Betta bloating and discoloration. Please help! First time betta owner.

[ShearxVanity]

Okay, so I have had Swimmy for about 10 months now, and everything was fine when I first got him. I have him in a 1.5 gallon fish bowl, I do a once weekly 100% water change and add a water conditioner to remove the harmful tap water chemicals. I had live plants in the bowl with Swimmy but my cat kept trying to eat the plants so I had to remove them.

About a week ago, my mother was changing the water for me as I was out of town. I told her exactly how to change the water and clean the rocks and how much water conditioner to add. She put Swimmy back in my room and walked in about an hour later to check in and she couldn't see him in the bowl and finally found him behind the bookshelf I have his bowl on. She said he was unresponsive at first but she took a straw and blew bubbles into the bowl and he perked up instantly. He has lost a good bit of his color around his face as you can see in the picture below, and he is a crowntail betta and had beautiful burgundy shredded fins, but the shredded parts have fallen off so it just looks like a normal fin, just slightly destroyed.

I did another water change today, 100% and noticed he was bloated. I shrugged it off and just decided to not feed him for the next few days, and I put him back in my room and turned my attention away for about 30 minutes and look back and he had a red thing hanging from the stomach, i have it circled in the photo along with where it was hanging off of him. I tried to get a picture of it attached to him but the camera flash startled him and he swam off really fast and it fell off so I got the best picture i could of him and the red piece.

I'm really scared and don't know what is wrong with him, I did everything I knew to do to properly take care of a betta but I don't know what could have possibly went wrong. Please help me out! I'm so sad that I may lose him, he's got such a great personality. Please please please help!

[Adastra]

Red things.. my first thought is camallanus worms--it's not common in bettas and it's pretty resistant to normal praziquantel treatments so if your betta does have camallanus you'll probably have to special order special medication in order to get it cleared up, unfortunately. And the medication, levamisole and fenbendazole, itself is pretty toxic--many fish don't survive treatment. Is he eating?

The first thing I would do would be to get a temporary container to keep him in, such as a 2 or 4 gallon plastic rubbermaid/sterilite storage bin. These are only about $3 at walmart or target and they are ideal hospital tanks. More importantly, they can be safely heated. You should really get an adjustable 25 watt heater--this will make him more comfortable and he will be able to heal much faster if he is kept at an ideal temperature (80 degrees).

[ShearxVanity]

He tries to eat if I drop a flake of food in there, but he doesn't show much interest in it. He likes to hang out at the surface of the water and doesn't really swim or move Sometimes he will sink to the bottom of the bowl and stay for a few minutes then swim back to the surface. He will flip his fins and kind of perk up when he sees me, but he's not very active other than that. Is there any way he may be able to survive this if they resist medicine and the medicine itself is toxic?

[Oldfishlady]

I would start by doing daily 100% water changes and cover the top with plastic veggie wrap to keep the air above the water warm and humid, hold food for at least 3 days then offer half feedings every other day.
or
You can try Epsom salt 1tsp/gal along with the daily water changes, I like to pre-mix the Epsom salt in a 1g jug to make dosage and water changes easier, lower the water level if he seems to be struggling to swim.
He may have internal injuries from the fall and depending on how long he was out of the water cause swim bladder issues, the warm humid air can help this to a degree and the Epsom salt can help with edema and will also work as a laxative to get the pressure off the swim bladder.
You can find Epsom salt at most stores in the pharmacy dept.

[Adastra]

Originally Posted by ShearxVanity

He tries to eat if I drop a flake of food in there, but he doesn't show much interest in it. He likes to hang out at the surface of the water and doesn't really swim or move Sometimes he will sink to the bottom of the bowl and stay for a few minutes then swim back to the surface. He will flip his fins and kind of perk up when he sees me, but he's not very active other than that. Is there any way he may be able to survive this if they resist medicine and the medicine itself is toxic?

I stated that kind of poorly--praziquantel is the main ingredient in most medications for internal parasites that you would find in a normal pet store, but it doesn't usually work on camallanus. Levamisole and fenbendazole have been shown to kill camallanus, but they're extremely harsh. Levamisole is actually used in livestock and fenbendazole is used on dogs and cats, usually.

For now it would probably be best to follow OFL's instructions and see if there are any changes--if you continue to see him pooping red stuff, it's not good, though. The fact that he is bloated and doesn't have an appetite increase the possibility of it being camallanus or another type of internal parasite. If you can get the fish a heater or move him into a heated area, he would also benefit from that. You might want to remove the glass rocks in the bowl so you can monitor his poop more easily.