Egg Binding Or Really Bad Constipation With Betta,, Help!

keithp

Fishaholic
Joined
Jun 17, 2008
Messages
660
Reaction score
0
Location
New York, U.S.
My female betta has blown up like a balloon, and I dont know why? A few weeks ago I noticed her belly got large, and being I did have a new male in the tank next to her I figured she developed eggs wanting to breed, but I read if you dont feed them for a few days they absord the eggs and will be fine, but with her nothing improved. Now she is twice as large and not any better. I was thinking it has to be egg binding or some form of constipation.

Her symptoms are- gradually large round belly with scales raised (but not raised on the rest of her body) and if I hold a light up belly looks clear with nothing in it, long stringy poo that is clear and sometimes has tiny bubbles. She will eat if you offer her food, and her fins are never clamped, and her color is ok.

I have not fed her anything 3 days before taking this picture (only part of a pea 3 days ago, and her belly seems to be the same size) She is pooing clear,stringy poo that has a bit of green, possibly from the pea 3 days ago.

So i'm not sure what the cause could be? I normally feed her hikari betta pellets, or one of these frozen foods-brine shrimp,bloodworms,daphnia. I change what I feed everyday. How much of each should I have fed her, I would give 2 pellets once a day, or 3 bloodworms once a day, that's all!

Her she is last week
eggs.jpg

Here she is today, you can see the stringy poo hanging.
DSC01428.jpg
 
#93### that's a bit of a jump.
Looks almost like an entirely different fish, colours and all.

White stringy poo is a sign of parasites normally, unless you feed her white food.

It could also be dropsy, which is concordant with the raised scales and inflamation.

I've heard of epsom salts being used to not only treat dropsy, but also parasites, with varying degrees of success.

If it is indeed constipation, then I would say give her a few days on nothing but peas and see how you go from there. This is going to be a tricky case as you will need to narrow down the cause.

If it does solve your problem, I recommend one day a week as a fast day, helps keep fish regular.
 
So adding that epson salt may help than, I can give it a try. With the fasting, i've fasted her for 3 days, how much longer should she fast for, I dont want to starve her by accident. If her belly does not go down what do you think it is? What food do you suggest giving if she gets bloated easily? If she gets better I can skip a day for feeding each week.

The poo looks more clear than white to me, at what point should I give parasite meds, like how long should I wait to see for improvement first?
 
So adding that epson salt may help than, I can give it a try.
It may help, but there's no guarantee, let's see what others say as well.

With the fasting, i've fasted her for 3 days, how much longer should she fast for, I dont want to starve her by accident.
We should have really ideally seen some sort of improvement by now...I'd day another 2 days just in case she has something really quite stubborn in her belly.

If her belly does not go down what do you think it is?
Parasites or dropsy, I'd put my money on dropsy though, the only thing that makes me doubt dropsy entirely is the lack of pine-coning.

What food do you suggest giving if she gets bloated easily?
Daphnia are apparently really good for digestion, as are things like glass worms. Ironically they're both white/clear so it'll still look like she'll have stringy poo lol.

If she gets better I can skip a day for feeding each week.
Indeed, I do it with all my fish and I've never had a problem with constipation.

Edit: GRahh! stop editing after I've posted lol.
In regards to parasite med, wait til after the fasting if no improvement, or after the epsom salts, depends on what one you want to try first.
 
Ok thank you, i'll take your advice and hope for improvement.

Any time, I really hope she improves as she's a stunner!

Also, just to add.
Before you try the meds, daily water changes of at at least 50%.
Crank the temp up to 28/29/30 but make sure you add some more aeration or aim the filter outlet more at the surface.
All this combined will help speed up her metabolism and hopefully pass the constipation faster (if it is).
 
