New Betta

That was good advice she gave you, the siphon is brill and wouldnt be without one. Hope the stats are looking better today How are the fish in themselves?

they are both doing great it seems
i have been cleaning the tanks in the gravel areas with the pump thingy today and yesterday
sashimi's water is still at 0 ammonia
and sushi's is down to .25
i just cleaned both tanks now so i am gona do another water test later tonight
the siphon thingy is sooo fun if only it would suck up all the poopy and leave the water

heres some new pics of sashimi
his lil belly is back i guess he has crazy constipation
he was flaring at me i guess hes mad at me LOL



see hes mad

Hi, lycaena,
I was wondering about the 'coral-ish thingy' you mentioned - that IS an inert substance, and also nothing long fins can catch/tear on?

Crowntails can develop curly ends on their fins from, apparently, a number of causes, including age (long male betta fins apparently typically deteriorate with age, so that, in example, half moons rarely retain their qualifications throughout their lives) and poor water conditions.
' My first Crowntail arrived (several years ago) with such curly rays I named him Confetti - and he couldn't swim at first because he had no membrane on his swim fins, although he swims well now.
But at least he didn't have fin rot...

Have you thought about giving your bulgy-tummed boy a course of wormer food, (Jungle, or Gel-Tech or some such thing, if you have these in your area,) or at least something containing garlic, which might help without harming?

I recal reading a quote to the effect of, that if animal life disappeared, all of our shapes could be made out by tracing the shapes of the nematodes that had inhabited our bodies.

Shipping and other stress can weaken fish to the point where intestinal or other parasites gain the upper hand, and I've had enough bad experiences with various kinds myself that I'm now highly suspicious of their potential involvement in any sort of piscine tummy trouble or general debility.

Wormer foods won't affect encysted or external parasites, but they will help with intestinal ones - and if you treat on a bare-bottomed tank surface, you might be amazed by what you syphon off the bottom daily, in the form of passed worms.

Might be an idea to try a short-term course of added Epsom salts and a daily pea-feed for a few days to a week, (depending on results) prior to trying anything else (and assuming his tank's warm enough and he's not being fed only dry pellets and freeze-dried, unsoaked foods) but if the problem consistently recurrs, I would consider that as one possible cause of the tummy enlargement.

Not that that's definitely the problem with your boy, but parasites are FAR more common than are generally recognised...

Syphoniera said:

Hi, lycaena,
I was wondering about the 'coral-ish thingy' you mentioned - that IS an inert substance, and also nothing long fins can catch/tear on?

Crowntails can develop curly ends on their fins from, apparently, a number of causes, including age (long male betta fins apparently typically deteriorate with age, so that, in example, half moons rarely retain their qualifications throughout their lives) and poor water conditions.
' My first Crowntail arrived (several years ago) with such curly rays I named him Confetti - and he couldn't swim at first because he had no membrane on his swim fins, although he swims well now.
But at least he didn't have fin rot...

Have you thought about giving your bulgy-tummed boy a course of wormer food, (Jungle, or Gel-Tech or some such thing, if you have these in your area,) or at least something containing garlic, which might help without harming?

I recal reading a quote to the effect of, that if animal life disappeared, all of our shapes could be made out by tracing the shapes of the nematodes that had inhabited our bodies.

Shipping and other stress can weaken fish to the point where intestinal or other parasites gain the upper hand, and I've had enough bad experiences with various kinds myself that I'm now highly suspicious of their potential involvement in any sort of piscine tummy trouble or general debility.

Wormer foods won't affect encysted or external parasites, but they will help with intestinal ones - and if you treat on a bare-bottomed tank surface, you might be amazed by what you syphon off the bottom daily, in the form of passed worms.

Might be an idea to try a short-term course of added Epsom salts and a daily pea-feed for a few days to a week, (depending on results) prior to trying anything else (and assuming his tank's warm enough and he's not being fed only dry pellets and freeze-dried, unsoaked foods) but if the problem consistently recurrs, I would consider that as one possible cause of the tummy enlargement.

Not that that's definitely the problem with your boy, but parasites are FAR more common than are generally recognised...

Click to expand...

would it hurt him to try to treat him for parasites if it turns out that he doesnt have any ?
the coral-ish thingy is not really a coral its like a plastic thing that looks like 2 barrels with holes in it, no sharp edges that i know of
and the thingy is in sashimi's tank, sushi is the one with curly fins sushi just has plants.
im thinkin to buy them both more plants and fake plants, since i have seen pictures of other people's tanks and these boys' tanks look so empty in comparison
also for the parasites, is there something i could just buy and use? if so what would you recommend.
aaaand i gave both of them a half a pea today though sushi has no tummy at all.
sashimi must have pooped while i wasnt watching, his tummy bump has gone away a little bit
though sometimes it does seem more swollen than pictures of other bettas that ive seen on here
and with that, i am gona go to bed!

