Dropsy strikes?

[Ansel Marrow]

Ok so i got my sig showing my setup, and my betta is bulging BIGTIME. Hes been fine for weeks in the 37g until recently. I dont do reg water changes, and i think thats it. I aviod doing it because i have so many plantsand i assumed it would be ok. I think im going to do one now. Point is my betta is bulging bigtime and Im really scared of losing him. I moved him to a decently sized bowl, and i was wondering is maybe if this condition was from him staying near the bottom of the tank nearly 99% of the time. Any ideas?

 

[Fishboy-from-NY]

When you do your water changes, are you making sure that all the perameters match before you dump to new water in it? If not you should do that since that can cause stress on the fish to the point that get sick.

 

[sweetsuvvyb]

What do you feed your betta?

One problem with keeping lots of different species of fish in one tank, is that they all have different dietary needs, and there's really no way to control who eats what. If you've got the lil guy seperated, I would try feeding him some smushed pea. It's possible he's just constipated. If this is the case, then the pea should help him out pretty quickly.

However, bloat/dropsy can also be an indicator or a symptom of a myriad of other problems, some of them very serious (ie, kidney failure). You can use epsom salts to draw the excess fluid out of the betta...but without knowing what the underlying problem is, its kinda like putting a band-aid on a broken leg.

try the pea treatment 1st...if it doesn't work. we'll try some thing new!

 

[Neuve]

ok so i buy peas, boil them (2 soften) , then freeze them (conservate em) , and then microwave them (feed them) When i smush it up and then throw it in the water it sinks immediately and it seems like nobody is interested...

Thoughts?

 

[Allivymar]

Don't feed em for a coupla days before adding the pea Neuve. Hopefully they'll be hungry enough to give it a go.

And you prob don't need to do quite so much to the poor peas LOL Think I wouldn't eat em too after all that either Pick one method and try that; any of the ones you mentioned will work.

 

[Neuve]

lol, aight, i admit its 2 much...
ill just microwave
thanx
i wont feed anything nor today nor tomorrow...
Any suggestions to make it float?
Thanx allivymar

 

[An t-iasg]

If you can, use frozen peas. Boil or microwave to cook them. Peel the skin off and break the "meat" of the pea into little pieces for the betta. Frozen peas are easier to break up and handle; canned peas tend to be mushy and just fall apart and there isn't much for the betta to get at that point.