Betta swelling and not eating

[CarissaT]

My sister got a betta about 8 days ago, he went into his own 5g tank. (Uncycled but heated around 80 degrees) the first night he ate one betta pellet. The next day he was acting sick (lethargy, not interested in food) so I told her to switch out some of his water with ro because her water is very hard (16 dkh) and I thought he was under stress from the change. He got a bit more active after that, over the next couple of days, but started bending his body into sort of an S shape. Eventually he developed a swelling more on one side of his body. I had her do an epsom salts bath of 1 tbsp per gallon for 1 hour. After that he seemed to be bending or contracting a bit like maybe something was starting to move around. One or two days after, he had a very long white stringy poop. Still not eating and not looking great. I don’t know what else to tell her to try, it seems like it must be constipation or a tumor. Any further ideas? 7 days now and no eating. She is doing water changes keeping ammonia at or near 0 and dosing prime daily to detoxify any residual ammonia. The KH is now 6 or so with the ro water in there, trying to keep things stable.…only other thing I can think of is antibiotics in case its something infected inside. She’s tried soaked pellets, soaked freeze dried food and frozen food.

 

[Naughts]

It is not unusual for a betta to refuse food for a few days after moving home.
Keep the water very clean and ensure ammonia and nitrite stay at zero. Prime should only be necessary to treat new water, do a water change any time ammonia or nitrite go above zero. Keep the parameters (GH, pH, KH, temperature-around 80°) stable and consistent.
Stop the freeze dried food as these are known to cause blockages. You could try feeding a peeled, blanched pea.
Post more pictures if the swelling gets worse.
Good luck.

 

[PygmyPepperJulli]

I’d say possibly worms. Read this.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

Also, I feel that it probably isn’t helping to have it in an uncycled tank, are you attempting a fish-in cycle?

I belive that bettas prefer another laxative to peas, but I can’t remember what. Try bloodworms if she has any.

Good luck!

 

[Naughts]

I don't recommend Bloodworms as they have a hard indigestible head which can also cause blockages in small fish.

 

[Essjay]

I belive that bettas prefer another laxative to peas

It's daphnia.

 

[CarissaT]

Well he won’t eat anything. Frozen, freeze dried pellet flake tried it all. It’s obviously due to whatever this swelling is, not eating is a symptom not the cause. I guess he’s going to eventually die of whatever is causing it, I can’t imagine he can go a whole lot longer without eating.

 

[TNG]

Although the photos aren't clear, photo 1 appears to show the scales are sticking out, that is pine coning or dropsy. Sorry to say the chances of survival is virtually nil.

 

[CarissaT]

It’s not dropsy, yes the scales are sticking out in that one spot due to the swelling of whatever is inside, Dropsy is when the kidneys fail and the whole fish entirely swells like a pine cone due to the lack of ability to process fluids.

 

[CarissaT]

She has some freeze dried daphnia, I told her to soak it then crush it into tiny bits. Maybe he will be more likely to eat it that way. But I don’t hold out a lot of hope. The only other thing I can think to do is try antibiotics in case it’s an infection inside. Any recommendations?