Please help save my son's first pet

[NorthernLights]

Make sure to pick up some silk plants for Pookie at the PetSmart/Petco. I'd hold off on live plants until you get him settled. Bettas like to have things to hide in and rest on.

Some fish find neon colors stressful. I don't know why that is, but maybe they associate bright colors with other male bettas, which are a territorial threat to them. You might want to choose silk plants that are more natural shades. Also, what gravel do you have (brand and color)?

It may be that your tap water ammonia level is just naturally high. If that is the case, you will want to use just a little extra water conditioner and change the water every other day or so. When you upgrade to a bigger tank, it will probably cycle after a bit, which will keep the ammonia down (and we'll explain that when you get there).

BTW, please post some pictures of your fish when you can. We'd all love to see him!

[BettaGurl79]

Hello And welcome to the forums! I literally went through the same thing your describing now with Petco/petsmart mis-information, about two weeks ago to date. Luckily with all the knowledge found on these forums, Flotsom is now back on track.

Avoid Petsmart/petco silk plants. Or if your going to buy a silk plant from them, bring a pair of panty hose with you. If the plant snags the panty hose. It can snag your Betta's fin. I learned this is hard way and gave Flotsom a small hole in his dorsal. I highly recommend Bio-Orb silk plants. I have four of them in my ten Gallon and I often catch Flotsom chilling on their leaves instad of his hammock.

If you can't find New life spectrum or Omega one in the petstores, It is available through Amazon.com.

Good Luck and echoing the sentiments of NothernLights, Pictures please =)

[SaveMyFish]

Hi everybody! Sorry I've been offline for a bit but it's been a bit chaotic with my son, my wife, and I all trading illnesses back and forth.

The moral of the story is we finally got everything that you good people recommended (with the exception of a larger aquarium which is simply not in the budget at the moment), and Pookie is doing so much better. He absolutely loves the Omega One Buffet Pellets and he's now eating like a horse. How often does everyone recommend feeding him?

As requested, I am attaching pics of the revitalized Pookie for everyone to see. Thanks again for all the help, it is greatly appreciated!

http://i.imgur.com/oK9GD3B.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/eRnnxmR.jpg

I know these aren't perfect pics, but I purposefully attached the pic of his fins so someone could verify that I'm not seeing fin rot or ich.

Thanks again for all the help, without it, I'm fairly certain Pookie would not have made it.

[Saphira101]

I feed my fishies 2x a day, 2 pellets in the morning, 1 at night. I fast them on Sundays. (Fasting is basically not feeding the fish to relieve constipation, make them hungry so they want to eat, etc.)

[Perseusmom]

So happy to hear Pookie is doing better !!!! I dont see any fin rot or ich but his tummy looks abit bloated you can sure tell he loves to eat...lol How much are you feeding him ? I dont use those pellets so I dont know how big they are but I am sure others will. I feed my guy twice a day morning and night and he gets 4 pellets in the morning and 4 at night which has worked out well for him as he has never been bloated. He sure is a very handsome guy I have a crowntail also.

[SaveMyFish]

Originally Posted by Perseusmom

So happy to hear Pookie is doing better !!!! I dont see any fin rot or ich but his tummy looks abit bloated you can sure tell he loves to eat...lol How much are you feeding him ? I dont use those pellets so I dont know how big they are but I am sure others will. I feed my guy twice a day morning and night and he gets 4 pellets in the morning and 4 at night which has worked out well for him as he has never been bloated. He sure is a very handsome guy I have a crowntail also.

We feed him once/day and we've slowly been increasing the amount as he didn't eat the first week, but now eats everything we put in the tank in less than 45 seconds. Tonight (only an hour or so before we fed him) he ate about 8-10 of the Omega One pellets which are very small. We had been feeding him the Wardley Color Intensifier the first week, and those pellets were much larger...maybe five times as thick if not more, so I guess pellets is a pretty loose term if it all comes down to the brand. I don't think we're overfeeding him, but again, I'm not sure.

Every website seems to say something different. I've seen everything from feed him 3x/day to once every 2 days. We settled on once a day since we were a bit concerned about overfeeding after he went without any food for so long.

Do you think his bloating right now is cause for concern?

[Perseusmom]

I know hpw you feel when it comes to feeding, I have had Perseus almost 9 months now and I am still confused sometimes as to if I feeding enough or to much. Since your feeding once a day I think 8 pellets would be plenty for him cause all together thats what I feed my guy in one day. I would just keep and eye on him and his tummy for a couple of days and if he has any trouble swimming that would be a sign he is eating to much caused from the bloating. Dont worry bloating is easy to fix if need be you just add Espom salt to their water but be sure to post pictures ask about that if you feel he is needs any treatment.

[Nicci Lu]

You do hear a lot of different opinions as to how much to feed bettas. With the Omega One, I give my guy 8 a day, 3x a day. I find that when I was only feeding 2x a day, he started mistaking his tail for food. Bettas like the act of "hunting" food. The usual recommendation on this forum is 4-6 Omega Ones per day. I think that it really depends upon the betta and their activity level- all do better with different feeding regimens.

Yours is definitely a little piggy. :) You want him to look like the betta with the softly rounded belly in this:http://www.bettatalk.com/food.htmTry slowly adjusting his food intake until his belly looks like that.