Bloodworm Disaster

[RandomWiktor]

I was feeding bloodworms (frozen, thawed obviously) to all of my bettas today, and Valkyrie tried to cram all of them in her mouth at once. Next thing I knew, she had one hanging out of her gills, and was thrashing her head around and spitting out her food. She finally shot the darn thing out of her gills, and spit up the rest of her food. But now she isn't acting right; she's looking pale, and has been "panting" for hours. I am not really sure what to do. There doesn't appear to be anything still in the gills, but she's refusing food and looks like heck. Should I change her water, add some salt, and hike up the tank temp? Add a bubbler to ease some of the stress on her gills? Leave her be and hope for the best? I'm rather concerned that she's hurt herself. There is no bleeding or obvious trauma, but she was breathing fine just before this. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

 

[Synirr]

One of my juvies did this a while back, I don't think it's anything to worry too much about. Just give her some time to settle down and for her gills to recover, and she should be right as rain in a couple of days
If you want, though, I'm sure some salt couldn't hurt. I put a pinch in all my betta tanks when I do water changes whether there's a real need for it or not.

 

[willtang3000]

shes obviously very distressed I would add stress coat or something to calm her down and she should get better and start feeding again and dont feed bloodworm to her for atleast a month might bring back bad memories

 

[RandomWiktor]

Ok, I added some stress coat and salt. She's allready starting to calm down a bit.
I'm thinking of not feeding her bloodworms any more. She is too overzealous with her eating; this isn't the first time she bit off more than she could chew; once she tried to fit three pellets into her mouth at once, and got one stuck in her jaw, which I then very carefully had to remove as it started softening (and expanding, unfortunately). She can't just take one bloodworm from my hand; she always tries to pull all of them off my finger at once. If this is the result, she simply can't have them any more.

 

[willtang3000]

why don't you feed her one bit at a time?

 

[RandomWiktor]

Well, I try to get one at a time, but then tend to either clump together, or not come up at all. So, I usually end up with a few (maybe 3?) on my finger tip, and dangle my finger in the water. All of the OTHER bettas will snatch them off one at a time, but I guess Valkyrie decided to try and go for all three at once. I haven't fed blood worms in a while, and forgot what a piggie she is. It was my mistake, I admit.

If you were asking that regarding pellets, she is now fed one at a time after the mentioned incident, as I learned very quickly that if I put 2 or 3 in at once, she'll try to eat all of them simultaneously.

 

[solidshark55]

I SUGGEST CRUMPLING THEM INTO CRUMBS

 

[RandomWiktor]

::falls over from the massive blast of capitalized letters::

To clarify - they're frozen blood worms, not freeze-dried. You can't really crumble them. I guess I could chop them up, but then they sink really fast and the darned bettas are too dopey to find them. Really, the only issue was that I forgot what a disgusting piggie she is and presented too many worms too close together. In the future, I'll have to use tweezers so its one at a time, or not give them. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[sukie]

::falls over from the massive blast of capitalized letters::

To clarify - they're frozen blood worms, not freeze-dried. You can't really crumble them. I guess I could chop them up, but then they sink really fast and the darned bettas are too dopey to find them. Really, the only issue was that I forgot what a disgusting piggie she is and presented too many worms too close together. In the future, I'll have to use tweezers so its one at a time, or not give them. Thanks for the suggestion though.

That's what i use - the tweezers!! Because they sink so fast. . . and I don't want to take the change of rotting worms at the bottom of the tanks. So it's a good plan!!! Plus you can take one at a time so she won't devour

 

[thelastbetta]

Just put them in some water so they seperate, then use tweezers to feed them one at a time. That's what I do.

 

[afireinside]

Well, if your so worried, I'd go with freeze dried bloodworms at the moment, or maybe just stick to flakes temporarily.
Hope she gets better!

 

[RandomWiktor]

thelastbetta - Thanks for the advice. =) I do put them in warm water to separate them, but I was always afriad of using tweezers because I could just invision one of the little piggies jumping up and impaling their little fishie face on the tweezers I have now bought a nice, BLUNT pair that I will be using, because as you will find in the bottom of this reply, I have some very bad news...

OppositeArmor - Thanks for posting. However, I do not use flakes or freeze dried blood worms, as they are both linked to swim bladder disease, increase the chance of constipation, and tend to sink if you pre-soak them to offset the following problems. I know not everyone has bad luck with them, but I'm just paranoid from what I've heard about them. Thanks for offering advice, however.

Well guys... I have some horrible news. You might not see me posting around here much for a while, because I currently feel like the worst betta owner in the world, and don't even feel worthy of this forum at the moment. Because of my stupidity and forgetfulness, Valkyrie has died. She calmed down last night and appeared to be breathing better, though she was a little clamed (which I assume was from the stress of it all), so I figured we were all set and ok. The next morning, I awoke to the shock of her dead on the bottom of the tank. I immediately tested the water params and checked the temp, because I desparately wanted to believe that something other than my own negligence had killed her, but everything checked out. So yes, because I was in a hurry and not thinking, I offered too many worms at once, probably damaged her gills, and she is now dead. Something as simple as taking the time to pull 3 worms apart and dangle them one at a time has resulted in the untimely, stressful, painful death of a healthy one year old betta. Words can not even begin to explain how horrible I feel right now; I spent most of yesterday crying over it. I don't even have the heart to clean out her tank yet, though I suppose I'll have to soon since I'd like to move one of the other bettas into it. I can't believe this happened, and I am so furious at myself.

my little lady; I'm sorry I've failed you.

 

[kris-b-]

Awwww sorry to hear about that

 

[soritan]

Ah, that's sad.
I'm sure she enjoyed her life with you.

 

[Booboo puppy]

I am sorry to hear of your loss. Don't be too hard on yourself. You provided a very good home for her. Accidents happen.