Help! Sick (bloated?) Betta

[Somethin_fishy]

Hi everybody, I'm new here but have been keeping fish for only around two years. My queswtion has to do with one of my female bettas, i have 4 of them in a 25gal tank with 6 cories and 4 ottos.
The other bettas are fine however this one began getting very large, with her stomach swelling up over the past two days. I assumed she was eating too much (as it didnt affect her in any way) and fed smaller doses. Today I found her just sitting at the bottom of the tank and she is only coming up to the surface for air. All other tankmates are healthy, and i recently did a 20% water change (yesterday), all readings are good (ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5).
My guess is that this is bloating, maybe caused by the freeze dried bloodworms they get 3 times a week(with a normal betta food the other 4 days)? Does anyone know any ways to fix this this? I've heard of boiled peas or something in the past, can anyone offer details on this? Or are there some medications people have had success with? Any help is appreciated!

 

[ezrock]

HI. Any chance she is loaded with eggs? The basic description of her actual appearance makes it sound like that could be it, especially since only her front part (belly area) is swelling...Maybe try looking through some old spawn logs and see if your female looks like any of the eggy females people show before they spawn their bettas

-Ian

 

[starrynightxxi]

that was my first thoguht, that she might just be eggy, but i though eggy females usually remained active. Mine always have. It may be constipation due to the tendency of freeze dried foods to cause this problem, or perhaps a case of over feeding (or of one fish hogging the food). If she's still eating, what you can do is cook some peas until they are soft and feed them to your fish (deshelled). like most roughage, the pea usually gets or keeps things moving through their digestive tract, and it has always been taken readily by my bettas, as opposed to other foods that they have taken but immediately spit out, or ignored entirely.

best of luck

 

[Somethin_fishy]

I'm very sure she doesnt just have eggs, and it has gotten worse, today i decided to try the pea thing, i boiled the pea, pealed off the skin then cut it into bite size peices but she wouldnt eat it, she also didnt eat the usual staple food today either (she has atleast been eating until now). I am very worried, i now have a little isolated area i created out of a breeding net etc in the top corner of the tank so she can reach the top for air. Before that she was just struggling to get to the top so i would reaach in and hold her with my hand (tho this got tiring after half and hour). Are there any meds i can use to help her? I dont think she's gonna make it on her own.

I am also noticing one of my other bettas seems less active aswell. Also, just out of curiousity, i fed some pea peices to the other bettas, the two most active ones ate them eagerly, the one that seems to be slowing down kept eating it then spitting it back out. Could this possibly be early stages of drapsy plaguing my tank!? Or some other disease? The scales arent sticking out and there are no visible parasites, the only symptoms are the swelling stomachs and less activity (to the point of barely moving at all). Please help!!

 

[Loko17]

If another betta starts to have the same symptoms there must be something in the water, I'm not sure what it is but it sounds like there's some kind of disease in your tank. Try putting this on the emergencies forum and also search betta info sites for info on what it could be, I'd hate to hear about your females being very sick. Sending good thoughts to your betta females.

 

[Somethin_fishy]

She didnt make it. Thanks to everyone who took their time to try and help. She fell asleep in my hand but never moved from where i placed her for the night. RIP Angel (her name). My other girl is now looking and acting normal .

If anyone knows what this was, i'd appreciate it. Her dead body had what looks like bruises on either side of her stomach, these werent there when she was alive, and she was isolated and never moved so the other tankmates didnt get her and she didnt knock anything. Anyone know what would cause this?

 

[liz2]

sorry about your fish...one of my males had like black shadows on him when he died, not ammonia burns as it was like inside him I only had him a few days...probably some internal bacteria