I woke up this morning to find my DeT bloated. He was perfectly fine last night when I went to bed so this seems to have literally happened over night. That seems to be the only problem with him, he's acting completely normal otherwise. Does anyone have any suggestions for treatment?
Housing
What size is your tank? 10 gallon divided tank
What temperature is your tank? 80*
Does your tank have a filter? yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? another betta (tank is divided) and 2 ghost shrimp.
Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Hikari Bio-Gold and Frozen Bloodworms
How often do you feed your betta fish? 3 pellets once a day and bloodworms once a week as a treat, then I fast them for 1 day. Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? once a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 30%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Aquasafe
Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? He is bloated
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? No changes in behavior
When did you start noticing the symptoms? About an hour ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? No
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)? I've only had him for about a month
Are you able to take a pic of him?
Are his scales smooth or pineconed?
TO be safe, you should fast him for 2-3 days.
Hikari Bio Gold is not a good food for bettas now that they have changed the ingredients. It has been known to cause bloating. Switch to a brand that has at least 40% protein and list real fish products as the first ingredients (not wheat or flour).
Well...I think I've found the reason behind Rambo's mystery bloat, it appears that while the rest of us were sleeping, he was making a snack out of one of my ghost shrimp. I caught him eating what was left of the shrimp's tail a few minutes ago (it was kind of gross). I'm completely shocked that he did this, he was always such a gentleman to his tankmates...
She was a pretty big girl too so no wonder he's bloated! I'll definitely be fasting him for a few days. Is there anything else I should do?
Also, I didn't realize that they had changed the ingredients in the Bio-Gold food...that's disappointing. Is there another brand that you suggest?
I've been doing a little research and was wondering if it would be a good idea to feed him frozen Daphnia after fasting him for a few days to help clean out his system.
Frozen daphnia is very good for helping bettas get over bloat (it's high in fiber >.>)... I feed mine Atison's Betta Products, which are my favorite since they are so small. A lot of people also lie New Life Spectrum.
Ingredients
White Fish Meal, Shrimp Meal, Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Wheat Flour, Alpha Starch, Brewers Dried Yeast, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate, Choline Chloride, Inositol, Calcium Iodate, Manganese Sulfate, Magnesium Carbonate, Protease, Lysine, Methionine, Fish Oil, Carotene. Guaranteed AnalysisCrude Protein min. 38.0% Moisture max. 10.0% Crude Fat min. 4.0% Ash max. 12.0% Crude Fiber max. 1.0% Phosphorus min. 0.9%
The ingredients on my package are different from the ones you listed.
The first few listed are: Wheat flour,fish meal,soybean meal,gluten meal, krill meal, wheat germ meal, cuttlefish oil, brewers dried yeast....
I'm not an expert but those ingredients don't sound near as good to me as the ones listed on the Foster and Smith site. Are there different types of Bio-Gold?
OFL you have the old Hikari Bio Gold, they recently changed the ingredients so now wheat flour is the first product... obviously, since bettas are carnivores, wheat doesn't do much more than act as a filler. The high concentration of wheat also leads to it expanding more and causing bloat. You want a fish food that lists real meats as the first ingredients. The old Hikari was good, i don't know why they changed it.
There aren't different types of Hikari bio gold, they just released a new *not so good* recipe.
OFL you have the old Hikari Bio Gold, they recently changed the ingredients so now wheat flour is the first product... obviously, since bettas are carnivores, wheat doesn't do much more than act as a filler. The high concentration of wheat also leads to it expanding more and causing bloat. You want a fish food that lists real meats as the first ingredients. The old Hikari was good, i don't know why they changed it.
There aren't different types of Hikari bio gold, they just released a new *not so good* recipe.
Oh my....really....I agree...not good....I don't feed a lot of processed food and what little I do it isn't Betta food....but other carnivore type foods.....totally agree wheat flour would be fine if listed at 4-5th ingredient...not the first.....
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
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