[BeautifulBlue2]

Okay, so within the past few days I noticed that my betta fish, Takeshi, has had some pretty significant (in my opinion, at least--he's the first betta I've ever owned) bloating.

He gets fed dry flakes once a day. The only problem is that I just discovered that my mother, who feeds him during the weekdays while I'm at school, has been feeding him too much. I cleaned his tank today and found that there was no feces at the bottom, which makes me believe that this is all constipation and it'll just take a while for him to get it out of his system.

Housing
What size is your tank? 1.2 Gallons
What temperature is your tank? Generally around 76 degrees F
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? None

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Dry Betta Flakes from National Geographic
How often do you feed your betta fish? Once a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? At first I believed that I was cleaning it too often, so I would wait until it got visibly dirty. But ever since last week, I've been making an attempt to clean it once a week.
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 100%. I've tried doing less than that a few times, but the water still looks terrible afterwords. It's easier to do 100% changes when I do clean his tank, and he's been perfectly content with it.
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? 1/2 teaspoon of Aquarium Salt, Water Conditioner, and Bacteria Supplement

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters? No, I have not. I ran out of testing strips, but I do recall that the water conditions were always consistent in the past.

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? He's particularly bloated.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Not at all. He still swims to the front of his tank to greet me when I'm near, he's active, and up until I took him off his food yesterday (Monday) he would eat normally.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Saturday/Sunday
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? I haven't fed him since Sunday afternoon; otherwise, no.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Unfortunately, yes. Early on after I first got him, he came down with fin rot--that's why he has virtually no tail fin in the pictures. He also had a bit of a sick spell for a week and a half, maybe two weeks, back in October, where he wouldn't eat and just hung out at the bottom of his tank. Then one day it was as if nothing had ever happened: He was eating and swimming like a normal betta. I've taken to calling him the miracle fish because he's made it through so much, haha
How old is your fish (approximately)? Maybe about eight, nine months?

But me being me, and this being my first fish, I'm wondering if Takeshi may be in the early stages of Dropsy? As far as I can tell, his scales aren't popping up like pine cones like Dropsy suggests, but it could be because it's just developing...? I'm probably just being paranoid, but I'd rather be safe than sorry, y'know? :blueworry: Here are some pics (sorry if they're huge or blurry!):

His scales are probably more defined because of the flash on my camera.

 

[LolaQuigs]

In a tank that small, you should be doing more frequent water changes. Since you have a filter, I would do three 50% changes per week. Whether his fin issues are fin rot or tail biting, clean water is the best thing for him. Do you always use aquarium salt, or are you using it specifically to treat the fin rot?

It's hard to tell if it's dropsy or not. When you look down at him from above, do his scales stick out and look like a pinecone?

A lot of people say that flakes can cause constipation. I would recommend a high-quality betta pellet, like New Life Spectrum for bettas or Omega One Betta Buffet.

If he doesn't look like he's "pineconing," for the time being, I would fast him for a day or two. Some people have had luck feeding frozen daphnia to a constipated betta.

 

[Greenapp1es]

You definately aren't doing too many water changes. In fact, you're not doing near enough. A 1.2 gallon tank should be getting 100% water changes *daily*. Since you have a filter you could probably extend this to every other day, but honestly in that size a tank the filter doesn't help near as much as it does in larger tanks.

There is definitely overfeeding going on, but it's hard to tell if there are other issues as well. I'm not ruling out dropsy at this point. I'm also really concerned about your guy's fins. That's too short to be caused by biting. I think your boy may be dealing with some fin melt that's almost at his body. This is serious - if rot hits his body that's a whole different ballgame.

You should likely start your boy on antibiotics at this point. Kanaplex if you can find it. If you can't (it can be hard to find) we'll need to know more information about your water chemistry. Not all antibiotics are effective in all water pH levels.

For now - even with the filter do 100% changes. You need to keep his environment sterile to deal whatever it is he's got going on. I'd also start on epsom salt - 1tsp per gallon - just in case dropsy *is* what we're looking at. Dissolve it first then add to tank slowly over the course of an hour. Once dropsy hits the pinecone stage it's nearly impossible to successfully treat....so if this might be dropsy we don't want it to get there.

 

[PurpleJay]

That bloating looks too severe (to me, at least) to be just constipation. You might be looking at Dropsy. And LolaQuins, from what I've heard, pineconing usually doesn't start till the last stages of Dropsy. There's no good in denying it if he really does have it- you either keep refusing to accept that and have your betta die or quickly figure it out and start on treatment. Kanaplex has worked for Dropsy before so I'd recommend using that.

 

[PurpleJay]

I'm sorry, Greenapp1es- didn't see your post. Stupid friggin' computer doesn't like to load.

 

[Greenapp1es]

Also - I just saw you're treating with Aquarium Salt. STOP IMMEDIATELY. This would be fine in most circumstances (though honestly, that dose might be a little high for long term use in this tank), but it will cause your fish to retain fluids which is the opposite of what you want right now.

