[tf1265]

My betta seems to be having some trouble with her swim bladder. It's not too severe- she can stay upright, but she's floating. When she does swim down, it takes effort for her to stay there. As soon as she stops "swimming," she floats back up to the top. Poor thing.

She looks a little bloated, but not too bad.

I'm leaning toward isolation and epsom salt treatment (she's in a divided 5 gallon tank - the other betta isn't showing any similar symptoms). 1tsp/gallon? Unfortunately I'll probably have to put her in a 1/2 gallon fish bowl leftover from when I got her and didn't know what I was doing. So could I put 1/2 tsp of epsom salt in her 1/2 gallon bowl for a few days? She's an office fish, so I'd probably put her back into her heated tank at night to keep her from getting too cold. Is this a bad idea?

I've never done the epsom salt thing before, so I just want to make sure I don't make some glaring mistake that will do more harm than good.

 

[jeanclaudeasher]

You could try floating him in a cup in the larger tank to keep the water warm enough. For the epsom salt do 1 tsp per gallon (use a water gallon jug, or a milk one cleaned out with water very well) to mix the salt up, add water conditioner.. and use that to do daily 100% water changes while floating.