Speaking as Not An Expert, only from my own experiences, reading and from what I recall generally of hours of internet searching:

I'd go for live plants, myself.
The more live plants, the healthier the tank and inhabitants, overall.
Plants, of course, process fish wastes, and sufficient plant mass (varying with type, things like duckweed and fast-growing stem plants being ideal for this) can, naturally in all senses, suck up ammonia prior to any levels appearing which could be deleterious to fish.
They foster organisms which many fish can nutritiously snack on, provide cover and plenty of scope for that favorite (in most cases) betta activity of swimming through and between things.
Although top-floaters such as duckweed must, of course, be monitored as it's so essential for bettas to have clear surface areas at which to breathe.

And a well-planted tank is much 'bigger' and full of gradually altering interest for fish...

I don't know about the current crop of posters, but the people who used to be regularly here typically fed peas weekly - most betas love them and it makes a nice change in diet, too.
Many people swear by weekly pea-feeds, as a preventative for constipation in betas.
I've never done the weekly one-day fast thing, just gave bettas in separate tanks pea-only feeds once a week, although this doesn't always work well in a community tank where a variety of foods may be given.
They do tend to preferentially go for the peas, though, at least mine always did, as long as we had good peas, but mine now tend to go extended periods without pea feeds as the frozen we've been getting are so often slimy and un-pea-like that I won't eat them or give them to my fish, unless we get organic, which are good ones.
And I still haven't noticed any constipation/bloating-type problems, except on (other) bettas which arrived with problems and were found to have either intestinal or encysted worms.
I'm rotten at remembering dates, but I believe I've had two of my current bettas (the first two males I'd ever acquired) about 3 years, and another I think about a year and a half or more, the others I have now being more recent.
So this isn't a short-term observation.
But I bought two stunted rescue bettas last year because they were sick, had them about 9 months before losing them to encysted parasites, managed to get hold of some Prazi which saved the less damaged of two surviving Giant Otos which were also exposed by having been in a tank one of those - then apparently healthy - bettas had been in, and later purchased one more stunted Betta from the same place and in size and appearance almost certainly of the same provenance as the others.
A Prazi (bath-type wormer) treatment (and some others for the obvious problems he arrived with) resulted in a healthy, beautiful - and growing, unlike the other two - male Crowntail, and if I'd been able to get hold of that type of treatment (don't think it's sold in Canada any more, I got it by luck) I could have saved all of the others, if I'd given a precautionary treatment.

In great part, the safety of such meds depends on the 'medication'.
There are some garlic-based foods that will help with, if not eliminate parasites, and the average betta almost certainly has some of probably several types.
Those foods would be not only harmless but beneficial in more than one respect.

Those chemical meds that are (I believe) less harsh types, such as the Jungle medicated food and the Gel-Tech wormer, (none of my fish recognised the latter as food - I had to saturate flake in it and hope they got enough wolfing that down, but not everyone will eat the Jungle pellets, either) are often suggested as a precautionary measure, although I actually wouldn't use anything like that without some indication of a problem.

But if certain persistent tummy issues arise, and it's not a question of impaction from a dry diet, of too-cool temperatures slowing body processes, or problems universal among animals kept forcibly inactive, (whether horses cooped up in a stall or bettas which have been kept in a small container without exercise or even the ability to move freely and stimulate natural elimination) there are a number of possible issues, of which internal parasites form one probability.

Internal infections are another, although often, apparently, such issues go hand in hand...

If I hadn't learnt to keep fish bodies in a disposable glass of water to see nematodes which had left after death or parasites actually digging/eating their way out of the corpses, and if I hadn't followed advice in emptying the gravel out of what was luckily not a Wadstad tank to see on the bare and daily siphoned-clean glass bottom what must have been hundreds of worms passed by a sorority of female betas and guppies fed Gel-Tech, I would never have seen and understood the problems causing secondary illnesses, symptoms and deaths.

My experiences have made me very aware of the prevalence of parasites in aquarium fish, and a male betta having been kept in isolation in the store from which he was purchased is no guarantee of any illness not being present.

But if you're in Britain, the same meds may not be available there as here, and many of the more effective yet safe meds have apparently been taken off the market in multiple countries, or made by prescription only.

The same level of parasitism in pet fish may not be common there, either, owing to the tighter import regulations.

I'd say talk to Wilder, myself...

Although if he's had more than one recurrence of tummy bloat, I would definitely try a wormer food, if at all possible in a bare-bottomed tank with floating plants only.

they all get a tummy after they eat. it is only a problem when it is really huge (as if they swallowed a marble) and it wont go away even with fasting days/peas. to be honest, he looks GREAT. i dont really think constipation is an issue (esp since youve seen him poop twice now)
good for you for being a caring betta mommy. you are doing everything right and your fish will be happy as a result. lots of work will pay off in about a month when those filters are finally cycled!
good luck with them..theyre cutie pies!
cheers

it hasnt been the size of a marble, but maybe a pea

he sounds perfect! bettas should have a bit of a belly. its when it gets huge and they either cant poop or have trouble swimming (beacause of swimbaldder issues) that you need to start worrying. just feed him normally and offer a pea once a week and hell be happy as pie!
cheers

woohoo!

and hugs

i got some new (fake) plants for sashimi. the real ones kept dying i guess they didnt get enough light
i figured it cant be good for the water to have dying plants.
heres pics



and flaring at his reflection

and the female he has attracted LOL