betta w/ huge belly

[CMC]

Well he did have a small BM this morning, but he's still fat. I'm going to let him fast a couple of more days. Hopefully by the first of next week he'll be normal again. Keeping my fingers crossed .

 

[SRC]

Can you post pictures? How big are we talking about here?

You might want to look at alternatives:

Here are some articles I have found that could be helpful:

Dropsy
Symptoms: Fish's abdomen becomes unusually large and swollen, scales may stick out .
Dropsy is not, in itself, a specific disease, but rather refers to a condition where the fish's abdomen becomes swollen. A sudden swelling of the abdomen (scales may stick out) is known as acute dropsy while a slow swelling of the abdomen is known as chronic dropsy. The actual cause of this swelling could be indicitive of any one of several conditions:

Acute Dropsy - septicemia: Internal bacterial infection can cause internal bleeding and thus cause acute dropsy. (See septicemia).

Chronic Dropsy - cancer: In this case, the abdomen is slow to swell as the cancer affects the fish's internal organs. If the fish is not isolated in the early stages of the disease, it could spread to other fish.

Chronic Dropsy - parasites: Internal parasites can cause dropsy (abdominal swelling) either because they are very large, or because of the damage they are causing to a fish's organs. The abdomen tends to swell gradually if the fish has internal parasites. Isolating the fish helps prevent the spread of the condition.

Other Dropsy: There are other less common causes for both acute and chronic dropsy, and not all causes are known. Your vet will provide additional details.

Goldfish are said to be somewhat more prone to dropsy than other fish.


Remedy 1:
The first thing to do is to contact your vet or petstore for further instruction. In the case of dropsy, it is often hard to make an exact determination of the cause without doing a post-mortem on the fish. It is wise to place an afflicted fish into a quarantine tank will allow time away from competitive tankmates as well as helping to ensure that the condition does not spread. If this is done promptly, the chances of an outbreak amongst the other fish is fairly small.

Remedy 2
Because this treatment requires frequent bathing of your fish in a brine solution (a process which is stressful to your fish) this remedy is not recommended except under supervision of your vet, or other fish expert.

The first task is to begin medicating the tank with an antibiotic in order to remove the initial cause of the dropsy.

During the time that your antibiotics are active, your fish should have 2 to 3 one-hour brine treatment sessions a day. This will help break the fluid bond, and speed recovery.

THE ONE HOUR TREATMENT SESSION - Within the one-hour time period, your fish should be bathed 2 to 3 times in the brine solution. During one bathing, the fish should only be left in the solution until he shows signs of stress (usually 2 to 4 minutes) and then returned to the antibiotic-medicated tank.

MAKING THE BRINE SOLUTION - The solution should be 4 tablespoons of brine salt to one gallon of water for the short-term baths.

When antibiotic treatment is over, discontinue any further treatment for 7 days. During this 7-day period, 1 tablespoon of salt can be added to the tank per 5 gallons of water. Treatment may be repeated after this 7-day period if the dropsy does not disappear.

I have also heard that Tuberculosis makes them bloat up as well.

 

[Fishy411]

mine looked the sam fter swallowing a whole catfish pellet! It went away fter a while.

 

[SnowyzMom]

Fishy I was wondering the same thing...as in my Jack has been so determined to get snails out of his tank...I remove all I can...that I was wondering if the silly little blighter hadn't actually swallowed one and bunged himself up. I wouldn't put it past him. So far still no dreaded pine-coning of scales. I shall live in hope. And he's on a diet!

 

[CMC]

My suspicion is that he got it from the goldfish flakes I was giving him because it happened almost overnight. He's on my desk at work and I will go in and check on him tomorrow. I'll take a picture of him also and post it here.

 

[CMC]

I forgot to answer the question about how big his belly is. It's literally the size of a marble.

 

[SRC]

found this article too

Constipation

Description:
Constipation is a fairly common problem with fish. It can occur due to lack of variety in diet. The fish's stomach will be swollen due to its inability to defecate. This may cause problems with buoyancy (similar to swim bladder disorder, where the fish is unable to swim properly and floats at the surface). Initially it is not dangerous to the fish but after several days secondary problems can occur: bacterial infection, damage to the swim bladder, or internal fluid leakage.

Treatment:
Fast the fish for about 3 days. The lack of food will give the fish's stomach time to process and purge, allowing its swelling to go down. At the end of the third day, if the fish is still having difficulty, it may require a longer fasting period. A betta can, at extreme, survive for a month without food (this is part of natural survival technique) so do not fear not feeding your betta for a few days. They are very durable fish. At the end of the fasting period, if you really want to ensure the system is flushed out, you can feed a bite-size portion of a cooked and de-shelled green pea to the fish. Or, daphnia can work as a natural laxative. This, too, will help to purge out the system.

Giving the fish a soak in a salt bath can also work as a laxative.

Prevention:
Vary the fish's diet more. Provide enough plant material, or with carnivores feed more live/frozen foods and less processed foods. Skipping feeding one day a week may be beneficial, as can eliminating pelleted food and also adding daphnia to their diet.

Performing a Dip
When treating parasites, a dip is the method of choice. Place 4 teaspoons of salt in a clean bucket, then slowly add one gallon of water from the aquarium, swirling it to dissolve the salt. Once the salt is completely dissolved, place the fish in the bucket for five to thirty minutes. Observe the fish closely, and if it exhibits any signs of distress, return it to the original aquarium immediately.

Performing a Bath
For treatment, measure out 1 teaspoon of salt for each gallon if water in the tank. Using a small container, dissolve the salt in a small quantity of water taken from the tank. Once it is completely dissolved, slowly add the solution to the to the tank.

When using bath treatments, weekly water changes of 25% should begin one week after initial treatment. Do not add additional salt once bath treatments have begun.

 

[CMC]

Here is the picture of my betta taken today. Still no change.

 

[CMC]

SRC,

Thanks for the info. I may try the salt bath in a couple of days.

 

[infant340]

holy moly!

 

[SRC]

From the looks of your fish...I'd start one right now imo. Gah, that fish looks miserable.

 

[CMC]

I'm going to do the salt bath as soon as I get to work in the morning.

 

[poindexter]

Good Luck, I hope he gets better! I once had a fish with dropsy and he was NOTHING like u described your fish...mine was very lethargic and wouldnt/couldnt eat anything. Your fish seems to be really healthy other than needed a little betta exlax!

~dEx

 

[CMC]

I did the salt bath this morning. I haven't fed him since last Thursday and I know he's hungry because when I look into the tank from the top, he thinks he's going to get fed and gets excited. I don't know how much longer he will be able stand it . He seems to be healthy otherwise.

 

[Sorrell]

I would strip that tank so there is no gravel. That way you can moniter if he is passing anything. I wouldn't fast him all together, now and then is fine, but for a period of time is going to stress him out more which makes him more at risk for disease.

For now I would do a salt bath and switch him over to a veggie diet. Peas are good as well as cucumber and zuchinni. My favorite though is Formula I. It's a frozen food for marine fish, but it works great as a veggie for bettas, mine get it once a week.

I don't think he has dropsy personally If he starts pineconing or it turns out he is pooping a lot, then you need to get some macaryn II.