I think my betta instantly got swim bladder disorder.

425 Views 1 Reply 2 Participants Last post by OUOhYeah2016, Apr 19, 2016

Saosin

Discussion Starter · Apr 19, 2016

Hi! New member here. First post.

This just happened perhaps 30 minutes ago. I left my room to do laundry and when I came back, my nephew had my betta fish tank open and had dumped a lot of pellets into the tank!
I do not really know how many my fish ate but when I got there, he had eaten perhaps 4 or 5 before I could clean them out. He has surely eaten more.
Almost instantly, he started swimming on his side and floating to the top of the tank or sitting on the bottom. Right now, he is floating upright motionless in his tank but whenever he tries to swim, he tips over and flounders.

I did a perhaps 30% water change simply to get the remaining pellets out of the tank and I'm currently leaving him there with the lights off to rest.

Is he dying? I am so scared. What can I do to help him?

Save

1 - 2 of 2 Posts

OUOhYeah2016

· #2 · Apr 19, 2016

Welcome to the forum!

He is very likely going to recover! He has bloat. All you really have to do is not feed him for a couple days and it should resolve itself. Getting him to flare can help him poop and, if you want to aid in speeding up the process, you can add 1/2 teaspoon of unscented/plain Epsom salt per gallon of tank water. You can find it in the laxative or first aid section of Walmart or other drug store.

Since it happened so quickly I suspect he may be prone to bloat. You can decrease the likelihood of it happening when you feed him by soaking his food before feeding.

Good luck!

Save

1 - 2 of 2 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month