fin fungus and constipation on betta

[hurgerburger]

My betta fish has had a swollen belly for the past month or so. It stared when I fed him an extra bloodworm at night after his normal meal in the morning. He usually just has one meal a day. After researching a bit, I figured it was constipation, so I fasted him for around two days, and went back to what I was feeding him before (3 omega betta pellets usually in the morning, unsoaked). The constipation didn't go away, but I didn't think much of it. A week and a half ago, while he was still constipated, I moved him from his 2.5 gallon unplanted tank to a 5.5 gallon planted tank. Since I filled the 5.5 gallon with water from my 20 gallon, I didn't cycle it beforehand. The day after, I decided to feed him a bit of pea to help him pass whatever was stuck in his gut, and for about a week I fed him a bit of pea, his normal meal, and sometimes I fasted him a little bit. I got a bit more worried, and did some more in depth research, and I've started to get worried that he might have a parasite, since his poop has been grayish brownish white, and sort of trails. for the past four days I have been fasting him. I should mention, he has been very happy and energetic up until today. Today I noticed there was some white fluff at the tip of his bottom fin, which looks like a fungal infection. He's also moving a bit slower than usual- usually when I come over to the tank he kinda spasms and swims back and forth at the front of the tank, but today he just swam over. Also, whenever he's healthy, he has bright blue bits at the ends of his ventral fins, but today they are more white. Yesterday they were fairly blue, but not perfect. I did a water test this morning (API test kit, not strips): PH: 7.0 ammonia: .15ppm nitrite: 0ppm nitrate: 30ppm. This is my first time using the kit (bad rachel) but I followed the instructions in the booklet. Some other things: Sir BBQ has never had a fungal infection before (I didn't choose that name, D Block choir class did, his full name is Sir Barbecue Pringle the Fourth), even when he lived in a 2.5 gallon unheated fish tank. Also, I put plants from the fish store directly into the tank without doing anything to them first, which could have brought something foreign into the tank (I say could have, they did, there are a couple tiny microbes swimming around in the Java moss, which I'm assuming are harmless). Do you think the constipation and fungal infection are related? Should I buy medicine? Should I stop fasting him? should I keep fasting him? Should I feed him more frozen peas? Should I buy live food? I will do literally anything to save this fish, please help. Attached are photos of sir BBQ

 

[hansgruber7]

In my experience, ammonia above zero is often the start of problems for betta fish. You mentioned 0.15 reading? My API has 0.25 as the lowest reading? Is that what you mean? If so, that could be the source of the problem. I wouldn't feed him bloodworms, go with a healthy, fresh pellet. Get your ammonia down to zero with water changes and cleaning and keep an eye on him to see if he gets worse. You can try Aquarium Co Op quarantine trio of meds which would tackle any common issues if you think that could be the problem.

 

[hurgerburger]

In my experience, ammonia above zero is often the start of problems for betta fish. You mentioned 0.15 reading? My API has 0.25 as the lowest reading? Is that what you mean? If so, that could be the source of the problem. I wouldn't feed him bloodworms, go with a healthy, fresh pellet. Get your ammonia down to zero with water changes and cleaning and keep an eye on him to see if he gets worse. You can try Aquarium Co Op quarantine trio of meds which would tackle any common issues if you think that could be the problem.

My reading for the test was a bit below 0.25 so I just estimated and said 0.15. I just did a 50% water change, I'll do it daily until the problem clears up. Thank you!

