Fish, eh? Always want something that you don't have! Well, mine do anyway! I will keep an eye on my betta, i think I might be feeding him too much as compensation for the few days he refused to eat when i got him (have had him 2 weeks!). He eatsa bout 10 betta pellets a day (they are tiny!) over 3 feedings. Sometimes i give him a tiny amount of betta flake instead. He eats both very happily! And when i feed my frogs some bloodworms, he steals one or two! Luckily this is only twice a week

Yep - fish for you! - I think may have given Archie too many betta pellets in one feeding today - it certainly sounds like it from the feedback I've got from people on the forum! Archie has been having about 5 betta pellets and a wee bit of aquariun tropical flake. Once he's sorted I think I'm going to miss out the Aquariun Tropical flake - and stick to betta pellets and frozen food.

Come on Archie Poooooooo!

We're all willing Archie to poo

I dont want to worry you, but my recently deceased betta just went through this exact thing. I had him for a year and always kept the tank clean. Dropsy is a gram negative bacterial infection. I tried several treatments with Oscar (antibiotics, anti parasitic meds, and the shelled cooked pea) but none of it worked. The mass just kept getting bigger. It wen on for about a month before he passed. He never had the pineconed scales which is a symptom of dropsy, and he never showed characteristics of internal parasite infection but I was desperate. Oscar never acted sick, he kept flaring and swimming, but the mass never went away. If I had to guess I would contribute it to the food I was feeding him, only pellets. I think, in Oscars case, he basically had liver failure which caused a blockage in his digestive tract or it was a tumor. Good luck, just wanted to share my story with you. You are in the right spot, the people on here know what they are talking about. Early treatment may help, I may have waited too long for Oscar. All the LFS kept telling me it was dropsy.

Thanks for sharing that story - and sorry to hear about Oscar... I guess time will tell - I sure am worried about the little fella.

Hok I had the same with one of mine then on last couple of days she pineconed and dies. I wonder if it would be worth trying epson salts baths? it was too late for my poor Little Miss Floosie despite desperate attempts to save her. I doooooooo hope it is just a bit of constipation and he gets better soon

There is no harm in giving him an epson salt bath at all. What it does is help to release any built up fluids inside the fish. I don't use the dip method myself, i add the epson to the hospital tank for a 24 hours then do 100% water change. Its been a while since i had had to do it so have fogotten the measurments but i think it was 1/8 of a teaspoon per ltr or something. Google epsom salt bath for fish just in case i am wrong, you will find plenty of info on it there.

Keep us posted with his progress

Hi

Archie definetly seems to be improving, It definetly seems to have gone down some - I'll be just keeping an eye on him for the next few days and fasting him till Monday.

I'll keep you posted!

This post has been edited by yorkshiretyker: May 10 2008, 06:31 PM

epsom salts are used as a laxative in humans so could be worth using for constipation (in your fish) too