Seeking Logical Help

[RoMay]

First off I would like to say I am new here, and new to owning the whole owning the Betta thing. I have sought help on another forum trying to keep my little girl alive but only thing they harped about was getting her in a bigger aquarium. First off I want to say, yeah I know, but right now she has health issues. Not as bad as when I first got her. When she gets bigger I do have a 10 gallon with other fishies, but right now she's way smaller then my minnows.

When I first got her several weeks ago she was grey lifeless Veiltail and floating at the top of the tank. When you nudged her she’d curl into a tight S then roll and float again. Personally I did not think she would make it. Well after two days she began to swim with her front fins and roll from side to side if she wanted to speed up. It was taking about another week before she’d use her tail again; thus why I always kept her in smaller dishes. That and she is an itty bitty betta when compared to others sold. To shorten this up I started feeding her non pellet foods like blood worms, flakes, and Nori. At first she was very finicky at eating, and wasn’t pooping. Now she’s a garbage disposal. I’ve been a noticing a change in her appetite the more that she begins to get active. She wants to eat more I can feed her two tiny dried blood worms, three flakes of food, and a piece of nori in a day and she’ll still be looking for more (not all at once). Fed a dried blood worm soaked in garlic oil, yup she eats that to, and apparently it might be her favorite food.

The only clue at to what she might have been suffering from was starvation.

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i5..._Ro/betta3.jpg
A week after I got her. Plenty of people have asked me if she is a betta, and yes she is a betta. Though her name is Kaoru because of this photo I do call her tadpole.

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i5..._Ro/betta2.jpg
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i5..._Ro/betta1.jpg
Her as of current, she seems to still have a crink in her tail. As to her size, well that's a betta temple from Petsmart and she's right next to it. She's gotten bigger.

So anyone can tell me more about what's going on with my little girl. And if I should feed her a tad more.

[sainthogan]

Yes, she is a Betta and she's still a baby. I think as long as you are keeping her water very clean and warm, there's no need to move her yet. You were right to put her in something small while she was having difficultly swimming - that's usually recommend anyway so they don't have to struggle to reach the surface to breath. Since she's getting a healthy appetite, it sounds like she's getting better. A hungry Betta is usually a healthy Betta. I've been told that a well fed Betta is one with a slightly rounded belly after eating. However they don't all get one. It sounds like she's getting enough to eat, but if you want to experiment, you can add a little more to one of her feedings or since she's still so tiny and growing, you can add a tiny extra feeding during the day and see how she does.
Also, don't be surprised after she gets bigger that she is actually a he, it's very hard to tell when they are that small. And given that she still has stripes (they look like stress stripes, but are darker like baby Bettas have), she is very, very young.
When she gets bigger and you put her in the bigger tank, be careful and watchful as sometimes Bettas can be very aggressive to tank mates (I learned this lesson the hard way and one of my fish was getting eaten alive as a result. Not a pretty sight).

[shellieca]

Are you asking if her acting like she's always starving is normal? Yes. They will behave as if they've never been fed. Perfectly normal. I have that same pagoda, she doesn't look all that small in that pic, she appears the same size as the females I get. In any case she looks stressed, had you just done a water change or does the camera stress her?

[RoMay]

No, the camera does not stress her out oddly. She ignores it actually. My minnows are camera shy and hate it she never seems to notice. She is not the size as the other bettas in store or at least here. Fact my not quite fully grown Rosy/fathead minnows are bigger then her length wise if that makes her store size female then I guess.

@sainthogan Yeah I herd of that thus why I am waiting till she gets bigger. I herd with minnows it can go either ways and having them of equal size makes better odds of tranquility.

You know she doesn't seemed stressed out at all. Other then when she gets close to feeding time then it looks like she's having a bit of a seizure at the top of the tank where i drop the food. If I stick my finger in she'll come up to me and sometimes let me pet her. Other times she chases my finger (both outside or inside the tank) or tries to redecorate the bowl.

She's coming quite lively but it does concern me since I had no idea what was ailing her before. And now she's feed me FEED ME! Maybe I'll give her an extra piece of nori since that takes her forever to stop playing and eat it.