The fat betta is sick.

[Megalofyia]

I got home from work this afternoon only to find my fat betta sitting on one of the decorations almost lying on his side. He wont' tell me what's wrong. The water parimeters are fine and all the other fish in the tank look healthy. I feed the other fish and he completely ignored the food.

Any hints on how I can find out what his problem is. I'm guessing he's about two years old.

 

[Megalofyia]

oh I just noticed that his fins don't look so great either.

 

[notmuffy]

Quarantine him ASAP! Scoop out some of the water into a big bowl and scoop him out too.

 

[Megalofyia]

Ok. Any clue as to what is wrong with him?

 

[Capt.Gorilla]

In what way was he fat?
is he large or swollen?

 

[Megalofyia]

Let me see how hard it would be to get a picture of him uploaded...

 

[Megalofyia]

I cant get the camera to work.. He does actually look bigger than the other day, but not by much. It's mostly in I guess where most of his organs are located.. at the front of his body.

 

[madasafish]

This sounds like bloat... I've been lucky, though, and haven't had to deal with this. Anybody have experience? Megalofyia, have you tried checking out www.fish-disease.com and other disease sites?

Do they have an exlax for fish? Coz that's what bloat is--intestinal blockage due to improper feeding. Mind you, I'm not quite sure why this would be an issue for a Betta. This usually happens to veggie fish who eat meat (e.g. Malawi Bloat in M'bunas from Lake Malawi).

Sorry I can't be of help. AlliV usually has suggestions on disease.

 

[Megalofyia]

he eats everything.. I have daphnia..
I've heard peas work for betta constipation.. later I will get some peas cause I hate them and would never buy them normally.

For anyone who might know.. will baby pureed peas work? any special type of pea?

 

[Allivymar]

I kinda wondered when I saw the first post about your betta if something was wrong..

Its one of 2 things. Either he's constipated or he has dropsy.

If he's constipated and eating, feeding him half a shelled cooked pea (or is it deshelled? LOL Whichever, take the skin off). If not, a tsp of Epsom salts per 5g may help, in cases of both dropsy and constipation. Thing is, if its dropsy its not a disease in and of itself, but a sign of disease which means trying to figure out the cause.

 

[Megalofyia]

He's bigger than his normal fat.. but he definitly doesn't have a pine cone look to him when you look down on him.
In fact looking down on him he looks normal.

 

[Madame_X]

This happened to my dwarf gouramis, too. I couldn't get mine to eat the peas (the platies loved them, but...). The epsom salt seemed to give them relief, but watch his diet closely from now on. I think that once they have bloat, they're very prone to get it again.