Could my betta be constipated??

[Leahfin84]

Hi, I have had my male betta, Bam, for about 3 years. He's in a 2 gallon, filtered tank (weekly water changes) and eats betta pellets. Over a week ago I noticed he had a lump on his stomach. I wasn't sure what it was so I treated his tank with a anti-bacterial/anti-fungal. No change, so I went online and saw it could be constipation. The lump on one side is bigger than the lump on the other side, but he definitely has lumps on both sides. He seems normal and active besides this. I fasted him for 3 days and then fed him the mashed up insides of a pea last night and some this morning. Still no change by this evening so I gave him an epsom salt bath - the "hospital container" I used was a little less than a gallon and I used 1 teaspoon espom salt (I was nervous to put any more in there as I don't want to hurt him) and left him in the bath 20 mins, then put him back in a clean tank. Again, his behavior after this was also normal but he still has these lumps on either side. Any advice of what it could be or how to treat this? I'm attempting to attach a pic here: http://leahfin84.tumblr.com/

(you may have to click the link?)

[Sakura8]

Hi Leah and welcome to the forum.

Have you seen your guy poop?

Just judging from the pic, it does look like your guy may have tumors or fatty growths, something common to a betta of his age. If this is so, then unfortunately, there is no way to treat this. However, your guy can live comfortably this way for quite some time as long as his behavior is okay.

Is your guy eating and acting normally?

It's best to keep him in the epsom salts on a 24 hour basis. 1 tsp per gallon, like you are using. If you don't have live plants or invertebrates in his tank, you can go ahead and treat him in his 2gal.

[Leahfin84]

Thanks Sakura8 - he was eating normally (I am fasting him right now though) and he is acting normally and is active. I will try the espom salt in his tank again and I was also reading that daphnia is good to give them if they're constipated so I was going to pick some of that up today and try that. If it is tumors it should be fine to continue feeding him normally, but since I'm not sure, then how long do I wait with the fasting and epsom salts if neither of those are making the lumps go down?

[Sakura8]

You can fast him for a few days and keep him in the epsom salts as long as necessary; even if it is a tumor, the ES will help keep any excess fluids from building up.

Yes, daphnia is good. If you can't find it, brine shrimp also works well because of the fiber content in the exoskeletons. :)