My fish is dying!!

[ilovebettafishandsuzys]

i am sory about your betta. is flakes the only thing he will eat. try some freezed dryed blood worms turn of your filter and do a 50% water change and make sure that the new water that you use is decolranated. i would say that he is going thur betta depresion. as a last resort go to a pet shop/fish vet and see what they say. hopes this helps.thank you

[zebra3]

I'm gonna go ahead and not feed a betta that has potentially been overfed even more food. And I doubt a fish that just went from a 1 gallon tank to a 3 gallon with filter heater and live plants a few months ago is depressed.

[callistra]

You need to use conditioner. You should have cycled the tank carefully: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=47838 Once fully cycled (or as much as a 3 gallon can be.. and this would have taken up to 2 months.. have you even had it set up that long?) you should have been doing 2 50% changes a week, one should includes a vacuuming of the gravel to remove poo or what the mods in this forum refer to as the stir/dip (stir up the poop and scoop it out with a cup) method.

Now that you have turned off your filter you need two different water changes a week - one 50% and one 100% including a thorough rinsing of gravel and all dechor.

You have a water quality problem. You also have a feeding issue.. I think people have already gone over this with you, epsoms etc. What pellets have you tried? Have you tried NLS or Omega One?

Here's how you can do those water changes without shocking:

To 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.

[MattsBettas]

first off, ad some dechlorinator. then fast him for three days, at he end of this he should be given a small piece of boiled pea.

[Tikibirds]

try some freezed dryed blood worms turn of your filter and do a 50% water change and make sure that the new water that you use is decolranated. i would say that he is going thur betta depresion. as a last resort go to a pet shop/fish vet and see what they say. hopes this helps.thank you

Freeze dried bloodworms won't help if a betta is bloated or constipated. Once water is added to them, they expand even more. Giving it one or two, once a week is ok but it's like us eatting candy.

not sure where the depression is comming from either.

PS - a petshop is the last place you want to seek advice, unless you know they have a knowledgeble fish person on staff. Most petco/petsmart employees only know what they are told and most of the time that info is not correct.

Swim Bladder Disease (SBD)/Bloat
•Symptoms: Betta has trouble swimming, maybe he can’t stay upright and can only swim on his side.
•Treatment: This is not a contagious or fatal illness. If it isn’t congenital (aka a condition that he/she has had since birth), then it is caused by over feeding or feeding the wrong foods. Bettas will typically recover after a day or two of Epsom Salt treatments (1-2tsp/gal) and fasting. You can help prevent a reoccurrence by switching to a better pellet food, feeding less and offering a more varied diet. To make it easier for the betta to eat and breath, you can make the water shallower. You can offer him/her frozen daphnia (sold at Petsmart) as daphnia will help him/her pass stool. DO NOT FEED THEM PEAS.

some say yes for the pea, some say no. I think its more for goldfish but..eh...if you think he will eat the pea. I think you need to remove the shell and then cook it somehow? Not really sure, never tried that method.

Have you tried New Life spectrum pellets? I have yet to find a betta who won't eat them. Some of the other kinds of pellets are too big and even if I break them up - they still won't eat them. Or if you want to stick with the flakes, use a tweezer and grab a flake or two depending on size. I feed flakes ever now and then for variety and always end up feeding too many.

[ilovebettafishandsuzys]

i am sory that i gave you some bad info. i went back and studyed what i said and i agree with Tikibird all the way. ps also sory i did not take into acount where you live i am new to this web site and i thaught that this web site was local. at my petsmart i know l person that has had and bred bettas for 15 years!!!

[ilovebettafishandsuzys]

pss. i am so sory for giving you (Zebra3) and anyone else who read my post at the top of the page bad info. sory!!!!!

[zebra3]

He appears to be doing better now. He isn't as bloated and is swimming upright. I watched him swim to the bottom. However, he isn't quite as active as usual, but who is when they've been feeling lousy?

The next step for me is to figure out exactly what went wrong to keep it from happening again. My estimation is that he ate too much, maybe my pinch of food was more than I thought it was yesterday. I will give him a COUPLE flakes late tonight just to keep things relatively normal, but this poses a question:
How often do you guys feed your fish?


Thanks for all the responses I received during the night. I will do some more regular water changes, despite the fact that I don't believe the small amount of water I added to the tank was the cause of this unpleasantness.

[LittleBlueFishlets]

Originally Posted by zebra3

He appears to be doing better now. He isn't as bloated and is swimming upright. I watched him swim to the bottom. However, he isn't quite as active as usual, but who is when they've been feeling lousy?

