Sick Blue Fighter Fish (Male)

[chriscrozier]

Morning,

I'm pretty new to keeping Tropical Fish so looking for a bit of advice.

I have a fighter fish which I have had for about 4 weeks and he is pretty sick.
He has had a few symptoms, his belly swelled up pretty bad and I did a bit research on the net and the only thing that seemed to match his issues was Dropsy, however it has went back to normal now.

His fins now look sort of clumped together and he has been handing around the bottom of the tank for short periods of time and a couple of times he has tried to hid under ornaments. He is still eating fine, and quite active.

The tank is clean, has good filtration, live plants and a heater. I have two ornaments, a cave & a castle. It holds about 15 gallons of water.
I clean about 20% of the water once a week. Other fish in the tank include 3 Dalmation Mollys, 1 Pleco, 3 Angel Fish

I feed my fish live food once or twice a week and use fish flakes (tropical) the rest of the time.

Does anyone have advice on what could be causing the problem/ how to fix it?

 

[blinky000]

Were the scales standing up all over its body or just in some places? How are his fins looking? I haven't personally had bettas with angelfish but I know most members on here would say it's a no no. My personal theory is that maybe your betta is being terrorised by the angelfish. I found that bettas tend to get a swollen belly when they've been under attack, and he's probably clamping his fins due to the stress of it. The best solution would be to get a little 5 gal tank and house your betta separately. They do much better on their own

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

A swollen belly is possibly just a sign that he's had too big a dinner and it does return to normal in 1-2 days usually.

Do you have a water test kit so you can check the ammonia and nitrite levels? If they are high they will make the fish sick. (I reccomend the API liquid test kit if you need one)

Bettas are fine to be kept with many varieties of other fish however, Angels are considered a "high risk" tankmate for bettas. Keep an eye on them to make sure there's no agression going on.

 

[chriscrozier]

Thanks for the help!

The scales look fine to be honest, they are not raised and have not lost there colour. It’s just the fins which seem to be clamped/look rugged
I never realised Angels and Betta were not suited, I should have looked in to this a bit more

One other symptom he has which I never mentioned is his chin area has gone a white colour.
I do not have a water testing kit, but I’m planning on getting one this weekend to start carrying out water checks.

All the other fish in the tank are fine, just seem to have a problem with the little fella

 

[blinky000]

Well it's good that his scales weren't sticking out. Pineconing is the main sign of dropsy. I'd have to go with stress on the bloating front. And since his fins are rugged looking, I'd say he's been nipped a bit by the angels. They're only angels by name, not by nature!
In terms of the pale chin, does it look anything like this? http/www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=stressed+male+betta&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&sa=N&biw=1280&bih=923&tbm=isch&tbnid=7xNlxB4fe-vuIM:&imgrefurl=http/www.fishpondinfo.com/betta.htm&docid=QyNqHJTxvzcD-M&imgurl=http/www.fishpondinfo.com/photos/fish/anabantoids/homer4.jpg&w=472&h=329&ei=Q3F0T4r8NsLG0QWN1dwL&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=285&sig=107805264388237033402&page=1&tbnh=125&tbnw=156&start=0&ndsp=30&ved=1t:429,r:18,s:0&tx=6&ty=70 If so, it's down to the stress once again. Pluck him out ASAP and I'm sure he'll cheer up a bit

Edit: Of course, symptoms like this can be down to more than just stress. It could be parasitic too but being harassed by the angels seems the obvious cause for all the symptoms described.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome Chriscrozier.
It sounds to me like your betta is simply not yet settled in. Give him some time. Clamped fins are often an indication that he is nervous in his present situation, as we might expect from a newly moved betta.

 

[chriscrozier]

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for the help, he is doing good now, making full recovery, all fins are unclamped