Probably a constipation

[Lanpenn]

Hello everyone!

I have had my current Betta splendens since May 14th, 2023 and, indeed, I did not remember seeing him like this. However, this reminds a constipation case I had with a Trichogaster lalius in 2014.

This is the setup below:

• Aquarium size: 17.74" length x 11.81" height x 9.84" width, about 7.92 gallons;
• Substrate: 11.02 lb gravel nº 0 Aqua Pedras;
• Heating: heater Roxin® HT-1300/Q3 50 W, adjusted to 80.6 ºF (temperature about 78.8 ºF);
• Filtration: Xynyou® xy-2835 sponge filter with air pump Tetra® Whisper The Shape of Silence™ (10-30 gallons);
• Lighting: Hygger® HG990 14 W, 68 LEDs, 817 lumina, 6500 Kelvin
• Photoperiod: 10 hours;
• Fauna: Betta splendens
• Flora: Elodea sp., Ceratophyllum demersum e Taxiphyllum barbieri;
• pH: 7.5
• Ammonia/nitrite: 0 - 0.02[1]/0 ppm

The feeding routine is the same: From Monday to Thursday, feed two times of Poytara Betta (in case you don't know the main ingredients, I compilated on this post), fasting on Friday, and, during weekends, feeding juvenile to adult live Artemia franciscana from my own culture (I suppose that gave about 4-5 shrimps per meal).

In fact, until 17th June, my Betta was absolutely okay regarding this, always showing enthusiasm when seeing me (feeding okay). From the 18th onwards, the problems started. Yesterday, he was lying on the substrate, occasionally with some inclination, just swimming to breathe the atmospheric air. Since my aquarium has some infestation of filamentous algae, today I did a siphoning of about 3.17 gallons (last week I did a water change, also). I suspected overfeeding my Betta, so I started to feed them only up to four granules (one millimeter), in order to my tank to accumulate less detritus (I even removed some decorations to get more results during siphoning and let the work easier). Usually, the water change is made two times per month, since the problems with my betta's fin disappeared. Oh, I forgot to mention, he didn't want to eat and was not showing any enthusiasm and interest when seeing me.

Today, it seems that the situation improved slightly, with him exploring a little more the aquarium. As you can see in the video below, he liked the aquarium magnet to use as a rest:

What could be? Is constipation?

Thanks for your attention!

[1] The test didn't help so much with the colors, okay.

 

[Colin_T]

I like the way he has perched himself on the algae magnet. Close to the surface and a nice stable platform for him

So he stopped eating a couple of days ago and spends most of his time sitting there doing nothing?

Has he pooped and if yes, what did it look like?

Does he appear swollen or bloated around the belly?

Is he breathing heavily/ rapidly (more than normal)?

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He might have an internal bacterial infection. These cause the fish to stop eating, bloat up overnight, do a stringy white poop, breath heavily and die a few days later. There's not normally any cure for this.

If the fish is breathing normally and isn't bloated up, then it could be something else.

You can try doing the following and see if it helps.
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Offer him some live brineshrimp and see if he eats it. Live daphnia can also be used if you can get it but brineshrimp is normally easier to obtain. If he eats live food, that is a good start and I would keep him on live food for a few days and see if he improves, then add the dry food back into his diet.

 

[Lanpenn]

I will try to answer the questions you asked.

"So he stopped eating a couple of days ago and spends most of his time sitting there doing nothing?"

Answer: Yes. He only swam when I was doing siphoning on the 19th of this month.

"Has he pooped and if yes, what did it look like?"

Answer: I don't know, because I haven't seen it yet. Before this situation, it was rare to see him pooping, although I knew what he was doing since I saw the poop later.

"Does he appear swollen or bloated around the belly?"

Answer: Yes.

"Is he breathing heavily/ rapidly (more than normal)?"

Answer: No, the breathing is probably normal.

Concerning the water changes, would there be a 75 % water change with siphoning every day?

I was reading Axelrod's book and it may also be a sleeping sickness, caused by Trypanoplasma (page 804). It says that there is no cure, but the book is from 1987. I will try to do more research about this.

Also, I will try to offer enriched live brine shrimp with Spirulina powder.

Cited book:
· Axelrod, H. R., Burgess, W. E., & Emmens, C. W. (1987). Dr. Axelrod’s Mini-atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes. TFH Publications

 

[Colin_T]

Bloated and not eating is a bad sign. Try the live brineshrimp. Do a water change and gravel clean the substrate each day for a few days and see if it helps. If it doesn't help, he is probably dying from an internal bacterial infection. Antibiotics might help but I don't know which one you could use.

 

[Lanpenn]

Well, I will do this. I also realized that the water is slightly cloudy.

 

[Lanpenn]

I will try to do a kind of diary bulletin, to better understand and address what could be happening with my Betta.

Today, during my large water change (about 75 %, since the water level was becoming so low for him at the circumstance), he interacted more. After a few minutes, however, he once again was almost lying on the ground with some inclination. Sometime later, he returned to the magnet. There was no record of him eating anything, including my brine shrimp.

 

[Lanpenn]

From late yesterday to this morning: I saw my Betta seeing his reflection in the background glass, so this caused him to flare his gills, as well as spread its fins, as had happened before. He ate something on the substrate and is swimming more. Its belly is also less bloated than before. Yesterday my mother was sad about him and was trying to talk to him as if he were a dog. He's interacting more. A few days ago, I added some almond leaves. Yesterday, I saw him performing quick contortion maneuvers, for a few times.

I saw that there's a small white thing, like a string, on his head. I don't know what it could be.

Below are the videos (on 22th, he ate the brine shrimp):

June 19th, 2024

June 20th, 2024

June 22th, 2024

 

[Colin_T]

I can't see anything on his head but he ate and appears to be a lot more active so that's a good sign.

 

[Lanpenn]

Indeed. Yesterday I couldn't feed him because I was making an extremely long trip, but today he also ate the Betta food I usually give. What has happened to this miracle?

 

[Colin_T]

If you did a big water change that might have helped.
If it was a partial blockage in his intestine, it might have cleared out and he's feeling better