The next step for me is to figure out exactly what went wrong to keep it from happening again. My estimation is that he ate too much, maybe my pinch of food was more than I thought it was yesterday. I will give him a COUPLE flakes late tonight just to keep things relatively normal, but this poses a question:
How often do you guys feed your fish?


Thanks for all the responses I received during the night. I will do some more regular water changes, despite the fact that I don't believe the small amount of water I added to the tank was the cause of this unpleasantness.

My fish recently bloated, and then started doing barrel rolls at the surface. So I understand your reaction!

When this happened, I posted a panicked email. Callistra and Shellieca gave me excellent advice.... The little barrel-roller is now fine.

Here's what I did for my guy:

1) Fasting - Do not feed him while he's bloated. He will tell you that he's hungry - ignore his demands for food.

2) Epsom salt - It acts like a laxative. My fish was constipated and bloated. The Epsom salt got things "moving" again. LOL I think people here already told you about adding this?

3) NO peas - I've read a lot of conflicting advice about peas. But basically, it would only act as a laxative anyway, which is duplicating the Epsom salt treatment. So it's not needed.

4) Water changes - In an unfiltered 3 gallon tank, the recommendation is to do one 100% and one 50% water change per week. Always use a water conditioner.

Then, AFTER he's no longer bloated, and has been fasted awhile:

5) Feed a TINY amount. My guy eats pellets. Once I saw that everything was COMPLETELY back to normal with him, I fed him a SINGLE pellet.

6) After he successfully ate the pellet and did not bloat again, I put him back into regular water (without Epsom salt, but with conditioner). Acclimate him slowly!

7) I continued giving him SMALL meals. He's now up to two pellets, twice a day. And that's it.

I've read that their stomachs are the size of their eye. In other words, really small!

My bigger betta gets 3 pellets/2x per day (total of 6). This smaller guy (who bloated) gets 2 pellets/2x per day (total of 4).

Based on Callistra's and Shellieca's advice, I also switched his pellets. They said that 'fish' should be the first 3 ingredients. (Rather than wheat or cereal.) People here recommend NLS (New Life Spectrum) and Omega One Betta Buffet. My local petstore doesn't carry NLS, but they did have Omega One, so that's what I've been feeding.

Good luck! The barrel rolls at the surface had me convinced that he wasn't going to make it. But he's fine now. (Although he's decided that he likes chewing his tail. So that's our next 'challenge' to overcome. LOL)

[zebra3]

Originally Posted by LittleBlueFishlets

My fish recently bloated, and then started doing barrel rolls at the surface. So I understand your reaction!

When this happened, I posted a panicked email. Callistra and Shellieca gave me excellent advice.... The little barrel-roller is now fine.

Here's what I did for my guy:

1) Fasting - Do not feed him while he's bloated. He will tell you that he's hungry - ignore his demands for food.

2) Epsom salt - It acts like a laxative. My fish was constipated and bloated. The Epsom salt got things "moving" again. LOL I think people here already told you about adding this?

3) NO peas - I've read a lot of conflicting advice about peas. But basically, it would only act as a laxative anyway, which is duplicating the Epsom salt treatment. So it's not needed.

4) Water changes - In an unfiltered 3 gallon tank, the recommendation is to do one 100% and one 50% water change per week. Always use a water conditioner.

Then, AFTER he's no longer bloated, and has been fasted awhile:

5) Feed a TINY amount. My guy eats pellets. Once I saw that everything was COMPLETELY back to normal with him, I fed him a SINGLE pellet.

6) After he successfully ate the pellet and did not bloat again, I put him back into regular water (without Epsom salt, but with conditioner). Acclimate him slowly!

7) I continued giving him SMALL meals. He's now up to two pellets, twice a day. And that's it.

I've read that their stomachs are the size of their eye. In other words, really small!

My bigger betta gets 3 pellets/2x per day (total of 6). This smaller guy (who bloated) gets 2 pellets/2x per day (total of 4).

Based on Callistra's and Shellieca's advice, I also switched his pellets. They said that 'fish' should be the first 3 ingredients. (Rather than wheat or cereal.) People here recommend NLS (New Life Spectrum) and Omega One Betta Buffet. My local petstore doesn't carry NLS, but they did have Omega One, so that's what I've been feeding.

Good luck! The barrel rolls at the surface had me convinced that he wasn't going to make it. But he's fine now. (Although he's decided that he likes chewing his tail. So that's our next 'challenge' to overcome. LOL)

I got him those new life spectrum pellets a while back, he ate one and spit others out. Waste of money. I notices what looks like a little round white poop on one of the leaves in my tank, I wonder if that's normal.