Betta with swelling

We have a lovely pink female Betta that's been with us for almost a
year. We noticed she was starting to swell up in the chest area so I
quarantined her and gave her Epsom salts for constipation, what I've
been lead to believe is a common reason for swelling.

Well, that isn't the problem, when I changed the water in her tank I
noticed a lot of fecal matter. She continues to swell up though and is
now huge. It's evenly distributed and the fins that hand down from that
area seem to be pulling against her body because of it.

She still swims around and is eating and eliminating fine, but she
keeps swelling up like a balloon. I keep expecting to see it pop. Her
scales aren't popping out so I know it isn't dropsy.

Any help?

Klane

"Klane" wrote in message
oups.com...
We have a lovely pink female Betta that's been with us for almost a
year. We noticed she was starting to swell up in the chest area so I
quarantined her and gave her Epsom salts for constipation, what I've
been lead to believe is a common reason for swelling.

Well, that isn't the problem, when I changed the water in her tank I
noticed a lot of fecal matter. She continues to swell up though and is
now huge. It's evenly distributed and the fins that hand down from that
area seem to be pulling against her body because of it.

She still swims around and is eating and eliminating fine, but she
keeps swelling up like a balloon. I keep expecting to see it pop. Her
scales aren't popping out so I know it isn't dropsy.

Any help?

Klane


Some sort of infection.
I don't give her great odds I afraid
if you could medicate her food with metradonazole flagyl ya may have a
chance
yea I know doom and gloom
but from experience I don't think an almond leave is gonna save her....
:-(

"Klane" wrote in message
oups.com...
She still swims around and is eating and eliminating fine, but she
keeps swelling up like a balloon. I keep expecting to see it pop. Her
scales aren't popping out so I know it isn't dropsy.


None. She is surely going to die. In all the years I've had fish even when
some treatment seems to help, it was always temporary. The problem would
return and the fish would die.
--
KL....
Aquariums since 1952.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö ~~~~ }((((({*

I'm no betta expert but it could be eggs especially if she is eating and
pooping fine....but I would watch out in case it is dropsy....try
feeding peas as well as the Epsom salts.....

Gill

Klane wrote:
We have a lovely pink female Betta that's been with us for almost a
year. We noticed she was starting to swell up in the chest area so I
quarantined her and gave her Epsom salts for constipation, what I've
been lead to believe is a common reason for swelling.

Well, that isn't the problem, when I changed the water in her tank I
noticed a lot of fecal matter. She continues to swell up though and is
now huge. It's evenly distributed and the fins that hand down from that
area seem to be pulling against her body because of it.

She still swims around and is eating and eliminating fine, but she
keeps swelling up like a balloon. I keep expecting to see it pop. Her
scales aren't popping out so I know it isn't dropsy.

Any help?

Klane

Hi there Klane.
A fish doesn't have to have that "pine cone" look in order to have
Dropsy symptoms.
"Dropsy" is the name of a symptom, and not a disease it's self.
It's when there is internal swelling. Usually this is caused by a
bacterial infection.
It's a result of something else.
Now when a fish shows this much swelling (you stated that it's swelling
evenly throughout the fish's body and not just the belly area where one
would first think eggs), there is little chance for saving that fish.
However, you'll be wise to figure out why this happened to this fish
and correct it (if possible).
I would keep the fish in quarantine, and do a 40% water change on the
main tank she came from.

Now when a fish shows this much swelling (you stated that it's swelling
evenly throughout the fish's body and not just the belly area where one
would first think eggs), there is little chance for saving that fish.
However, you'll be wise to figure out why this happened to this fish
and correct it (if possible).
I would keep the fish in quarantine, and do a 40% water change on the
main tank she came from.

It isn't the entire body, just the "chest" area. How big would they get
with eggs? Seriously she is huge there and now she's having problems
swimming, she has to really wiggle in an exagerated manner to swim
someplace. We do have a male betta but he's kept across the room in a
smaller tank.

Klane

"Klane" wrote in message
ps.com...

Now when a fish shows this much swelling (you stated that it's swelling
evenly throughout the fish's body and not just the belly area where one
would first think eggs), there is little chance for saving that fish.
However, you'll be wise to figure out why this happened to this fish
and correct it (if possible).
I would keep the fish in quarantine, and do a 40% water change on the
main tank she came from.

It isn't the entire body, just the "chest" area. How big would they get
with eggs? Seriously she is huge there and now she's having problems
swimming, she has to really wiggle in an exagerated manner to swim
someplace. We do have a male betta but he's kept across the room in a
smaller tank.

Klane


A female will fill up with eggs with out a male being in the tank, my female
is full with eggs most times. When my female had dropsy her entire body was
blew up not just the belly.
Have you ever seen a female full with eggs? Tynk has some pics that could
show you or you can do a search.
If you did not say the fish was having a hard time swimming i would say its
just eggs since you say its just the belly but if she is having a hard time
swimming then thats not good.
Nik

Klane wrote:
Now when a fish shows this much swelling (you stated that it's swelling
evenly throughout the fish's body and not just the belly area where one
would first think eggs), there is little chance for saving that fish.
However, you'll be wise to figure out why this happened to this fish
and correct it (if possible).
I would keep the fish in quarantine, and do a 40% water change on the
main tank she came from.

