He's going to explode!!!!!

[cjz96]

Hi, I'm new here. I have a male betta who is looking worse for wear. I have just noticed this bulge appearing on his abdomen on Memorial Day. It is discolored and is getting bigger. He is still swiming around and acting normal. I have treated him with the following:

- Melafix
- Splendid Betta Water Conditioner
- Betta Fix
- QuICK Cure

My profile picture is a picture of him BEFORE memorial day. I have attached a picture of him now. I don't think he has dropsy (he's still energetic, scales are not sticking out, etc) and I know he isn't constipated. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Please excuse the low quality pictures (he's a bit camera shy) Thank you!

Added: His bulge also appears to be translucent. Perhaps filled with fluid?

[vaw103]

Maybe it's early dropsy? I had a platy with dropsy, and he had the huge bulge for a few weeks before he started to pinecone. I was dumb though, and thought he was just fat (he always did eat like a piggy..)

Other than that, I have no idea! I don't think giving him an epsom salt soak could hurt though, either way. It should help relieve the bloating

[Mo]

Swim bladder disease information

Symptoms
- Bloating
- eradicated swimming
- floating towards the surface of the water
- trouble swimming up
- seems to be doing "rolls"

Treatment
Treating this usually non fatal illness will be very easy to do. Usually a dose of aquarium salt, something along the lines of 1 teaspoon per 3 gallons for tetras, and 1 teaspoon per gallon for more salt tolerant fish such as Bettas. Typically after 1-2 Epsom salt treatments it will go away. Ideally during this treatment time you would also want to offer peas, and daphnia to the fish as this will also help

Cause
This illness is usually caused by incorrect feeding with diets that have little or no nutritional value, or over feeding. Or incorrectly feeding more than the needed periods in the day to feed, like feeding very often

Prevention
This illness is easily prevented by going along the lines of not over feeding, providing a varied diet with many good foods, and avoiding feeding lots of low nutritional value foods

[shadowpony]

He's VERY bloated. Stop feeding him for a few days until it goes down.Oh, and mealafix (or any other meds ending in fix) is bad for bettas.

[Wolfie305]

My rescue looks just like this and its not bloat... :< I wish it was.

[vaw103]

I don't think it's swim bladder though. Cjz said that his swimming/behavior is normal.

I wouldn't offer frozen peas either, I've heard bad things about them. I don't think the daphnia is a bad idea, though!

[Mo]

Frozen peas are completely fine if you don't feed too much, they are a natural laxative, they are good for bloating and constipation in fish

[cjz96]

I haven't been overfeeding him. I've had him for almost two years and he has never gotten like this. I did try fasting him for a couple days and no result. And, yes, he is swimming around normally and been having normal bowel movements.

[xShainax]

I think it's dropsy. :(

[vaw103]

Yeah, I'd go for an epsom salt soak then. You should be able to get some from any drug store (where I work, it's by the ace bandages and first-aid stuff).

Dropsy is only a symptom of something else going on though. The epsom salt will relieve the immediate bloating, but it won't cure whatever is actually causing the dropsy. I have maracyn 2, and the label says that it's supposed to treat dropsy. Maybe try treating him with that too?

I know that aquarium salt and antibiotics don't go well together, but I'm not sure about how epsom salt/antibiotics go together though. Maybe someone else knows more about that?