I Think He Has Dropsy?

[barb-e]

My betta has been swimming kind of weird lately. Not all the time but sometimes, he will swim kind of sideways. I've also noticed him swimming around really fast and kind of bouncing off of the plants. I had been away for a summer program and took him with me. I know that all the different moves and the change in water could be stressful. He was doing it when I was away to so I guess its been going on for about 6-7 weeks?? But now i'm starting to worry. What could be wrong?

 

[nemosworld]

is he bloated? does he have scale pineconing?

 

[Kaz1814]

My betta has been swimming kind of weird lately. Not all the time but sometimes, he will swim kind of sideways. I've also noticed him swimming around really fast and kind of bouncing off of the plants. I had been away for a summer program and took him with me. I know that all the different moves and the change in water could be stressful. He was doing it when I was away to so I guess its been going on for about 6-7 weeks?? But now i'm starting to worry. What could be wrong?

One of my boys loves bouncing off his plants and his thermometer, He does that for a while then builds a bubble nest.
Hope he's not sick and fingers are crossed for you and your boy.

Kaz

 

[Phaedra]

Is he actually swimming sideways, or is he losing his balance and tilting to one side? Does he always do this, or only at certain times?
Pineconing (where his scales sort of puff out, giving him the look of a pinecone) like nemosworld said is an obvious symptom. Not so obvious would be him losing color, not eating well or being lethargic.
Do you check the ammonia, nitrite and nitrates of the water in his tank? Do you age his water when you do water changes? How often, how much and what do you feed him?
You know your fish better than we do, so if you think his behavior is weird, I would start ruling out everything that could be going wrong.