend’s fish may be lucky that he recovered without any side effects.

I

[ANHEL123]

I tried to think what happened to my friend fish and I just realized he didn’t floated on the top or swim on the side. Just that enlarged area under his head that only symptom he had. I don't want to mislead to wrong decision.