Heavy Breathing Betta

[TotallyTropical]

I think he’s just a super delta, but wow, yours is stunning! I do have one of those betta leaf hammocks for him to rest on, but I’ll get some hornwort in there or something so he can be comfy while I have him. It’s going to be a shame to return him to the store, but I promised my coworkers and my parents that I’d only nurse him back to health, and I have no more room for bettas according to my family haha
If I could keep him I would, that’s for sure

 

[NickAu]

Thanks, Yes he is a looker

My personal choice is Anubias attached to the glass with suction cups, Also a floating log is good.

If you can, get a fake log like this, sand any rough edges down so he dont snag his tail on them and attach it to the glass with suction cups.
https://thumb2.zeppy.io/d/l400/pict...ornament-fish-tank-decoration-accessories-new

Like this.
https://imgur.com/hNmEGQK

Heres Mr playing peekaboo.
https://imgur.com/F5xHC56

This is a nice shot of him.
https://imgur.com/xUjl973

 

[NickAu]

PS.

A breeder offered me $70 for him but hes not for sale, I paid $50 for him.

 

[TotallyTropical]

James is still doing well, but I’m still stuck on feeding. I’ve tried pellets, smaller pellets, frozen bloodworms, and frozen brine shrimp (the last 2 defrosted, of course). The small pellets almost seem good enough for him to eat, but they sink for some reason and get lost, or he has trouble scooping them up from the bottom. The regular pellets float, but are too big for him. Should I try flakes so he can at least get some sustenance for now? I turn the filter off and everything so he can eat but nothing seems to help. I’m just out of ideas at this point!

 

[NickAu]

Why not crush a pellet or 2

 

[TotallyTropical]

I did try that, but it got really messy. Maybe that’s all I can do for now though

 

[NickAu]

Buy yourself a cheap pepper or salt grinder

Like this

 

[Cichlid4life]

I feel like I post here way too often nowadays....
Anyways, hello all, I’m back with an interesting problem.
I work at a high end pet store chain now (which is pretty cool imo), and one of the things we carry are bettas! It’s always tempting to take home a third, fourth, or 15th betta, but I tend to hold myself back and admire the two cuties that I have. Unfortunately, since we keep them in tiny containers as usual, I’ve seen at least one death and one illness in the 2 months I’ve been there, which was bound to happen.
Since my boss is pretty chill, I asked him if I could take their old tank in the back (that they used to use to keep bettas of their own in the store) and nurse the sick fish that was left back to health. Of course, my boss said yes, and not to worry if the fish died during the process, and to even take him home to keep if I grew attached (to which I politely declined lol).
Anyways, long story short, I have a mess of a setup with what looks to be a gold halfmoon betta with a swimbladder disorder. My plan was to fast him for 3 days and feed him peas after to see if that would help since he gets fed like 10 pellets daily in the store
What I’m worried about now is if I’m accidentally doing a fish-in cycle with him, and if the water’s too warm. The tank is a 1.8 gallon bowl thing that was supposed to have a filter, but they lost the cord for it. I had to buy a seperate filter and heater, and I also bought some Nutrafin Cycle to try and cycle the tank quickly.
I know this sounds terrible, but he survived the night and has perked up in terms of actually trying to swim around, and the only thing I’m worried about is the fact that he’s breathing a bit heavily. This could be because of the tank possibly cycling or because of the heater but I don’t know which one or if I should be concerned.
I would have bought a new, better tank and cycled it but I’m not technically allowed to have a third tank in the house and I was in a bit of a rush to get this guy home. The only reason I could bring this tank home was because I was borrowing it and it was only temporary, meaning my parents wouldn’t have to look after it after I move off to university. I also have no money left after Christmas shopping...
So, basically, am I setting myself up for a dead fish instead of fixing up a sick one?
If things are really that bad, I can divide my 10 gallon and place him in there; it’s cycled, properly heated, and probably much better, but I don’t have a divider anymore and I don’t really have the funds to get one.
I guess I’m just confused and looking for opinions here haha. Sorry for the long post.

At first look, there is not much to worry about as it is normal to try hard and to think that you are sort of just wasting resources or trying to hard or just doubting yourself, and we all have done that before. I think with a little help and encouragement, that you honestly could do it and that your betta might live long enough to be bought and cared for by a new family. Now i should go read the rest of the long thread.

 

[Cichlid4life]

Regardless of any uninformed opinions by some members on this site peas will not help with swim bladder issues.

Epsom salt baths can help.

The mistake here is that deshelled peas help with BLOAT, peas do NOT help with swim bladder problems, i am stating this just to clarify those who confused the bloat with swim bladder problems.

 

[TotallyTropical]

Alright, some good news, but also some worrying news.
Good news: I can (sometimes) get James to eat whole pellets now! He must be feeling much better with more food in him. I’m not feeding more than 2 pellets once in the morning and once in the evening, removing what he cant eat, which brings me to the other news.
Weird(?) news: it sounds like his jaw might be broken? Even when he is just taking breaths of air, it sometimes sounds like there’s crunching or grinding going on, and it’s REALLY loud. Then he’ll stop near the surface for a bit, stopping all movement, like he’s in extreme pain, before swimming off again and acting normally. This broken jaw theory is also supported by his inability to eat large pieces of food, such as whole pellets. I don’t know what to do about this though, since eating and breathing is vital, and I can’t control how he does it.

 

[NickAu]

sounds like there’s crunching or grinding going on, and it’s REALLY loud.

That's him chomping on the pellet.

Fun fact
Bettas have teeth and chew their food.

Try pre soaking the pellet in a spoon of tank water for a minute or so till it just softens then give it to the fish.

 

[Cichlid4life]

crunching and grinding? If it is rally load then it can't be from the betta, but if it is about as load as the droning of a flying fly, then he most likely is eating something, or is could be the filter is a piece of plant leave is stuck in soide the motor and it is getting grinded.

 

[TotallyTropical]

That's him chomping on the pellet.

Even when he doesn’t have a pellet to chomp on? He’s doing this when he’s breathing at the surface too.

crunching and grinding? If it is rally load then it can't be from the betta, but if it is about as load as the droning of a flying fly, then he most likely is eating something, or is could be the filter is a piece of plant leave is stuck in soide the motor and it is getting grinded.

It doesn’t quite sound like something’s wrong with the filter, it sounds more like he’s just crunching up a pellet, but twice as loud and even when I haven’t fed him. I have no clue what else he could find in the tank to munch on though; there’s no snails or anything, just some plants and gravel that he could be pecking around in.

 

[Colin_T]

It's highly unlikely the fish has broken its jaw, unless someone man handled the fish and was extremely rough and flicked it in the chin or something like that.

 

[Cichlid4life]

Even when he doesn’t have a pellet to chomp on? He’s doing this when he’s breathing at the surface too.


It doesn’t quite sound like something’s wrong with the filter, it sounds more like he’s just crunching up a pellet, but twice as loud and even when I haven’t fed him. I have no clue what else he could find in the tank to munch on though; there’s no snails or anything, just some plants and gravel that he could be pecking around in.

Have you tried to turn off all of the plugs for that one aquarium to see if thee crunching stops, try unplugging the following items if you have any running in the tank: all sponge filters, the filter, any heaters, but NOT the light. See if he come up for air at the surface of the water and see if you can still here the crunching sound, and if so, tell us a bit more on how the betta is using it's gills to breath, is the betta breathing heavily, fast, or slowly?