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New betta: skinny, lethargic, and floating. :(

2K views 9 replies 5 participants last post by  willow 
#1 ·
So, I was doing my shopping at Walmart when I passed the tropical fish section. I thought I'd have a look at the fish. Bad idea. I ended up buying one of the females because she was so skinny and tiny. I have her in a 2.5 gallon now with a heater.

When I first got her she was a bit lethargic. She was just floating in the middle of the water. Before I fed put her into her new tank, if ed her (just in case she was would become too stressed in her new tank to eat. I fed her a dried bloodworm. It was a really big blood worm as well. She's a little less than an inch long. I didn't think that she would be able to eat it, but she scarfed it down.

When I first put her into the tank about two hours later (I had to go to the per store for a couple things), she seemed to be doing fine. She was swimming around a bit and checking out her environment. I tried to feed her. She bit it, and then spit it back out. Later that night (about four hours later) I noticed that she was just sitting at the top. I didn't really think much of it, since she had had a long, stressful day.

But when I woke up in the morning, she was still there. I stirred the water a little to see if she had died, but then she started moving. She tried to swim to the bottom, but it was obvious that she was having trouble. I think I over fed her and now she's constipated and having trouble with her swim bladder. I've had a constipated betta once before, but he was active. This betta is just sitting at the top, not moving at all. You'd think she was dead.

The temperature of the tank right now is about 75 degrees (at the end opposite of the heater.) I've got peas to feed her if she doesn't get better after a day of fasting, but I tried to feed her this morning, and she didn't even look at the food.

I know that waiting out constipation is best, but I'm worried because she is very very skinny and not active at all. I put in some aquarium salt, but it doesn't seem to have helped much.

Any advice would be greatly appretiated. I really want this betta to live.
 
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#2 ·
hello and welcome,sorry
that your first post is a troubled one.
she will find things in the tank hard at the moment anyway
because the filter won't be ready,and it takes time
for the bacteria to build up,to be able to cope with the fishes waste.
do you know anyone with a tropical tank you could ask for some
bacteria from their tank. ?
make sure that you use a water dechlorinator when putting fresh
water into the tank,and have it heated to the same as the tank.
 
#4 ·
Well, have another betta fish, and he's the biggest, fattest thing you could imagine, so I stole about half of his water (he's in a 2.5 as well) and put it in her tank. I have water condition, and in addition I am adding stress zyme. It says that is already has bacteria in it.

I didn't have any flake food and the pellets that I feed my other betta were too big for her. I crushed them up a bit, but then they would sink and she wouldn't eat them. The blood worms were the only thing she would eat. I also wanted to give her somthing with a lot of protien in it.

Thanks for all of your help! She still isn't moving much, but she seems a little perkier. I hope.
 
#6 ·
The bloodworm constipated her...those freeze-dried ones are riskier than using the frozen stuff and should always at least be thoroughly rehydrated before feeding. You'll have to fast her for a couple days until she passes waste before trying to feed her again. Another method (one that I highly recommend) is to get those frozen cubes of daphnia, hack off half a cube and wrap the rest in saran wrap and get it back into the freezer before it thaws, thaw out the rest (I set mine on top of the dvd player, gets it all nice and warm quickly) and then feed it drop by drop and fast the fish after that until you see waste. Daphnia's very natural for the betta digestive system and will help them pass waste very well..it also allows them to "hunt" in a way since its very small and if they don't catch the drop they have to chase the stuff. I suggest a doing it before a water change. With the pellets, try using less pressure to crush them and you should get bigger bits...she'll also catch on very quickly if you try feeding her nothing else and she gets hungry.
 
#7 ·
Thanks, thats a really good suggestion. I had heard that daphnia helped with constipation. I was going to go to my bio lab and see if I could take a couple live daphnia (they have a colony of daphnia in a ten gallon). I used to feed my other betta frozen, but now that I've moved into a dorm I'm sharing a fridge with a roommate. We have a VERY small freezer (the little box kind that's actually in the fridge) so there's not much room for frozen fish food, and I doubt my roommate would like to see frozen daphnia in the freezer next to her pizzas! Its too bad, because my betta loved frozen foods.

But good news! I woke up this morning and my baby was swimming around the tank! :-D She's no longer constipated and is A LOT more active. I fed her a little bit of a pea this morning because I wanted to make sure she has at least a little food in her stomach since she is so skinny. I'm so excited. She still has a ways to go before she's completely better, but yesterday I thought sure she was going to die, and now she's swimming around!

WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
 
#9 ·
I say put a divider in the freezer box! You know a my side your side thing. Then put the frozen food in your side...hehe.
 
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