It isn't the entire body, just the "chest" area. How big would they get
with eggs? Seriously she is huge there and now she's having problems
swimming, she has to really wiggle in an exagerated manner to swim
someplace. We do have a male betta but he's kept across the room in a
smaller tank.

Klane
Hi there.

Here's the thing..... (lol, I sound like "Monk") = )~
Fish with Dropsy symptoms may not look like the fish next to it with
the same symptoms. Sometimes they look like they swallowed a pinecone.
Other times they are so swollen in the belly that they look like
they're going to exlplode. The skin becomes kind of see through from
being stretched so far. Other times it just an even swelling from
behind the gill area down to like 3/4's of the fish's body. This is
better viewed from above.
It's becomes quite obvious where the fish is swollen.
Several months ago I had a new female in quarantine that did that. She
didn't look right, a little puffy all over. I took her of the QT tank
and into a jar and sure enough.....she was swollen on 3/4's of her
body. She pineconed right before she died.
I was sent a picture of a female Betta who's belly are only was so
terribly swollen it looked like she was going to explode any minute. It
was horrible to look at.
Actually, I think it was on here that this female Betta was being
discussed. Anyway, I just checked and I don't still have that picture
anymore. I wish I did though.
It was a good example of just how swollen a fish can get and still eat
and swim too.
Now for a female with ripe eggs, she's going to look like fatter in the
belly area. She may look like she swallowed a pea to downing a whole
pizza (like a marble in her gut).
I have a good picture of a lovely female, ripe with eggs (not huge with
them, as the amount of ripe eggs will vary) and her egg tube showing
nicely.
I can email it to you if you like. Just let me know.

"Tynk" wrote in message
oups.com...

Klane wrote:
Now when a fish shows this much swelling (you stated that it's swelling
evenly throughout the fish's body and not just the belly area where one
would first think eggs), there is little chance for saving that fish.
However, you'll be wise to figure out why this happened to this fish
and correct it (if possible).
I would keep the fish in quarantine, and do a 40% water change on the
main tank she came from.

It isn't the entire body, just the "chest" area. How big would they get
with eggs? Seriously she is huge there and now she's having problems
swimming, she has to really wiggle in an exagerated manner to swim
someplace. We do have a male betta but he's kept across the room in a
smaller tank.

Klane
Hi there.

Here's the thing..... (lol, I sound like "Monk") = )~
Fish with Dropsy symptoms may not look like the fish next to it with
the same symptoms. Sometimes they look like they swallowed a pinecone.
Other times they are so swollen in the belly that they look like
they're going to exlplode. The skin becomes kind of see through from
being stretched so far. Other times it just an even swelling from
behind the gill area down to like 3/4's of the fish's body. This is
better viewed from above.
It's becomes quite obvious where the fish is swollen.
Several months ago I had a new female in quarantine that did that. She
didn't look right, a little puffy all over. I took her of the QT tank
and into a jar and sure enough.....she was swollen on 3/4's of her
body. She pineconed right before she died.
I was sent a picture of a female Betta who's belly are only was so
terribly swollen it looked like she was going to explode any minute. It
was horrible to look at.
Actually, I think it was on here that this female Betta was being
discussed. Anyway, I just checked and I don't still have that picture
anymore. I wish I did though.
It was a good example of just how swollen a fish can get and still eat
and swim too.
Now for a female with ripe eggs, she's going to look like fatter in the
belly area. She may look like she swallowed a pea to downing a whole
pizza (like a marble in her gut).
I have a good picture of a lovely female, ripe with eggs (not huge with
them, as the amount of ripe eggs will vary) and her egg tube showing
nicely.
I can email it to you if you like. Just let me know.


This is just a hard situation as with most fish disease or sickness its hard
to be 100% unless you have seen or dealt with it before. Since she has not
seen a female with eggs, it could be but could just as easy be sick. My one
female was very big for months and even though in the beginning I thought
something was wrong after a few months and her doing fine I figured I was
wrong, but when I put other females with her they all got sick and I lost
all my females but a couple, learned a hard lesson.
Any way sure hope every thing works out. I have thought about the fact
betta's seem to have a lot of problems these days and i think a lot of that
leads back to them not being cared for right, not always the person who buys
them but any place down the line before then end up in their end home.
Nik

Nikki wrote:


This is just a hard situation as with most fish disease or sickness its hard
to be 100% unless you have seen or dealt with it before. Since she has not
seen a female with eggs, it could be but could just as easy be sick. My one
female was very big for months and even though in the beginning I thought
something was wrong after a few months and her doing fine I figured I was
wrong, but when I put other females with her they all got sick and I lost
all my females but a couple, learned a hard lesson.
Any way sure hope every thing works out. I have thought about the fact
betta's seem to have a lot of problems these days and i think a lot of that
leads back to them not being cared for right, not always the person who buys
them but any place down the line before then end up in their end home.
Nik

Hi Nik.
I emailed several pics of females...some with a normal amount of eggs,
some heavy with ripe eggs, and one heavy w/ eggs and after a good
feed...pretty large belly area. All in the normal range which gave them
something to compare their female to.
Sadly, it was quite obvious from my pics that their female is suffering
from Drospy symptoms. = (