betta with bloated belly>>It's worse

[magdelena_69]

My male betta has a bit of a bloated belly (barely noticable, but he nver had it before) , right behind his front fins. He also has a long stringy brownish greyish thing comng out the bottom (the string has a bigger chunk of it clinging to the bottom). He's eating fine and he's still active, and his fins aren't raised so i'm not sure it's dropsy... any ideas?
edit: In the bloated spot, the scales are a lot ligher in color than the rest
>>>update: it's worse now. He's really bloated, considerably more on one side than the other, and he kinda wobbled when he swims now

[bettacove]

hes prolly just full. how much are u feeding him? Darker coloured bettas bellies are usually lighter in coloured if they have a full tummy

ashley

[magdelena_69]

I noticed it after I fed him last night, so I waited till morning to see if it was still there but it was. I just feed him flake food, just a little pinch, once a day.

[bettacove]

Unless its like really sticking out then i wouldn't worry about it.
Hope its nothing too serious!
ashley

[magdelena_69]

eep help

[hisc1ay]

Does it look like his scales are coming off?

That happened to mine once...it looked like his scales were flipping up and coming off. He got real pale, but it was all over his body. Almost went from a brilliant red to white. I hope yours isn't doing this...

-j

[Allivymar]

Are his scales sticking out so that he kinda looks like a pine cone? If so, its dropsy.

If not, he may simply be constipated. Bloating and long strings of poo are usually a sign. See if you can get him to eat an unshelled pea; that usually gets things moving in fish. There is also an epsom salt treatment, but I don't know how to dose that; maybe someone else will chime in.