My Betta Fish is not well can anyone help me?

[cbaccino]

Hi,

I have had my betta fish for 3 months now, I got him for Christmas.
He has been fine and then a few days ago he started acting funny, he stopped eating and his stomach is swollen.

I am hoping he is just constipated because he hasn't been to the toilet for days, but I am afraid it may be something worse? I have researched pictures of dropsy as I was told by my aquarium to kill him because he has dropsy but I disagree with them because he does not have that porcupine look. Today he accepted a worm, i have tried to feed him peas but he won't eat them...I have some tri sulfa (antibiotic) that I am putting in the water which is not too cold as I live in Australia and it is really warm here at the moment.

Can anyone help me, I don't want him to suffer but I love him to death and don't want to put him down just because he has constipation.

I read about someone else losing their fish earlier and I am so sorry for you as I know how cute they are and mine is really a good friend.

Cristina

[willow]

hello and welcome.
sorry you are having problems,and again sorry to have to ask questions
at a time when you are clearly worried........however to help you we need
to know some things,
what size tank is he in.
what do you feed him
what are the water test results.Amonia.nitrAte,nitrIte.
how often do you clean him
do you add conditioner to the new water.

[Flashygrrl]

Don't feed him anything else if he won't eat peas. Are they cut up into little bitty pieces and all? Some like them frozen, some like them really squished, I know someone here said they will only eat it off the end if a toothpick. Keep trying with different methods (unless it looks like your presence is stressing him out more).

[cbaccino]

Hi there and thank you for your responses.

He is usually in a 2.5-3 litre tank, it has a small plant in it that is healthy and growing all the time.

I use water conditioner, bioclear and stress coat with aloe vera in it to get rid of any chlorine. The temperature is above 25 degrees for sure as it is summer over here.

I clean his tank out at least once a week, I don't test the water so I don't know the levels of anything unfortunately.

He has been eating freeze dried worms which I have since discovered are the not the best thing for him which is why I am thinking/hoping he might have constipation.

The peas I am trying are mashed up and skinless and cooked, he almost took one yesterday but changed his mind. He doesn't seem to mind me around, he likes my voice so I don't stress him I just can't get him to eat. I did try the toothpick method but not luck there either :(

I have moved him to a smaller tub for now as he was having trouble getting to the top to breath, he seems more relaxed now.

If you think he is not going to make it then please tell me as I don't want him to suffer if he is in pain...He is usually really active and now he just sits at the bottom. His stomach is quite bloated :( but you can only see this from the sides not the top. What shall I do???

[willow]

hi
i say don't give up on him yet. !
a couple of days without food,is no biggie.
you could have left him in his tank and just lowerd the water level,
so he has not far to go for air.

i pose this question to people reading this.............
would an air stone be of benifit here in this situation please. ???

[marinebiologist21]

I think and air stone would be good as there is more O2 in the water and I would imagine he has to come up less often.

Is he floating on any particular side?
Does he seem to 'bob' in the water?

If so, this is Swim Bladder and I think can be cured.

[cbaccino]

Godzilla ate a pea today!!! :)

Finally, he was after food and I tried the pea and he ate it.

He is having trouble with balancing upright but I think it is getting better, I bought some stuff to measure the water PH levels and so now that is all correct and I put some epsom salts in the water and he seems ok, he is out of his hospital tank and back in his normal one with half the water so he doesn't have far to go to get air.

Fingers crossed he might be on the mend what do you think?

[Flashygrrl]

Yay, glad to hear it. No food except more peas until he poops, then make sure you vary his diet and feed him a pea every few days.

[willow]

wondeful news,glad he's on the mend. :)

[cbaccino]

ok, so two days have passed and he still hasn't pooed, what's going on, does it take longer?

He just sits at the bottom of the tank motionless coming up for air every couple of minutes. He doesn't swim around at all and has no balance still, he rolls over but not bobbing around, just at the bottom, will he be ok?

He won't eat anymore peas either!