AFTER stopping AQ salt, wait 24-48 hours before starting Epsom salt. The two can't be used together.

 

[BeautifulBlue2]

I just cleaned his tank today--treated with aquarium salt--though I haven't put him back in yet, since the water's still warming up.

So I suppose I should assume that this IS dropsy? I've read many times not to start a fish on antibiotics unless you're absolutely sure, so I'm a bit hesitant to go out and buy this "Kanaplex" right off the bat. Considering how rare it sounds, I don't even think I'd be able to get it at any of my local pet stores. I searched it on PetSmart.com and couldn't get a result there, either.

Is this basically it? I read the description and it said it treats dropsy:
http://www.amazon.com/Fish-Aquatic-...=UTF8&qid=1423606722&sr=1-1&keywords=kanaplex

I'll set out some more water tonight to do another water change--this time WITHOUT the aquarium salt--tomorrow. I won't feed him anymore, either. (I gave him a teeny bit of freeze-dried brine shrimp that he eventually ate while I was cleaning.)

Also, I'm sorry if I wasn't clear in my original post, but my fish doesn't have fin rot anymore. That was back in July/August, a month or so after I had actually gotten him. Since then he had accidentally tore his fin, too, which further shortened it. Unless you can tell by the pictures that he's somehow contracted fin rot again. In which case I'm not even sure what I should be doing anymore, if he ends up with both fin rot AND dropsy.

Is epsom salt necessary...? I've looked up these "salt baths" and the procedures are pretty confusing (at least to me). Also, I'm not sure where I would acquire it?

 

[Greenapp1es]

What water conditioner are you using? Usually with conditioned water you don't have to let it sit for 24 hours. If you're doing a water change, I'd condition new water now and add it back to the tank without the Aquarium Salt now.

 

[BeautifulBlue2]

I use TopFin Water Conditioner, and I've always been advised to leave the water out the night before regardless.

Even if I don't have to, I'm still waiting until tomorrow. I simply don't have the time to change his water again tonight.

 

[Greenapp1es]

Otherwise - in this case I really would recommend seeing if you can find kanaplex. As has been noted, the bloat is a little bit more than I can definitively say is simply overfeeding. It's also going higher up into his body. Dropsy is not a disease itself - but a symptom of your fish's internal organs shutting down. *IF* that is caused by bacterial infection, there is *SOME* success treating if it is treated early enough. That's why it's so important to treat aggressively. My fear is if we wait to the point where there is no doubt (pineconing), it will be too late.

But - I'm not just concerned about the dropsy. I'm concerned about the fins too - notably his caudal (tail) fin. If that's fin melt\rot - than if it reaches his body that's ridiculously difficult to treat as well. It needs to be stopped now.

For epsom salt, you can find it at any drugstore. It's the same stuff humans use. You just need to make sure the stuff you pick up has no added scents or dyes. I wouldn't treat as a bath - I'd add directly to the tank. 1tsp per gallon for 10 days. Again - your guy HAS to be off Aquarium salt before you can start Epsom Salt. And yes - at this point I do believe it's necessary given his bloating symptoms. It could help if it were constipation, but if it's dropsy it will help release excess fluids that your guy is holding on to.

 

[BeautifulBlue2]

I'll make sure to get epsom salt, then.

And once again, I'm sorry, but he doesn't have fin rot anymore...? Unless you can definitively tell from the pictures that he has somehow contracted it again. There's no way he's had it for the past six to seven months. Even with my limited knowledge of fish, I'm sure it would have reached his body by that point and he would have died.

 

[Greenapp1es]

I'm not seeing active rot - but in 6-7 months you should have seen regrowth. There is not much left, but it looks like what's left *could* be fin melt. It's hard to say though.

Since his conditions were poor (sorry, that isn't meant to be offensive, but he wasn't getting the clean water he needed to thrive) that could explain why you haven't seen any regrowth though.

Again though - the potential dropsy would be enough to warrant the kanaplex alone. Normally you're right - you don't want to dose antibiotics aimlessly. But this isn't aimless, the bloating looks a bit severe to be simple constipation and if it *is* dropsy - it needs to be treated quickly and aggressively to have any hope at being effective.

 

[BeautifulBlue2]

All right, so epsom salt and the antibiotic it is. Did you check the link I provided in one of my previous posts in regards to if it's the right antibiotic? I want to make sure that's what I'm looking for...

 

[Greenapp1es]

No - Furan2 is something different. I think it might actually be stronger, but I'm not as familiar with it. If you can't find kanaplex you might be able to see if you could find that in a pet store, but I'm not sure if that's one of the antibiotics where water pH matters.

Amazon has Kanaplex, but it looks to be WAAAAAY overpriced there. Here are a couple of alternative vendors.
http://www.bigalspets.com/kanaplex-...son+Shopping&gclid=CNCDouq-2MMCFQgtaQodWiYAzw

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=24795

 

[BeautifulBlue2]

I'll check and see if that's something I can do. Thank you for your help.