BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Distended Belly Betta Fish, please help

Ok, so my betta fish now has a distended belly. He was fine last night, but his morning woke up wiht a little lump and then it grew bigger throughout the day.
Here are some pictures of him.
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You have a beautiful beta!

The only thought that comes to my mind is that perhaps he is constipated. I suggest giving him light food today and seeing how the rest of today and tomorrow go. If things aren't any better perhaps you can call your local vet?

If new symptoms develop please make sure to post them then we have a better chance of finding out what is wrong.

Good luck! Hope he gets better soon!
Fantails and Betas

I had the same thought. I would wait two days to feed him, then give him a small peice of a thawed pea (like the green kind...that you eat). These can provide some roughage and help, if that is the problem with your betta.

That's a very pretty betta you have there!

Hopefully it is just constipation. If you try the fasting and pea trick and the bloating does not dissapate, keep an eye on whether he is still pooing at all and if it looks normal. Another possible cause of belly bloating is a certain form of internal parasites, which my betta just recovered from. Their poo becomes whitish and stringier and they swell up in their belly area.

Just something to watch out for, in case it's NOT constipation, but hopefully that's all it is.

I've fed him a bit of pea on Sunday and fasted him. The bump did not go away. I tried to feed him more pea yesterday but he would not eat it at all. So i fed him some flakes. Which he ate.
The bump is still there, he stays very close to the surface and does not swim around or even move much. He stays motionless for a very long time.
Though once in a while, about twice a day he will swim around violently around his tank, liek someone is chasing hi m.
Yesterday I got some medicine, but i don't think it is the right kind. it is for external parasites, and I am going to go back to get some for internal parasites. at Petco, I got both CopperSafe and Maracide. I put a drop of the maracide in and some aquarium salt.

As for his poo. I never had seen it. In either of my bettas. I don't even know where to look. I've had fish before and i regularly saw theirs, but i have yet to see either of my bettas poo. Maybe they do it when i'm not around.

Thanks for your advice, guys. I sure hope i can find something to make Alfie (his name) all better again!

he is also starting to sometimes swimm and rest at an angle. After I fed him today he was slightly more active, swimming around and such, but then he started swimming at an angle and resting at an angle as well... but then he goes back and forth between swimming normally and an angle

The medicine I used for Gus was called Jungle Parasite Clear and it works for both internal and external parasites. Gus didn't have the symptoms your fish has though. He still ate like a pig and was fairly active. He was just extremely swollen. But I think each betta can probably react differently.

You might want to try asking for help as well over on ultimatebettas.com. I'm not a fish expert; I only have two bettas! But that's where I was able to find out about what to do for Gus when he had internal parasites. They have several knowledgeable people over there.

Interestingly, the swimming at an angle thing sounds a lot like swim bladder disorder, which bloating can be a symptom of too. I would definitely try to pinpoint his exact condition before medicating him too much.

How long have you had your betta? Is it possible you are overfeeding him?

I feed him once a day, alternating flakes, pellets. and once a week freeze dried blood worms. I only feed him a few flakes, about 5 pellets or a few blood worms respectivly, and He still eats heartily.
He is not longer swimming at an angle, I guess that was just a one off.
I am using jungle clear parasite medication for him now.
He is still just very inactive. He was never that active, usually just laying on his plants and sometimes swimming around. Maybe that was the precursor to his sickness, but even now he will not lay on the plants he just stays in a corner at the surface...
its only day 4 of the medication. the instructions said to put it in the water on day 1,3,5