So, my boyfriend and I went on vacation 2 weeks ago. We brought my betta to his sister's house so she could feed him while we were gone. We emptied a little water out of the tank and drove over to her house (it was about a 10 minute drive not even). Once we got there, we cleaned the tank and added more water. We noticed he was kind of tipping on it's side, and I had never seen him do that before! We figured maybe he needed a little time to adjust and get settled after the car ride. Well, we have since come home from vacation and picked up the fish, and he's still doing it.

I cleaned the tank again, put a pinch of aquarium salt in there, have put the fish on a 3 day fast and am giving him a pea tonight to see if it's because he's kind of bloated.

I don't know what else to do! I put some betta fix in there to see if that would help. He's still on his side!

Anybody have any idea what could be wrong?

I've had the betta for a year and a few months now. He's in a nice tank with an air filter, so he's getting bubbles and such.

What more can I do? I feel horrible and it scares the crap out of me to see the fish lying on it's side at the top of the tank! As soon as I go over to the tank, though, he swims around, but when I move away, he goes back to floating on his side.

What do you normally feed the betta?
I would try some peas.
Have you seen the betta go the toilet, if so what does it look like.
I would add a bacterial med and increase aeration.

I was feeding the betta pellets, but ran out and could not find the same ones in the store, so I bought new pellets that he wouldn't eat. The past few months I've been giving blood worms.

I'm going to try the pea tonight because I haven't fed him since Friday morning (I read that doing a fast before the pea sometimes helps if it's constipation).

He's swimming around more, but can't seem to stay still in a regular upright position. He just kind of slowly tips sideways again.

I will report back in a little bit after I give the pea.

And oh, I haven't seen the betta use the bathroom in a few days. When I cleaned his tank when we got back from vacation, I noticed it was actually pretty clean...not lots of poop in the bottom. Hmm.

and you said increase aeration? How do I do that? I have a pretty powerful airstone in there now. (Not super powerful, but it lets out lots of bubbles.)

You turn filter flow up if you can, or run and airstone with pump.
To many dried foods and blood worms can cause bloating and constipation.
I would get some frozen daphnia thats very good a digesting a fish food.
Need a variety of frozen foods and veg in there diet.

So I tried the pea thing...it didn't work! They sunk too fast before he could get them. I gave a bloodworm (because he doesnt like the pellets I have and it's the only thing he will eat...I don't want him to starve to death!) and he munched it right up (I had to help out with a clean chop stick...they kept getting away from him and he has a difficult time chasing after. I kept scooping it and putting it in front of him and he CHOWED down.)

What else should I do?!!! I didn't know peas sunk.

Gah. I feel horrible for him.

This post has been edited by georgi611: Apr 15 2008, 12:13 AM

Don't feed bloodworms when a fish has swim bladder.
Peas are the best.
Did you mush the peas into small peices.

2 months later and my betta is still floating on her side at the top of the tank. Feeding is hard for her. I watch and she has lots of trouble turning around to get her food. She also has a bump on her face, right next to her left eye. It started off white, turned red, and is still red. I'm using betta fix, doing a water change every few days. I'm not sure what else to do, but she's still here 2 months later. Any suggestions on what is going on? I just don't want my little HAP to be in pain.

The lump bacterial if its red.
Sadly she sounds in a bad way.
Have you seen her go to the toilet.