betta floatation/equilibrium problem

[gene]

Hello group,

My betta is ill. Any suggestions?

He's having floatation problems. Too much float, not enough sink. :-)
He used to spend his time flitting up and down in the water, having a
good time. Now he just spends his time near the top of the bowl (1
gallon), and often he ends up at the surface, doing the dead-fish
float, on his side.

In the event that he tries to descend for awhile, I can tell he's
really laboring to get himself down, and when he stops struggling, he
floats up like a balloon.

He's not looking too good. I've got him on "Melafix" daily 1/10 tsp;
active ingredient Melaleuca (1.0%). He's duller colored than usual.

I thought maybe he might be constipated, so I've been fasting him for
a couple days. Appetite seems normal. Should I feed him some crushed
pea?

I fear he may soon be dead. His side-floating is most disturbing, he
frequently looks like he's just expired. I just checked him, and
could see his eye darting back and forth in this floating state.

He did take a spill out of the bowl a couple weeks back, but he didn't
have this equilibrium problem immediately following that. He did have
an infection, I think or at least some blood spots on his side where
he fell. He has had a white lesion at the base of his tail for the 1
1/4 years I've had him. It's never healed up, although I've taken
good care of him since then... weekly water changes, salt in the
water, stress coat, etc.

Any chance he's going to pull through and recover, or is it just a
waiting game until his ultimate demise?

Thank you,

gene

[winddancir]

What do you normally feed him? Feeding live bloodworms only can give him dropsy, and that kinda sounds like what he might have.

IMO, it sounds like he's on his last fins. It is always hard at this point. I would just do the best to make him comfortable and pray for the best. Maybe try some freeze-dried foods?

[gene]

Hello winddancir,

I feed him those little betta pellets with about 50 ingredients in
them. Hopefully that will rule out dropsy which sounds quite nasty.

I'm hoping that he's just constipated. I fed him some pea pulp
yesterday and he ate it with gusto. If it's a digestive problem, I'm
hoping that will clear it up.

I did some research after posting yesterday and found a tip that
suggested this type of food be soaked for five minutes before feeding.
That would keep this dry food from absorbing too much water from the
fish's gut, risking constipation. I'm going to start doing that.

So, I'll keep my eye on him, and regulate his diet, and try to get him
back to relative health. I guess it is touch and go though, so I'll
have to accept that he might not recover.

Thanks for your reply,

gene



On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 23:04:55 +0000, winddancir
> wrote:

>
>What do you normally feed him? Feeding live bloodworms only can give him
>dropsy, and that kinda sounds like what he might have.
>
>IMO, it sounds like he's on his last fins. It is always hard at this
>point. I would just do the best to make him comfortable and pray for
>the best. Maybe try some freeze-dried foods?

[winddancir]

Dropsy is nasty. Once it is advanced, the fish almost always dies. But since you're feeding pellets, it might be something else.
You can also try freeze-dried daphnia, it's supposed to be a good intestinal cleanser. It absorbs water pretty fast, so you might want to let it float for a minute, then let your betta eat it.
Could you possibly be over-feeding? Their stomach is about the size of their eye, even though they will keep eating and eating and eating... pigfish!
The infection could have caused the swim bladder problem. I have a crown tail that I adopted from a good breeder that has that problem. He got a bad case of fin rot in shipping. The breeder got rid of the rot, but he had turned into a floater. I was willing to take him and give him the care that the breeder couldn't. It became a case of someone with 6 fish compared to one with 600. I had more time to lavish love and attention. He still kinda floats, and it may never go away, but he is much more active and heathier than he was when I got him.
I hope for the best for your fish, and have him repeat this healing mantra.

"I am a fish. I am not an underwater balloon. I am a fish."
I think that may have been what helped mine! LOL!!