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My betta female has recently developed what seems to be an airbladder problem. She is always getting twisted sideways when she just hovers, and she uses the plants in her environment to keep her at a comfortable level.

Now, I've had her a while, and I just don't know if this is a betta trait that occurs now and then, or if there is an actual issue. She eats well and swims well otherwise, just has too much "gas" to move about comfortably. The other betta I own lives in the same kind of environment, easts the same amount, and still is doing well. Both are female.

Any ideas why her airbladder has become an issue, or how to help her regain her balance, so to speak?

swimming problem as you have describe usually point to a more serious problem.. its my understand it it often mean that she might be sick. However i have heard of fish with genetic dispositions to swim bladder irregularities.. If for as long as you have known she has been like this i wouldn't worry. although if they is new than she might be getting sick ..listing your tank parameter will help everyone suggest what they think might be the problem
i.e.
temp.
no3
ammonina
if salt is use
meds.
tank size
water changes
etc.

It is not uncommon in bettas, but in saying that it is not uncommon in other fancy species.

Bettas can develop this issue early on in life if they are incorrectly fed or housed. Usually it will show up later due to a outside influence, such as an infection, overfeeding, or worms.

Most common, in my experience anyway, would be worms and infection.

On top of what Tank has suggested above, have a good look and see where she is carrying her weight. Does she look slim and like she has a marble-shaped belly area near her ventral fins? Is she puffed up? Does she have scales that look rough and like a pinecone?

What do you feed them? how much? every day or do they get a day off? Do you ever feed live food?

Have you ever wormed her (either with fish wormers or inadvertently by treating with metro)?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

As for the fish herself, she has smooth scaling and clear gills. She breathes without trouble and eats regularly. The only minor change is that her belly is slightly round, as if she swallowed a pea, but maybe a small one. Her fins are intact and she has good color. As stated before, she acts pretty much like a normal betta aside from the the air bladder issue.

As for diet, she gets standard issue betta pellets, at the most three, every two or three days. She's due for some brine shrimp or bloodworms next feeding, which will be labor day.

Water changes are small ones, perhaps every third day or so, as needed. Her home got a cleaning today, and will again in a couple weeks if not sooner. She gets a little bit of the Aqua Plus stuff for healthy fins and to clean up the water, and I very rarely if ever put any aquarium salt in her bowl.

As for the water, I don't know on the pream's as of yet. The water is at air temp, probably around 70 degrees or so.

I have never wormed my fish..honestly, I never knew it could be done! My only worming experience is with horses...I hope the above info may shed a little light on the issue.

well I'd go the worming route myself. It seems to be a similar thing with fish as with mammals, and bettas show it quite prominently. All fish can support a worm burden of a certain amount, but if for some reason that burden becomes too high or too bulky then they get the same problems that you see in mammals. The pea-belly look seems to come with a higher than average worm burden, and once it gets to that level it can be tricky for the fish to get on top of it again.

The swimming issues could well be caused by a gut stuffed full of parasites pressing on things that affect balance. It works in a similar way to the constipated or overfed fish losing its balance.

If you can find a product that has praziquantel and levimasole, that would be ideal, but if not, straight praziquantel should do the trick.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I have never heard of either one of those...can I find that at Petco or a place similar?

As for directions, I knwo I should follow the bottle...but what would you suggest? I could tell ya how much of what to give a horse, based on weight, but I think fish are a little different. ^^;

Fish meds generally do OK if you put them in the water and not in the fish. With suspected parasites, this is really helpful as it has a chance to catch any in the environment too.

You can give wormers orally, there is a metronitazole food, and Jungle have one called Pepso, but it generally isn't necessary. When you do it orally they pack a bigger punch, so it kind of depends on the situation. IMO I'd worry that knocking out a whole bunch of worms at once could cause more harm than good.

Try Jungle Tank Buddies Parasite Clear. If you can't find that, look at the ingredient lists for things designed for internal parasites and find the two ingredients listed in the last post. Don't overdose, and make sure you vac the substrate thoroughly after 12 hours or so to get rid of anything that has been dropped. The water will probably go a bit scummy, so be prepared for a mini cycle and the possible need to increase surface agitation (I don't much like using metro for basic worming, but I can't find anything close to what is available here.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

a similiar thing happened to my betta- he had trouble staying balanced and seemed to float up everytime he dived down, he also anchored himself on foliage. in this case it coincided with a new food i fed and it turned out he was constipated and bloated. i didnt feed him for a day and it went away.

a cooked shelled pea also works good for constipation

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I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West

Hm...Well, she's not doing a whole lot better, sad to say. I'm using a betta revive made for bettas to protect and deal with issues like parasites and such but it's not helping. I was afraid to get anything stronger fo the fact that she's only in her bowl and it would be very strong doses.

It seems that her left side is a little more bloated than anywhere else, so she's always twisted onto that side, and it makes her tail kinda kink when she just rests like that. She ate well this morning, 3 pellets of betta food down the hatch. She ate well a couple days ago too, when I gave her a couple brine shrimp. Her color has bleached a little, but she's still swimming well and looks smooth-scaled and healthy.

Any ideas? Should I do another water change and get her stronger meds, or...? I just hat eseeing her like this.

When you say one side is more bloated than the other, is it visibly bigger?

No point going with anything else if she is not showing any signs that would warrant it. IMO I'd just give her nice clean water, some IAL/Betta Spa (if you have it, otherwise don't worry), and cut her feed down to a small amount every 3 days for a while. If you can convince her that peas or daphnia are yummy, give that a go instead of her normal food.

Basically just rest the gut and wait. If it is a blockage then it'll pass, if it is eggbinding then the reduced size of the gut might give it a chance to reduce. If it is something else, then it'll give it time to develop further and become recognisable. I wouldn't expect eggbinding to the extent that she'd float in something that wasn't super dooper fancy, but that can carry heavier on one side. It usually masses a bit further back though, and I haven't known many to lose balance with it, but it could be worth looking for just in case. If she's a light colour, you might be able to confirm or discount that one by looking for small white balls in the swelling. They are about the size of french millet.

It could still be dropsy too, although that should be more of an all over size increase. If it comes on slowly, the skin has time to get used to the increased size and you don't get the pinecone scales for a long time. That can also carry heavier on one side than the other as parts of the skin separate out from the muscle at different rates further up the body.


Floaty bloaty fishes are a real pain, most unfortunate that bettas are so good at it.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Hm...no, it's not egg bloat. She just seems to favor her left side more, although her girth seems more or less the same on all sides (I think, its hard to tell when she's hiding under plants all the time).

I'll have to try to get pics of her. Still no pineconging of scales, her eyes aren't bulging, fin's aren't camped, and she's gained her color back (she's a nice burgandy red as per usual).

I gave her a little aquarium salt (the fishkeeper at Petco swore it would help if not cure it...dunno about that) and I'll get her a water change tomorrow. I'm gonna stop with the betta revive too, it doesn't seem to be doing much of anything save turn the water blue.

Any other ideas as to what her issue is? I feel bad, it just looks like she swallowed too much air but can't burp!