Trouble Swallowing, Swim Bladder, Or Flukes?

[keithp]

The thin betta I had rescued almost 2 weeks ago has greatly improved in all areas, but she still has one issue that hasn't changed, her swallowing. She has trouble eating everything, yet has managed to put on weight and her poo is normal.

When she eats she will either swallow the food very fast and end up spitting it all out, only to re-eat it again, or she will swallow, "chew", and go up for air and then swallow, only after she goes for air does she seem able to swallow? When I got her she did have a bit of trouble swimming or going to the bottom without having her tail float up. She has improved on swimming and getting air, but i'm not sure if this eating issue is due to swim bladder, or internal parasites?

She is still thin so any food she sees she eats like its her last meal, so if I put any food in the tank, she will hold it in her mouth, and only try to swallow after another bit of food is placed in the tank, so she ends up eating more than she can swallow at once. I am curious if her thin weight could be parasites and not from starvation? Sometimes when she eats, bubbles come out of her mouth/side of gills, and she races to the surface to get air, as if she is swallowing water by accident instead of gulping air? One of her gills is swollen (almost like it's partially flared all the time)

All the meds I have given for parasites (like ich and velvet) have not helped this, but as for the rest of her issues like fin rot and breathing they are almost fully healed!

 

[betta fish]

Hi, all the things that you have described sounds like normal betta behaviour to me, though the pieces of food you are feeding her may be a bit big hence the symptoms you are seeing, if a betta over eats it may also bring swim bladder problems on. I recommend that you crush any food you feed her into a fine crumbles so she doesn't have to make an effort to eat it and then only feed a small amount so that her belly is nicely rounded but not bloated, feed a small amount twice a day. Out of interest what food are you feeding her? the small hikari betta bio gold pellets are just right for a bettas mouth so perhaps get her these and feed no more than 3 twice a day they may look small but they swell once ingested.

 

[keithp]

I feed her a mix of foods. Hikari betta pellets, frozen brine shrimp, daphnia, bloodworms, and sometimes a bit if pea. She easily inhales the food, it fits just fine in her mouth, it's the swallowing that's the issue, even half a pellet! I tried feeding her just one pellet to see if that would make it easier since she had no other food to eat, and it still didn't help.

Only way I can explain is this: She eats a pellet holds it in her mouth, then eats another pellet, but the 2nd pellet pushes the first all the way in for her to swallow, and she spits out the 2nd pellet. If she doesnt have any more food to "push" the other down, she hardly swallows. I have to feed her quite a bit so she actually eats.

 

[keithp]

This is the medication I have been using. [URL="http/www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753378"]http/www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753378[/URL] I have also been adding a bit of Aquarium salt and Aquarisol to the water. The fish now has some Ich too, but it's only on the pectoral and tail fin, both the areas which used to have ammonia burn, so I suspect the fishes weak immune system is from that.