Skinny rescue betta...help?

[nowzem]

So a couple of weeks ago...I was checking out the petsmart bettas and I bought one of them because he was sooooo pretty. He is extremely small...and I thought it was due to his age because they had a LOT of small bettas at the time (actually too small IMO). Well, I got him home and put him in a divided 10g...and he acted stressed constantly. Clamped fins/laying on bottom/not eating/shedding slime coat. So I removed him from the 10 (water parameters all normal and temp @ 78, ghost shrimp tank mates) and put him in a 0.5g QT tank where I treated him with salt. He has drastically improved with daily water changes and salt for a few days (I've discontinued the salt now) but he is still soooo skinny...he looks like he hasn't eaten in weeks and he probably hasn't because every time I feed him, he chews it for a bit and then spits it back out. I gave him a live blackworm and he ate that...and he eats frozen bloodworms, but spits their "shells" back out. I soak his micro pellets and he eats them but always spits them back out. I notice when he eats it shoots out of his gills...and today he tried really hard to eat the micro pellet...and I couldn't find it in his tank so I think he ate it but only after spitting it out a million times. He "hated" the 10 g so I'm afraid to move him because he at least is active and spreads his fins now. The temp in the QT is less than ideal but I was worried that the temp increase shocked him (he's used to being at RT after all) because when I float him in warm water he clamps and lays on the bottom again. He is very emaciated and I don't know what to do because I can't keep blackworms and I don't trust those anyway.


I've attached pics... he really is smaller than he appears. His head is bigger than his body! Is he just too juvenile to eat reg pellets? He is a DR(?)CT, btw. With rainbow colors...

The first pic is him clamped in the 10g. The last 2 are of him acting normal and coming up to the glass for food :( in his 0.5 (I know the size is shameful!)

[Oldfishlady]

Can you get mosquito larva and mass feed them.....that will help put weight on fast.....if not, frozen foods would be good...very pretty fella I see why you got him......keep up with the water changes like you are doing and so true some Bettas just don't tolerate bigger spaces well......

[nowzem]

Thanks, OFL! You always give great advice, and I always appreciate you taking the time! <3. I have been trying to get some larvae...but its been raining so much the eggs keep getting washed away. I'm gonna go get another bucket this weekend and fill it just partially...hopefully I can get a" culture" of them going. I also am going to get some different frozen foods...meant to yesterday but forgot to go get them out of the freezer when I was at the LFS yesterday. :P