Epsom Salt Treatment Q

[CheesyMom]

Well, Cheesy just celebrated his first anniversary with us! I love that little guy, seriously. My husband teases me about it a lot.

My brother had a betta that he took horrible care of so he gave it to my mom. Now my mom is having trouble as well. She over-feeds him like CRAZY. It drives me nuts. Every time I go over there, his water is cloudy from over-feeding. (A mom thing I guess?) He has been sinking for literally months now. Is it possible to have bloat for that long? I finally kidnapped him and took him home to our house. I've been fasting him and he seems a tiny bit more active, but still just lays at the bottom of his tank most of the time.

I'm going to treat him with epsom salts next, but if I kill him my mom will give me a big fat "I told you so..." so I want to make sure I'm doing this right. I put the epsom salt in with his water every water change and leave it there, right? I read something about 20 minute treatments which confused me.

Also, he has a little bit of a gray belly but he's very shiny and irredescant so I can't tell if that's his natural coloring or not since I've only had him here a few days. If it was Dropsy he'd be dead right now, right? I remember noticing him sinking all the way back around CHRISTMAS when I went over there. Poor guy.

Any other advice welcome!

[ZackyBear]

1stp/gallon of water for esposm. :3 Some people give their bettas 'esposm' baths, where they soak their betta in ES treated water for 20 minutes or so to help with constipation and/or bloating.

I'm sure leaving the salts in the water until the next water change won't hurt him.