 

[hurgerburger]

My betta fish has had a swollen belly for the past month or so. It stared when I fed him an extra bloodworm at night after his normal meal in the morning. He usually just has one meal a day. After researching a bit, I figured it was constipation, so I fasted him for around two days, and went back to what I was feeding him before (3 omega betta pellets usually in the morning, unsoaked). The constipation didn't go away, but I didn't think much of it. A week and a half ago, while he was still constipated, I moved him from his 2.5 gallon unplanted tank to a 5.5 gallon planted tank. Since I filled the 5.5 gallon with water from my 20 gallon, I didn't cycle it beforehand. The day after, I decided to feed him a bit of pea to help him pass whatever was stuck in his gut, and for about a week I fed him a bit of pea, his normal meal, and sometimes I fasted him a little bit. I got a bit more worried, and did some more in depth research, and I've started to get worried that he might have a parasite, since his poop has been grayish brownish white, and sort of trails. for the past four days I have been fasting him. I should mention, he has been very happy and energetic up until today. Today I noticed there was some white fluff at the tip of his bottom fin, which looks like a fungal infection. He's also moving a bit slower than usual- usually when I come over to the tank he kinda spasms and swims back and forth at the front of the tank, but today he just swam over. Also, whenever he's healthy, he has bright blue bits at the ends of his ventral fins, but today they are more white. Yesterday they were fairly blue, but not perfect. I did a water test this morning (API test kit, not strips): PH: 7.0 ammonia: .15ppm nitrite: 0ppm nitrate: 30ppm. This is my first time using the kit (bad rachel) but I followed the instructions in the booklet. Some other things: Sir BBQ has never had a fungal infection before (I didn't choose that name, D Block choir class did, his full name is Sir Barbecue Pringle the Fourth), even when he lived in a 2.5 gallon unheated fish tank. Also, I put plants from the fish store directly into the tank without doing anything to them first, which could have brought something foreign into the tank (I say could have, they did, there are a couple tiny microbes swimming around in the Java moss, which I'm assuming are harmless). Do you think the constipation and fungal infection are related? Should I buy medicine? Should I stop fasting him? should I keep fasting him? Should I feed him more frozen peas? Should I buy live food? I will do literally anything to save this fish, please help. Attached are photos of sir BBQView attachment 123541View attachment 123542

update: I stopped the fasting, I figured I should deal with the constipation later. I fed him 3 pellets. I did a 50% water change to get the ammonia back to zero, but after the water change it rose to .25. I put some of the filter bits from my 20 gallon into this filter, so hopefully they should gobble up the ammonia. the bit of fin that is infected is falling off, I think that's a good thing but correct me if I'm wrong. I will do another 50% water change tomorrow morning. I bought some antibacterial stuff, but from what I've seen online, it will probably kill all the beneficial bacteria as well, so I'm going to wait a couple of days to see if it gets better on its own, since it's probably due to my high ammonia. But if anyone has any tips on how to deal with the constipation/bloating, please let me know! I'm still worried that I'm doing the wrong thing.

 

[hurgerburger]

update: I stopped the fasting, I figured I should deal with the constipation later. I fed him 3 pellets. I did a 50% water change to get the ammonia back to zero, but after the water change it rose to .25. I put some of the filter bits from my 20 gallon into this filter, so hopefully they should gobble up the ammonia. the bit of fin that is infected is falling off, I think that's a good thing but correct me if I'm wrong. I will do another 50% water change tomorrow morning. I bought some antibacterial stuff, but from what I've seen online, it will probably kill all the beneficial bacteria as well, so I'm going to wait a couple of days to see if it gets better on its own, since it's probably due to my high ammonia. But if anyone has any tips on how to deal with the constipation/bloating, please let me know! I'm still worried that I'm doing the wrong thing.

Also I removed some decomposing plant bits, which might have been the issue.

 

[hansgruber7]

Have you tested your tap water? It's strange to me that your ammonia stayed high after a 50% water change. I had a similar problem and discovered that my tap water had high levels of ammonia. I switched to RO water and solved my problem.

 

[Naughts]

The problem is your uncycled tank. The ammonia will keep rising as the fish excretes it and you do not have established beneficial bacteria to convert it. Test daily and do large daily water changes (always remember to dechlorinate) until the tank consistently reads 0 ammonia and nitrite.

 

[hansgruber7]

Yes, I think Naughts is correct. I went back and read your original post and I see that your tank is uncycled. Transferring water does nothing to cycle your tank. You need to do daily large water changes for a few weeks at least probably.