Betta's belly starting to swell??

[TheMightyOscen]

Well things just got a whole lot worse! My nephews decided to play bat and ball inside the house because it was raining...at the cost of my betta tank and now there's a huge crack in the side. By the time I got to it it was already half empty with water practically gushing out the side. I saved as much water as I could (which wasn't much) and plopped my little fella into my new, cycling, 15l tank that's been running for around two weeks (I'll check the exact dates in a moment). The nitrites are worryingly high so I did the emergency dose of the prime water conditioner to try and make the water less toxic, seeded the tank with the cracked tank's substrate and put the cracked tanks's filter in the newer tank in the hope that it has more filter media than the newer filter...and the water temperature is the same. Should I up the water changes to every day? Aaand is there anything else I can do for the poor guy? The pic below is the cycling tank I had no option but to put him in.

 

[Kirrie]

It sounds like you did everything right. The normal dose of Prime detoxifies 1ppm of ammonia and nitrities, so until your ammonia and nitrites are below 1ppm, keep doing water changes with Prime. Once it's below 1ppm, you should be fine with every other day water changes as long as your betta is the only fish in the tank.

 

[Greta1981]

Yikes. Poor fish. The only thing I'd add to Kirrie's 100% spot-on advice, and to everything you already did which was exactly right, is to maybe leave him in a quiet, dark room for at least 24 hours, only disturbing him to do necessary water testing and changes. He'll be totally stressed out with the trauma of his broken tank and then the change to a new home, so hopefully that'll settle him down a little.

 

[TheMightyOscen]

I'll dim his tank lights to the lowest and turn the room light off - this tank happens to be in my bedroom. I'm a little bummed out about the whole thing in all honesty! The water in his old tank was just about settling down. Let's hope his belly doesn't start to swell again. Could I ask an algae question here or should I in a different part of the forum?

 

[Kirrie]

Im not sure if there are any rules about that, but if you ask the question here we can try to help.

 

[TheMightyOscen]

Well in his new tank, I have noticed hair algae growing off the two pieces of driftwood - would you happen to know how to get rid of it without getting shrimp or taking the pieces out and scrubbing them? Its about 5mm long at the moment.

 

[Kirrie]

Are you sure its algae? If its white, and the driftwood is relatively new, it may just be fungus which will go away on its own after a few weeks to a month. If it is algae, cut back on the lighting and don't leave food on the bottom of your tank. The extra food and light will only provide nutrients for the algae. Cutting back on both should kill it. Also, make sure your tank is not getting any direct sunlight.

 

[TheMightyOscen]

Well I've gotten to the bottom on the algae and everything seams to be fine....his belly flares up a little from time to time but as I do the water change it goes back down. Still no sign of any pine coming and it hasn't swollen up as bad as the first time since. The new mystery is a metallic like substance in the top of the water...the pump is going 24/7 and the lights are on a max of 10 hours a day. 40% water changes continue every other day with prime water conditioner...I have no clue as to what this is. I tried taking a couple if pics and I will put them below. Do you recon it could affect his health further? The nitrate readings are fine it's just the nitrites that are still a little high. There's no way I am over feeding either.

 

[Kirrie]

What kind of filter are you using? That just looks like oily build up to me. That happens when there is not enough water movement at the surface. If you lay a clean paper towel over the surface of the water, and then remove it, you should be able to soak a lot of it up, but it's just going to keep coming back until you you fix the problem. A good hang on the back filter or a sponge filter should disturb the surface enough to prevent this build up. It's important that you fix this problem because bettas need to be able to reach the surface to breath, and an oily build up can prevent that.

 

[TheMightyOscen]

It's a super fish 50 that came with the tank. This is the first time it's happened....maybe my water levels are too high (the filter has a fixed place where it needs to be). Thanks for the advice.

 

[Kirrie]

That's possible, but I have no experience with that type of filter. I think adding a little air stone to the tank would provide enough surface agitation to stop the oil from building up if you want to try that.

 

[TheMightyOscen]

Awesome, I will pop down to the store tomorrow morning.

 

[TheMightyOscen]

Guess who got to the algae wafer meant for my two Borneo suckers...! My goodness he has a belly on him now. I haven't fed him for 24 hours but I don't want to risk trying to feed him a pea as his belly looks full enough. I hide the algae wafers between the pieces of wood so that the lil rascal wouldn't be able to get at them, but the two borneos obviously churned it out...and shared their dinner. Am I right for holding off the peas for now? Also I have heard of a method using Epsom salt, would that be more affective? There's a pic of his tummy below (no pineconing and the water has settled down now, the every other day water changes still continue though)

 

[Kirrie]

I would fast him for another day, maybe two, before trying the peas. They can go without food for a week, and he has a full belly, so it won't hurt him.

I don't think the Epsom salt is necessary in this case because he is just constipated and should pass most of it on his own within the next day or two, and then the pea will help some more once he's not as bloated.

Just keep an eye on him and he should be fine in a day or two.

How has the air pump worked for the oil on the surface?

 

[TheMightyOscen]

I thought I should leave it, thank you and I put it in the dead spot of the tank and it's helping, although it looks like I'm going to be getting a new filter that's stronger than the one that came with the tank.

 

[Kirrie]

No problem. I love his color, by the way