absolutely give epsom salt a try! it will draw fluid out of the tissue. if she is infact constipated will stimulate her to poo. clear stringy poo can be from internal para sties, bacterial infection OR constipation! so the best bet is to use the epsom first. i agree to continue fasting. if she is constipated will do a lot of good, and dont worry about her starving. they can go quite some time without food. stay away from dry foods for a while (that includes pellets flake and freezedried). feed a tiny bit (like 1/4) of a cooked deshelled pea every third day for a week, then 2 frozen bloodworms everyother day for another week. no more. no other food! this in combination with an eposm salt bath (in a container which is not her tank) hopefully will see improvement within a few days-week.
heres the mix to use for epsom bath:
1 tablespoon per gal of water. in the past i have used a quart (1/4 of a gal) canning jar and added just shy of a teaspoon of epsom. i just filled it up with tankwater, added the epsom salt and stirred til it was dissolved. then net the fish and put it in the bath. leave up to 30 mins up to 2X/day. (start with 15 mins on the first day and increase for 5 mins each time and watch for "bad" reaction-although never had this happen with epsom. do little water changes in the tank while shes in the bath.
often, will stimulate them to have a massive poo in the first few treatments.
i would NOT crank the temp as suggested rather leave it be. if it is from bacterial/parasitic will increase their life cycle as well as up her metabolism. something you dont want to do(youd only want to increase metabolism if you are certain it is constipation-which im guessing but dont take that chance.
hopefully you will have good results with the epsom. but never a bad idea to treat the tank for internal parasites once in a while. they sell foods with the medications praziquentil and metronidazole-those are the ingredients to look for for internal parasites.--
does her anus look inflamed or red or swollen? is other sign of parasites and not simply constipation.
best of luck!! keep us posted.
cheers
 
The fish is looking worse. I've noticed her body now has slightly raised scales all over, and by her anus it is very red looking with something dark looking like its sticking out like a worm but I see no movement. I cant tell if it's bloat,parasites, or possibly a bacterial infection from egg binding that has gotten so bad that sh got bloat from it.

I am still using epsom salt (is it ok to put it in her tank and let it stay there instead of baths?) I will keep her temp a bit lower. But now with the food is it still constipation you think? I wanted to put her in a larger tank I had bought but if whatever she has is contagious and she does pass im afraid to use the tank again so mabye I should not move her to a larger tank (no other fish in it but her)

I did feed her a piece of earthworm chopped up a month ago, I heard they like it, could that have something to do with all this?

Here's new pics
body
DSC01431.jpg

red irritation and possibly parasite by anus
DSC01435.jpg
 
From reading i'm almost 100% sure she has Dropsy. :( What I dont get is why my other betta with the same water conditions is doing excellent, and my female is not, they say dropsy is caused by bad water conditions. Her belly is clearly filled with yellowish fluid and her digestive tract is nearly empty, so she's not constipated.

I bought maracyn 2, am starting that treatment which lasts 5 days, and added a teaspoon of epson salt to the tank. I will feed her a tiny bit of pea and 1 bloodworm and see how she does with that. I am lowering the temp slightly too. I hope for the best.

All I can say though is that if it is dropsy it's probably my fault somehow and I dont feel like getting any more bettas because i'm doing something wrong and dont want any more bettas to die because of me, I feel really,really bad.
 
From reading i'm almost 100% sure she has Dropsy. :( What I dont get is why my other betta with the same water conditions is doing excellent, and my female is not, they say dropsy is caused by bad water conditions. Her belly is clearly filled with yellowish fluid and her digestive tract is nearly empty, so she's not constipated.

I bought maracyn 2, am starting that treatment which lasts 5 days, and added a teaspoon of epson salt to the tank. I will feed her a tiny bit of pea and 1 bloodworm and see how she does with that. I am lowering the temp slightly too. I hope for the best.

All I can say though is that if it is dropsy it's probably my fault somehow and I dont feel like getting any more bettas because i'm doing something wrong and dont want any more bettas to die because of me, I feel really,really bad.

I'm sorry to hear that, dropsy is a real pain to shift, but it is doable.

The cause of dropsy is generally unknown so most people just chalk it down to poor water quality. Actually saying that, not very much is known about dropsy at all, best thing to do is just crank on with the treatments and see how you go.
Best of luck, hopefully she'll pull through.
 
dropsy is more of a symptom than an actual disease. it is not ONLY brought on by poor water! it can be from bacterial to viral to system shut down. i think you are on the right path using epsom. will help with fluid retention. use 1 tablespoon/5 gal if you are treating the entire tank and not using in a dip/bath which would be 1 teaspoon/gal for up to 30 mins 2X a day.
the inflamed anus with "things" hanging from it sounds like callumanus worms-they look like little red threads hanging fom the fish's bum. like a pom pom almost. (also explains the stringy, mucusy poo and bloating). do some research on those. again, get an antiparasitic medicated food which contains praziquentil, metronidazole and fenbendazole(treats virtually all parasties with that comination) if you are able (if in the US Jungle brand is great! sorry dont know about uK meds much). prazi is the best med for callumnanus worms. keep the water clean. i would also use antibiotics in tandem if you are able *just* to cover the bases. will be ok to mix the parasite meds and antibiotics. temp looks good too. dont push it too high.
all the best!!!
CHEERS
 

Most reactions

trending

Back
Top