Baby Betta Sick. Help I'm nervous

[glider]

I've had my betta for about 3 months, but I would say he is about 4 months old. He has been doing so well. He eats regularly and is a very active fish. He is growing and so he is changing colors. He now has blues and red on his fins. I went to feed him as usual and noticed that he looked different. He has a patch of discoloration on his stomach. It looks white-ish. He was also swimming frantically . He goes up and goes down all the while pointing downward. Then he stops and it's looks like he is panting. I have owned bettas in the past and this has never happened to any of them. Help me please.

[registereduser]

Housing
What size is your tank?
What temperature is your tank?
Does your tank have a filter?
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?
Is your tank heated?
What tank mates does your betta fish live with?

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish?
How often do you feed your betta fish?

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change?
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change?

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed?
How has your betta fish's behavior changed?
When did you start noticing the symptoms?
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how?
Does your fish have any history of being ill?
How old is your fish (approximately)?

[glider]

Housing
1.5 gallon tank
no filter no air stone
No tank mates

Food
I have been feeding him the smallest food I could find. Which are Tetra Min tropical granules. (I pick out the smallest pieces. He eats well.)
I feed him daily.

Maintenance
75% water change with water conditioner and a stress coat.

Symptoms and treatment
He has discoloration on his belly
He is swimming frantically up and down while facing down.
It happened today because he was fine yesterday.
I haven't tries to treat him.
He once got an injury from getting caught on something but healed almost immediately.
He is about 4 to 5 months old.

[registereduser]

Originally Posted by glider

Food
I have been feeding him the smallest food I could find. Which are Tetra Min tropical granules. (I pick out the smallest pieces. He eats well.)
I feed him daily.

That food might not be nutritious enough, you can crush up some good quality pellets for him.

Originally Posted by glider

Maintenance
75% water change with water conditioner and a stress coat.

How often? If you don't test the water for ammonia the ammonia might climb and easily kill him. That's what happened to my first baby.

Originally Posted by glider

Symptoms and treatment
He has discoloration on his belly
He is swimming frantically up and down while facing down.
It happened today because he was fine yesterday.
I haven't tries to treat him.
He once got an injury from getting caught on something but healed almost immediately.
He is about 4 to 5 months old.

I have no clue about this, it might be some kind of digestive problem. I hope someone comes in and can identify it for you. HTH!

[glider]

Thank you. I appreciate your feedback. I have had a betta with a digestive problem in the past and the symptoms are kind of similar. I will try changing his food and water. I have been keeping a special eye on him ever since I bought him because I know he is a baby and needs special maintenance.

[glider]

Which food is better? I have BettaMin flakes (says it has balanced nutrition with procare) and I have Zoo Meds micro floating betta pellets.

[registereduser]

I would take a little of each and crush them up and see how he likes it. Just a little so you can remove it if he doesn't eat it. My baby stopped eating a few days ago so I bought some frozen brine shrimp and he went for it. Bettas are meat eaters so be sure the food you give them is more protein and less wheat/corn.

I would also get an ammonia test kit to make sure you have 0% ammonia at all times.

[Imagine]

I think you can feed young bettas hard boiled egg yolk for protein (correct me if I'm wrong)

[glider]

He's not a picky eater and I will definitely look at the protein. I looked at him today and he looks a whole lot better than yesterday. He likes to give me heart attacks.

[registereduser]

I know that feeling!