Sick Betta?! Please Help

[YamiHime]

Terribly sorry if this is in the wrong place!

My cousins have bought a betta and they had given him to my grandmother to take care of him. But my grandma really likes to feed him. The poor thing has been over fed a lot and his looks giant! I am pretty sure he is a boy, so his large size is making me very worried!

He hardly swims and when he does he is usually at the top. He swims on his side and he has this big, tumor looking thing in the area where his fin comes out. His tail looks like it had fin rot or somthign and his gills around where this buldge is stick out a bit.

He looks really sick and I'm really worried for the poor guy.... My grandmother is a neat freak so she does clean him often. Almost every day... perhaps that's too much, but instead of feeding him 3 pellets she feeds him 6! I think once she said 10!

Here is a picture of him I'm sorry if it doesn't help. I live 2 hours away from her and I'm going to print this picture and talk to the people at my local petsmart.

Please if there is anything I can do for this little (big...) guy then I would really like to! My fish are really important to me and to see my cousins/grandmas fish look so sickly it makes me very sad.

 

[Chad]

My suggestion is to print up a care guide for your grandma that she can follow each day and that can be kept by the bowl or the food. Overfeeding is a particularly common problem with betta as they are quite personable and beg for food. Also, they eat and eat even though it's not good for them. I don't know if you can convince your grandma to do this but I would have her skip a day of feeding. It won't harm the fish and will give it time to digest what it's eaten. Really it could go more than one day without but I don't want to stress your grandmother into thinking she's starving it by going two days without.

What I feel it really comes down to is getting her to understand the proper care of the fish. A book on betta or a care sheet would really help her. Right now the fish really just needs to fast for a day or two and then be fed an appropriate amount thereafter.

She's okay to clean the bowl out daily. It in a larger tank with a filter would be better of course but her care in water changes is helpful.

 

[YamiHime]

My suggestion is to print up a care guide for your grandma that she can follow each day and that can be kept by the bowl or the food. Overfeeding is a particularly common problem with betta as they are quite personable and beg for food. Also, they eat and eat even though it's not good for them. I don't know if you can convince your grandma to do this but I would have her skip a day of feeding. It won't harm the fish and will give it time to digest what it's eaten. Really it could go more than one day without but I don't want to stress your grandmother into thinking she's starving it by going two days without.

What I feel it really comes down to is getting her to understand the proper care of the fish. A book on betta or a care sheet would really help her. Right now the fish really just needs to fast for a day or two and then be fed an appropriate amount thereafter.

She's okay to clean the bowl out daily. It in a larger tank with a filter would be better of course but her care in water changes is helpful.

Ahh thank you so much! Yes I am going to make her a sheet right away. But do you think fasting it one day will make it better? (obviously not right away). She has been overfeeding it since the day she has had it. But yes I do think fasting it one day will be good because she says all the time that she feels sorry for him and thats why she does it.

Do you think giving him a skinned sofened pea will help him?

 

[Chad]

If it will make him better sort of depends on just how sick the little guy is but I do think it will help the fish out but it may take weeks to recover fully.

It's important that your grandmother understands that betta can go a while without food. Three days really is nothing if the fish has to do it. I kept a betta at work in a 6 gallon tank and it was fine when I would come back from the weekend, or even a long weekend. Skipping one day a week is actually recommended by many betta keepers as a way to keep the digestive track clear...almost like a rest day for it.

A betta can and will eat itself to death if allowed to do so. Because of this it is important your grandmother understand just what kind of fish she has. They aren't like gold fish that she might have kept in the past.

There's a LOT of very good betta information on this forum...give it a quick search and maybe that will help you come up with a care sheet for her. Perhaps a care sheet already exists in the betta section!

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/forum/5-betta-splendens/

 

[YamiHime]

If it will make him better sort of depends on just how sick the little guy is but I do think it will help the fish out but it may take weeks to recover fully.

It's important that your grandmother understands that betta can go a while without food. Three days really is nothing if the fish has to do it. I kept a betta at work in a 6 gallon tank and it was fine when I would come back from the weekend, or even a long weekend. Skipping one day a week is actually recommended by many betta keepers as a way to keep the digestive track clear...almost like a rest day for it.

A betta can and will eat itself to death if allowed to do so. Because of this it is important your grandmother understand just what kind of fish she has. They aren't like gold fish that she might have kept in the past.

There's a LOT of very good betta information on this forum...give it a quick search and maybe that will help you come up with a care sheet for her. Perhaps a care sheet already exists in the betta section!

http/www.fishforum...etta-splendens/

Thank you thank you thank you for all your help! I will be sure to inform her properly, I had to make the care sheet in Greek because I don't think my grandmother can read English well, but I will try my hardest to get the point across to her as she does speak english well.

Do you suggest fasting one day and feeding properly the next until he is "better"?

 

[Chad]

I think one day is all she (your grandma) can handle. If it were my betta I would let it go two days and feed it late on the third day then feed regular every other day for about two weeks. I've rescued betta in this condition and that worked well for me (and them) and took about two weeks for it to really look totally healthy.

Let us know how it goes!

 

[phoenixgsd]

goodness poor thing i cant see a heater or filter in that bowl? any decoration for him to rest on? does she dechlorinate the water?

 

[YamiHime]

I think one day is all she (your grandma) can handle.

If it were my betta I would let it go two days and feed it late on the third day then feed regular every other day for about two weeks. I've rescued betta in this condition and that worked well for me (and them) and took about two weeks for it to really look totally healthy.

Let us know how it goes!

I will and thank you thank you!

goodness poor thing

i cant see a heater or filter in that bowl? any decoration for him to rest on? does she dechlorinate the water?

Oh yes she does dechlorinate the water, and she changes him often so I believe his conditions are pretty good for him living in a bowl. He doesn't have a heater but he is away from the doors and beside a Tv so must be getting some heat. But I might just go out and get a thermometer and heater for her. If I buy myself a bigger thank for my fish I might just give the old one to her.

 

[Chad]

Here's a video that might help. It talks about some of the things that Phoenix brought up and why they are important. http/youtu.be/5Iuonl3OroY