[ilovefish1990]

I purchased to male bettas a couple months ago and at the pet store they told me to get a tank with a devider in it and they would be fine. Unfortunately they were not and one of the males started to attack the other through the devider and slightly damaged the fins of one of them. So I quickly separated them into separate 2.5 gallon tanks. The attacker fish is thriving and doing very well. The one that was attacked did very well for weeks after, but now he is always swimming/floating on his side at the surface and behaves very bizarely. Sometimes when I walk in the room he will VERY quickly shoot around the tank in like a little ball, hit the rocks, and come back up to the surface or swim strangely and flop all around. His fins are looking a little bit more raggedy as well. I clean the tank regularly and make sure it is at an appropriate temperature and the water is conditioned, so I don't understand why he in becoming so unhealthy.. What is wrong with him? Is there anything I can do?

 

[StrangeDejavu]

Sounds like a case of Swim Bladder Disorder. You can prevent this in the future by not feeding as much. A bettas stomach is only as big as its eye, so keep that in mind when feeding. Start out by fasting him for a two to three days then try feeding him a piece of a blanched pea or some daphnia (both are laxatives). For instructions on how to prepare the pea, check out this link.

 

[VivianKJean]

Do NOT feed your betta peas! bettas are insectivores so they CANNOT digest plant protein. If you feed him peas you can damage his digestive track.

SBD is NOT always caused by overfeed. It can also be caused by bacterial infection or physical injury.

To Treat SBD
-add 1 teaspoon per gallon of water of Epsom Salt. This is NOT Aquarium Salt. You can find it at grocery stores and pharmacies. Take cup of water out of the tank and dissolve the salt in that. Then every 15 minutes add a bit of the salt water back into the tank until all the water has been returned.
- fast your fish for 3-4 days.
- Make sure you are feeding your fish pellets that are high in protein and low in fillers. Omega One Betta Pellets ($5 at Petco) or New Lift Spectrum ($9 at Petco but you get twice as much than Omega One).
- If you can find it, you can feed him frozen daphnia as a natural laxative.
- Never feed your fish flakes or freeze dried foods.
- if the bloating persists then looking into using API's General Cure.