Paging Dr.Fish, First Time Betta Owner, Need Help Please.

[callistra]

What heater are you using? This is a concern.

Intake tube is large. Suggest a prefilter sponge so he can't get sucked into it: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...efilter+sponge

Blood worms are treat food - like potato chips or candy. You should only feed one a week in place of pellets. Look for a good quality pellet where the first two or three ingredients are whole fish. Not fishmeal and even worse is wheat. My personal favorite is New Life Spectrum Betta - I feed 5-8 split up into two r three smaller meals with one fast day (no food a week) and you can feed the blood worms for one feeding too if you want. Omega One pellets are also ok - feed 3-4 split up with a fast day.

Photos are worrisome.. How is he doing? I would do several water changes, run carbon for 24 hours, look for epsoms (pure magnesium sulfate 100% no additives 1 tsp per gallon predissolved (you do the dissolving) then add slowly over an hour to avoid too sudden ph drop. Sounds like water quality issue.

See you need to invest in a drops kit for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate if you want to cycle w/filter and not be doing weekly 100% water changes. This is a popular kit: http://www.amazon.com/API-Freshwater...rds=api+master Cycling can task up to 2 months and you need to test daily and do a water change any time you see as little as .25ppm ammonia. First ammonia will spike then nitrite.. ammonia will get to 0 first then nitrite and eventually a 50% weekly water change including a thorough vaccuming of gravel with siphon should keep nitrates under 20ppm http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=47838

You also need to be careful when doing a water change to keep him from being shocked.

[quoteTo do a water change, use a little cup like a plastic solo cup - this cup must be only for him and have never been used with soap or other chems. Scoop him up in this cup (keep him in the cup about 1/4 full of water - it doesn't need to be much because he won't be in it for long) and leave him in the cup while you change his water. To do the 50% use a turkey baster - dedicated only to him that has never seen soap or chems - and drag it through the gravel and try to suck as much of the poop out as possible, in addition to 50% of the water. Use a thermometer under the running tap to get it to be the same temp as the water that is normally in his tank. When the thermometer says the flowing tap is the right temp, fill back up his tank. At this point, add the conditioner (dose for how much water you change - if you change half the water you add half gallon worth of conditioner, If you do a 100% water change dose for the full gallon change). Float his plastic cup with him in it in the new water. Slowly add a couple tablespoons of the new water into his cup every 10 minutes for at least an hour. Finally, dump him in gently but try to get as little of the old cup water back into the tank as possible. When you do the weekly 100% you will do mostly the same thing except empty his tank fully and rinse everything in it very well under warm water but never use soaps or chemicals. Once it's fully cleaned/rinsed you can refill it and repeat the cup/acclimate phase.[/quote]

[Shewbert]

The fish has a tummy sickness, whether it is bloated or infected we can not really say for certain on here.
I will try and explain the treatment as I type.
You will have to start treating for bloat first,, Starve for 3 days, put some aeration in the water,, (just bubbling)

Get a cooked and shelled pea and split it up into 4 pieces, get some pure cod liver oil place 1 drop into the cap and soak the pea in the oil for 10mins. this is a natural laxative, clove oil can also be used but the fish seem to dislike the taste of cloves, but readily eat the cod liver oil. but they both do the same job.

feed the 4 pieces to the fish, morning, before lunch, mid afternoon then evening, do not feed the fish anything else for the 3 days of starvation,

then for 7 days, feed him pellets but soak 2 pellets in the cod liver oil.
He should be swimming well by now.

Constant feeding on blood worms can cause constipation,,vary his diet. peas and daphnia given as treats usually keeps constipation at bay.

When a fish gets constipated his stomach bloats, this causes pressure on his swim bladder giving erratic behaviors, once this pressure is relieved he should return to normal.
Let us know how he gets on.

Mandy, Marine biologist/Vet