Bloated Betta

[Memphis]

What size is your tank? 10 gallon
What temperature is your tank? 78-79 hard to read the theometer.
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? N/A
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? Corydoras

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? I even it out by giving him two in the late morning and evening daily. Fast for one day weekly.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Weekly
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 30% I think
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Nutrafin Aqua + w/h Stress Coat

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH: between 6.2 - 6.8
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? He started to bloating on the sides. There maybe be open wounds on the bridge area (tip of the top), and raggy fins.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? At first he was doing ok, and then he started getting worse today by laying on the bottom of the tank lopsided and panting.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? I notice the bulge on his sides end of last week and stopped feeding him to empty out
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? I know I am going to get shot at for saying this. I gave him a tiny bit of a cooked pea, and did an extra water change.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Never
How old is your fish (approximately)? 1 year


I think he's secretly eating his tank mates food when I am not around. This is the first time I experience him bloating like this. As for the wounds and raggy tails, Kratos sleeps in really, really awkward positions in his plants or wrapped around intake pipe.. I removed potential plants that may caused the problems.

I also checked him for possible ick or velvet even tho I haven't seen him rubbing against things. Also for dropsy, again I don't see the "pine cone" effect on his scales.

Before setting up his old home for treatments. I wanted to double check with experts before using the Epsom salt treatment. Also would giving him Daphina's would help bloating?

Any help would be appreciated.

[XxxXnoodleXxxX]

What kind of pellets are you giving him?

[Perseusmom]

You can do the Espom salt treatments its 1 teaspoon per gallon and dissolve it first in some warm water before adding it to his tank. Be sure and get the unscented Espom salt. Daphina could help as it can act as a laxative, do you know if your guy is pooping or not ? What do you feed his tank mates ? I have heard the algae wafers can cause bloating in Bettas.

[Memphis]

@XxxXnoodleXxxX: Wardly ones. I am going to chuck it out when I get some better stuff possibly today.

@Perseusmom: I will try that. It's hard to tell since I only witness him pooping twice the whole time I had him. He likes pooping in private. I did seem him poop two weeks ago which looked normal. That is probably what caused it. I also heard owners having a tough time with their Betta's being bloated because of the waffers. I will have to figure something out to prevent this from happening again.

[callistra]

Photos please. What colors is his poop?

How long have you had fish in this tank/been set up?

Are you using a siphon with changes? 30% is 3 gallons.

[Memphis]

@callistra: Last time I Checked his poop was a normal brownish color, and I had the tank set up almost two months now. Cycled before adding the fish in.

I bail the water out using a plastic cup, and dump it in a 4L (little over 1 gallon) ice cream pail. I do a full one every water change. It looks 30% of the water is gone when I do it. Sorry for the late response..

Light patches is the area of the bulge. He doesn't like the camera much. I will try to get a better pic of that area.



He is swimming around today.

[callistra]

Wow.. I've never seen a betta that color.. Nice!

You're not changing enough water and you need to be using a siphon to clean the gravel, not just scoop stuff off the top. You should be emptying that pail at least 3 times.

I would do an extra couple of water changes this week to catch up.. total of 3 by week's end.

In addition to the bulge in his side (probably constipated) he has some fin rot/melt. Clean water should clear it up and fasting should help the constipation, but if he's too piggy with his tank mates he may need to be cupped during feeding to control how much he eats.

[Memphis]

Sorry for necroing.
Lightning on the aquarium messes around with his coloring to make it all pinkish purple. Any lighting to be honest always changes his looks. Technically he is red with a blue wash.

I did couple extra water changes last week. Sucked up junk from the bottom. I might do another 30% mid week and double the stress coat to for fin regrowth. He seems to getting his energy back. Still bloated tho. I fast him half of last week minus the small cooked pea I gave him. Is there other ways to unbloat him besides Epson salt?

[Kiara1125]

Try feeding him a blanched pea. My bettas love peas. They'll snatch up a half of one and go tearing around the tank with it. xD if he won't eat that, try frozen daphnia. If worse comes to worse, you can give him a salt bath. I gave two of my bettas a salt bath in a gallon bowl. One had dropsy and the other had SBD. Both are completely fine now.

[Memphis]

Sorry for necroing. I have been busy dealing with these fish problems that I haven't checked back.

For an update, nothing changed. He has a big round bulge on his side that is worrying me. Still no sign of any poop from him. I have been doing his episom salt treatment for a week. No one has any frozen Daphnia's even places out of town didn't have any at all.

Not to mention dealing with tank mates that disappearing to find them dead (not the cories. Got some tetras dumped on me when I didn't want any other mates except the cories and a snail for algae control, so I thought) got an ammonia spike today, got that under 0.


Sorry for the rant. I wanted to get him better, but all these problems are making it hard for me to do so.