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Hi!

I know i should post this at the hospital, i did, and i've got no answers, so i'm risking it here since it's a specific area.

This afternoon, while visiting a LFS I passed by their trash can, and I saw this little guy in there in a tiny bag, I thought it was dead but he moved and it cached my eye, I have no idea what's wrong with him, I asked the clerk if he would sell it to me, and he just gave it to me. I don't know what to do with him, I just felt he deserved a chance, so could anyone help me with a treatment? He's very active in this tank, in fact he's hungry, but I didn't fed him till I know it's a good thing to do. Any help on saving him will be greatly appreciated.


Falstaf attached this image:

Hi! I seen that before it is quite common. It is a bacterial infection from dirty water (go figure...it's from an LFS..) Well, go to this site and scroll down on the page. There is a picture of a betta with a swollen belly. You can read there all the remedies that you can use.

http://www.bettatalk.com/betta_diseases.htm

Oh, and feed your betta! It won't do him any harm. Just make sure he eats the pellets. And take the uneaten food out of the water...You might want to feed him a green pea(de-skin it and cut it up) too. It helps with constipation.


(I personally recommend BettaMax, It has done wonders in a short amount of time. I would follow the directions on the box until his belly got to be of normal size.)

-pamela


Last edited by HermeLZ at 03-Dec-2004 10:15

It still looks like severe constipation to me. If it was bacterial i would expect more all-over body swelling, maybe some raised scales or something more than 'i've been in ikky water finmelt'

It could be bacterial, but i do think that the main problem is a physical blockage in the gut, either from food or a genetic deformity or perhaps even a twist in the gut (that would be highly unlikely but not impossible if he was born with a very deep chest and was very active after a large meal)




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

awwww poor little guy, i hope he's doing a bit better

i looked in my betta book, looks EXCACTLY like the pic of a betta with a "massive tumor"

I had a betta with a similar problem. I wasn't actually able to save him, only make him comfortable in his last few months of life. He looked exactly the same as your betta there, and like calla said, it was a bad blockage in his digestive system. The swelling got worse and worse. He was hungry and active right up to the end, when he developed dropsy (my guess is from swelling in his gut) and I had to euthanize him.

I'm sure the cause was a bad blockage because I verified it with an internal exam after he passed. Now, I don't want to get you down, but be prepared that no matter what you do, there may be nothing you can do for him.

First thing I tried was feeding some roughage to see if that would loosen anything up.

I made my own "fishy ex-lax" food mix, (gary.roland helped me brainstorm the idea) here's the recipe:

Dissolve a few grains of epsom salts (magnesium sulfate, which works as a fishy laxative and is used in hikari foods) in just enough distilled water to cover them. Add some cod liver oil (you can also use canola oil in a pinch but the fish oil is better) and mix well.

use that liquid to soak any food before you feed it, I kept it in a dropper with the fish food and used a drop at a time.

Good foods to try, soaked with fishy ex lax:

mushed frozen peas
spirulina pellet
hikari betta bio gold
freeze dried daphnia
the occasional bloodworm (NOT TOO MANY) just to make sure he's getting protein

Using that mix I was able to get him pooping again, which I believe made him a bit more comfortable for his last few months of life. Without that mix I think I would have lost him a lot sooner. Not to be disgusting, but you will notice the poo has a mushy texture when feeding this stuff, but in my opinion it's better than nothing coming out at all.

One main thing you will want to watch is his poo. Again, I don't mean to be gross but it's the best indicator of what's going on in there.

If he's not pooping, feed the fishy ex lax and see if you can get him expelling anything.

If the poop is white or stringy, treat for parasites with a good medication. Praziquantel is excellent.

Keep his water extra clean, stay away from 100% water changes to avoid stressing him out. I did 50% every 2 days in a 1 gallon container for him, kept the tank warm and put a bubbler in. 1/2 tsp. of aquarium salt/gallon and a few grains of magnesium sulfate were also added to the water.

As I posted above, by the time I got to him there was nothing I could do to save him but I did manage to keep him comfortable and happy until the end. He lived for about 2 months with this after I adopted him in the same condition yours looks like in the picture, until he develloped dropsy suddenly one morning. He was very active, but I woke up to find his scales pineconed one morning and euthanized him. I think the swelling just got to a point where it caused his kidneys to fail suddenly.

I tried treatment with a combination antibiotic and antiparasitic medication when the food wasn't working at all, but his condition did not improve with it so I left him alone and kept him comfy. From my own experience with this, I would suggest not treating with meds unless you're seeing stringy poo or he is showing any other signs of infection (loss of colour, fin rot, heavy breathing, listlessness etc.).

Best of luck, I really hope you can save him as I wasn't able to. If you are, please share what works because I have been seeing this more and more in bettas lately and I would also like to know if anything works.