I'm losing my Mr. Delta Betta! Can you help save him?

[Silverfang]

Oh no, they can and will eat themselves to death. Their stomach is about the size of their eye. Just a good way to judge when feeding. I recommend 2 pellets a day twice a day, once in the morning, once in the evening.

[Myates]

Poor guy, I wish him a speedy recovery. I would follow Oldfishlady's advice to a T. She's definitely knowledgeable in all areas of aquarium life. For future vacations - a healthy betta can live up to 2 weeks without any food, so if you are going away for the weekend, he will be just fine without eating. A lot of people fast their bettas 1-2 days a week as it is.
Wishing you the best of luck!

[erishkigel]

Update on Mr. Delta Betta~~

he's now in a plastic-wrap covered 1 qt container that is sitting inside his tank. Current temp 77. The water has epsom salt and conditioner.

I called the fish store, and while they don't have Indian almond leaves, they do have a liquid extract (from Japan) made for bettas. Since I can't get oak leaves, I'm hoping this is good. My other alternative is to go to the Tea Grotto ask for naturally decaffeinated unflavored green tea leaves.

[erishkigel]

Odfishlady,

The local fish store does not have IAL, but did have and recommend "Atison's Betta Spa" made by Ocean Nutrition. When I got home and could use a magnifying gass to read the back of the bottle, it says do not add sat to the water. Altho the store-man called it almond leaf extract, that's not all it is. In addition to the wild almond leaves extract (Terminallia Catappa), it also contains Sodium Chloride,Calcium Chloride, and Yucca extract. Since I don't want to over salt him, I can't use it till tomorrow, when water without salt has sat out long enough. Or should I try to get the decaf green tea, steep it (how much/long) and start treating him tonight? Since this morning, he has been in epsom (and conditioner) water in a plastic wrapped quart container.

But beyond that, since I can't follow your directions precisely, I don't know what's the best way to proceed~

[Oldfishlady]

Personally, I wouldn't use it and just do the treatment without the tannins....you can use decaf green tea, however, it doesn't have the antibacterial/fungal properties like raw tannins-but it is still good for stress and often that is most important....