Help my poor Rico is Bloated and won't eat

[yasminvaldes]

Hi everyone. I am new to this forum and am so grateful that there are others out there that love their bettas as much as I love mine.
My little guy Rico is having some health issues and I hope someone here can help. I have had him for 8 months, he lives in a 2.5 gallon tank and I do partial water changes every 3 days and a full change 1x a week. He eats flakes and freeze dried bloodworms.

The day after Thanksgiving Rico started showing some bloating in his lower belly and had stopped eating, (which is very rare for him). I immediately called the pet store and they told me he might have constipation since I did give him a bit extra during Thanksgiving. They suggested I give him some Life Guard medication and some pea. I did a partial water change with the meds and attempted to give him some pea, but he would not even look at it. After 2 days his bloating got worse. I contacted the store again and they said that it might be parasites or even a tumor (they ruled out Dropsy because he is not piney throughout his body). They told me to add a little bit of aquarium water to his tank and to add some API General Cure to his tank.
I did an partial water change and added all these things and now he is moving around very slowly and is breathing a little more than usual. He is not interested in anything, although he did flare up at me yesterday when I approached his tank in the dark. He does go up for air quite often, and bends his back more than usual when he does this.

I really love this little guy and want to do everything possible to heal him or at least make his final days on earth as comfortable as possible. Any suggestions on what he may have and how I can treat it? I have included a picture of him so you can see his ailment.

[FishFriend9292]

There are two possibilities. It could either be consipation or internal parisites. Both are treatable. If it is constipation, I would fast him for a couple days, 1-2, 3 at most. If the swelling doesnt go down, try the pea again, but boil it and chop it up in pellet sized pieces. For internal parasites, your betta will also have the symptom of white stringy poop. I have heard that rid ich helps cure it, but i am not sure on that and if you consider it i would suggest some more research. Also, raising the temperature (83-85 degrees farenheit) and treating with some aquarium salt (1/2 to 1 teaspoon per gallon) will help. I hope this helps your betts get better.

[yasminvaldes]

Hi Fish Friend. Thanks so much for the advise. The lady did mention it could be parasites. My question to you is why did you rule out Dropsy? I am a bit confused as to why everyone has ruled this out. Also, I have tried the boiled pea but he won't even look at it. I will continue to treat him with parasite meds and salt. I will also increase the temp and see if this helps.

[FishFriend9292]

Usually with dropsy the fish's scales will stick out like a pinecone. Are you noticing it?

[Water]

If he isn't touching his food, he's got dropsy (well the beginning of it). I'm treating my fish right now for it. How long has he not been eating? You definitely need to isolate him and get him some medication. I just bought something called Maracyn Two by Mardel, it aids with dropsy and other sorts of diseases. I'd also use some Aq salt to help his immune system to boost back up. My fish got to the point where he had sores on his side... so I'm really glad that I got this medication today because he's improved a lot. His swelling went down noticeably. But yeah, just put him in a hospital tank, do 100% water changes daily alongside adding the Maracyn Two for a 5 day treatment (or more if required) and you should be good.