Help please my betta is swollen

[Kenny G]

Today I noticed my betta is all swollen. His head and body are swollen. There are no raised scales or pine-coning. His appetite slightly less than normal. He is swimming fine and not leaning to one side or anything. He is just swollen and staying in his cave or at the bottom of the tank more. I feed him about 5 micro pellets a day.

I had his water tested today at Petco and the reading are:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: Under 20 ppm
pH: 7.0

I did do a 100% water change yesterday. I do change his water at 20% and 100% weekly.

His tank = 2.5 gallon
Filtered = Yes
Heated = Yes 79 degrees

No one in Petco could figure out what caused this. For now I just turned his tank light out because he is gittery and easily spooked which he is never like this. Plus I have his heater on to keep him warm and comfortable. Any suggestions as to anything else I can do for my little guy?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated. I don't know his age but its about a little less than 1 year old.

[PaulO]

He/She could be constipated. A couple things you could do is just don't feed them a day or two or reduce his amount. Check to see if he's pooping. If you want you can give him a little epsom salt (just epsom / unscented), hopefully that's all it is and he might end up relieving himself. Also you could try doing smaller feedings but more frequent. Just experiment and see what works (with his diet). Just don't feed him anymore and keep an eye on him to see if he poo's. I had the same problem with my bettas when I first got them, fed them too many pellets at night woke up the next morning and thought they had dropsy, turned out to be constipation so just fasted them until their swollen bellies went down.

[LizzyP]

I suggest was PaulO said as well. Maybe even move him to an empty 1 gallon for easier treatment. Don't put any substrate in there so you can see his poop. I think the dosage is 1 tsp per gallon, but you would want to double check me on that one. Keep us posted.

Lizzy

[aokashi]

Oh goodness. the petco down in Union square ? Don't believe anything they tell you.... all the bettas there were dying when I went yesterday...there was one oh so tiny baby I really wanted to help, but not knowing her tail type will make it insanely hard to rehome.

[Kenny G]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I was thinking the same thing regarding fasting him for a couple of days. I was pretty sure it was not dropsy. His belly is not swollen at all. It's his head to his fins which is why I was so baffled. After doing research on the net another site someone recommended using tetracycline or Kanamycin for a similar problem. I'm not ready to try that yet. I will also call Petsmart tomorrow and see what they say as well. I just want my little guy Blue Jay to feel better. I feel bad for him.

[Perseusmom]

So sorry your little gy isnt feeling well Kenny, everyone has given some good advice and I cant think of anything to add to it. Sends him some bubble kisses an hopes he feels better soon !!!!

[PaulO]

who knows maybe he's....big headed *puts shades on* ZING lol. but all joking aside that is quite interesting does it look as if his scales are sort of bulging away (not pineconing)or is it the structure of his body if not it could be a genetic problem but the best thing would just be clean water warm temperature and let the betta body do the rest. If anything you could try to post an image. Just take a pic (or two...hundred like I do :P) upload it to any photo upload site like imgur, photo-bucket,etc. and copy/paste the whole BBCode into your reply and a pic will appear once you post the reply.

[Kenny G]

The little crumb snatcher wont keep still but here is a picture for my swollen baby boy Blue Jay.

[Kenny G]

Ok so it's day 2 and my little guy is not getting better or worse. I have decided to take action.

After speaking to a useless woman in the fish department at Petsmart I brought Maracyn Two which is supposed to be good for a swollen body. Prior to this and doing more research on my options I read about Maracyn Two and AQ salt. I took a picture of the article and had it on my phone. Anyway I asked her advice without mentioning medication to see what her answer would be and she didn't know. Well surprise surprise. She in turn asked another employee in the fish department again They Knew Nothing.. Tell me again why are they working in the fish department?

In any event to reduce stress I put my boy back in his tank where he feels most comfortable. I added the Maracyn Two and using AQ salt which is supposed to be good for providing essential electrolytes/promote disease recovery. Hopefully this will help him recover soon.

I am going to do all I can to help him make it and I will not let my little guy go down without a fight. After all he is my responsibility and I will care for him as best I can. Wish me luck everyone and thanks again for your advice

[Perseusmom]

Wishes you the Best of Luck !!!! Keep us posted on how Blue Jay is doing, love his name to sweet !