Swollen Abdomin

[Buggsfish]

My crowntail has developed a swollen abdomin in the last couple of days. It looks like he swallowed a pea whole, doesn't look like a pinecone tho like the other post. He's swimming like he's drunk & hanging out at the bottom of his tank. I moved him recently from a community tank, he was with some guppies & a cory & I had a female in a floating basket (removed her, she turned out to be an escape artist & very agressive, chewed the spikes off his fins & put a couple holes in them). He didn't mind the guppies, but they minded him, so I moved him into a 3 gal tank by himself. Shortly after the move he turned REALLY bad, he'd lay at the bottom of the tank on his side or with his tail straight up & nose in the gravel, unresponsive til I tried to remove him with a net since I thought he was dead. I started changing about 1/3 of his water daily, adding declorinater & salt, I gave him 1 pelt every other day, no clue if he was eating it or not. after about a week he was still at the bottom, but holding himself level & upright, still not very interested in eating. It's now been about 2 weeks and he's still hanging out at the bottom mostly, but he swims around and begs for food when he sees me & starting to regrow his fins. I feed him 3-4 pellets 1-2 times a day, and over the weekend his belly's swollen up. I don't have a pic right now, I'm at work, but there's no fuzzies, strings, raised scales, or sores that I can see. I can't tell if he's red any where, he's a red & pink betta. The petstore's only idea was dropsy and I'd looked it up before, I had a problem with another fish, and he looks nothing like those pics. I tried to feed him a pea thinking maybe he's constipated, but it sank & he's oblivious to it being in his tank. Any ideas?

 

[betta fish]

He may be constipated or he may have swim bladder issues by the sounds of things, perhaps his swim bladder was damaged when the female fought with him or the constipation could be the cause, if you can't get him to eat a pea don't feed him for a few days and see if his belly goes down, you may find he swims normally after this in which case it was most likely constipation, try feeding him a little bit of pea after his fast and he may be more inclined to accept it! just remember to keep his water very clean, a photo would help too if you can get one

 

[anusingh88]

My betta has had a swollen belly for the past month too...He has been doing the same things your betta does. Always resting at the bottom. People told me he had dropsy because I started to see a pine cone effect...but he's still alive and the pinecones have gone...Watch out for stringy poo...that may mean that he has an internal parasite....peas didnt really seem to help my betta....But the best thing is...keep the water clean...and he may just be able to fight it off himself...

Good luck!