What's happened?

[Coral Dolpfin Cove]

I drove home for Spring Break, and I brought my bettas home with me. Two of my male bettas, Hope and Kai, are in a tank together with a divider between them. We traveled the exact same way that we always have. When I first left campus, I noticed that Hope was swimming kind of sideways. He did it the night I got home, too. The next morning, when I went to feed the fish, I saw that Hope was swimming on the same side as Kai! Now, I KNOW I would have noticed that when I fed them the night before! My only guess is that somehow Hope jumped into Kai's side, but I'm not sure how he did it. At first I thought that Kai had jumped into Hope's side because, as crazy as it sounds, they are friendly, and I thought that maybe Kai noticed something was wrong with Hope and he was trying to help. They were not fighting, and Kai was swimming on the far side of the tank while Hope was hovering in a corner. I thought that Kai had beat the heck out of Hope, but when I tried to catch him so I could put him on the other side of the divider, he fought me and swam under Hope for "protection." I immediately seperated them. Then I realized that Hope was the one in the wrong side of the tank. I don't think I'm crazy, because I KNOW I would have noticed that they were together when I fed them the night before. Also, Hope was already swimming different before I really got going on the trip. But that's not my question. My question is, what do you think happened to Hope that would make him swim sideways? Actually, he can sort of swim in a straight line, though he struggles a bit, but when he tries to just float, he tilts to one left side. Also, I thought I saw the beginning of a bubble-like formation on his eye (is it called pop-eye? I can't remember... I've never had a problem with that before). How can I treat this? I tried to make things a little more comfortable for Hope by putting Kai in a totally different (smaller, I might add) bowl so Hope could have more room to swim. However, Kai didn't like that one bit, and it didn't seem to help Hope any. *sigh* I'm really confused. I'm wondering if maybe, while I was traveling, the tank (I keep them in their own tank while we travel... I've never had a problem before) tilted and it knocked Hope into Kai's side, and maybe he scraped his side on the divider and rendered it useless. This would also explain why Hope was on Kai's side, but again, I KNOW I WOULD HAVE NOTICED THEM TOGETHER WHEN I FED THEM! I'm lost...

 

[BettaMomma]

Sounds like it could be swim bladder problem.
Here's some signs of it:

Either floats uncontrollably to the top of the tank, or sinks to the bottom.
Seems to struggle greatly while swimming, and often will swim at an unusual angle.
May or may not have a "kinked" spine, often in the shape of an "S" when viewed from above.
May lie around, barely moving except when a mad dash is made to the surface for air.
May or may not have a swollen belly, often caused by constipation

It seems as if that might be what he's got going on.

Usually, constipation is the biggest cause of it. Is it possible that you've overfed him? Is his belly swollen?

For the popeye, sparkly clean water and some meds will take care of that. Are you in the US? If so, you should get something like Maracyn or something to fix that. Some people use BettaMax, but I can't get it where I live because everyone has discontinued it. I have also tried MelaFix, but haven't had any luck with it.

One thing you could try right off the bat is to cook a frozen pea, then cool it and shell it. Dice it up into tiny chunks and toss one or two in and see if he'll eat it. That will help with the swim bladder issue, if that's what it is.