Help Me Help My Alpha

[AlphaBeta]

Aloha,

Alpha is not feeling well at all and seems to have what I can only describe as the dropsies. He will swim around but only when I tap and show him his food, up to the top, look at his food, blow a bubble, stops and sinks back to the bottom, where he cruises into his ceramic multi-colored home and parks it. I'm worried about him as he is my kitchen and cooking buddy when I'm preparing meals in the kitchen for my kids. He's usually such the flirt as he swims to the side I am standing and does a little dance or flares up and shows his stuff. Can anyone help me help Alpha?

Mahalo

[tnicholas1970]

how long have u had him

[crowntail lover]

He might have something wrong with his sight........Does he go for the food then misses and blows a bubble out of his mouth???

[onekatietwo]

I might as well ask, because other people will:

What's his tank like? How large? Water temp? How often do you change the water? How often do you feed him? How much do you feed him? What do you feed him? Any other info you can give is good too.

Anyway, if there is nothing VISIBLY wrong - like weird specs or growths on him, wounds, color changing, whatever... (and in some cases, even if it is one of those things) it can probably be easily fixed either with a change in diet or a change in water conditions.

Most Betta inflictions are either a direct or indirect result of 'dirty' water. The next large percentage seem to be from over feeding.

Only a small percentage of inflictions and deaths seem to be from something that couldn't be helped.

[crowntail lover]

Most bettas that do what she discribed. Like staying low at the botto and blowing bubbles when missing food have a sight problem...They try to stay in one place...But you can also treat this with buying rich foods that focus on that prob...Trust me, Edger is just like this....But he has shown great progress with his sight because of me feeding him rich bloodworm and shrimp and making him move and explore diff. tanks...

[tnicholas1970]

so when they get older they lose their sight why?

[crowntail lover]

It has to do with poor nutrition....Like I rescued Edger when he was 2 from the neighbor how didnt give a **** about him and he is now partially blind, but is getting better

[Campbell]

Originally Posted by crowntail lover

He might have something wrong with his sight........Does he go for the food then misses and blows a bubble out of his mouth???

My female always does this. Sometimes it takes her several times to get the pellet. Maybe she has a sight problem... ?

[tnicholas1970]

so if they eat alot when they get older they wont lose their sight

[tnicholas1970]

yeah campbell she has a sight problem