# BLOATED BETTA



## topaz (Feb 28, 2007)

Please help... our Betta, Oscar is looking rather bloated and his belly has a whitish colour - he also seems to be off his food. He shares a tank with a snail, no live plants and his water is changed every 2-3 weeks - not a full change only about 25%. There is no filter in the tank and he gets no direct sunlight - he is 18 months old and has always been healthy. We put anti-chloride drops in his water. He is fed on Betta fish food twice a day - he never seems to eat more than he can manage. If food left over we remove it or snail greedily sucks it up. Any help will be appreciated.


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## GalaxyGirl (Feb 1, 2007)

First off your feeding too much, it should be once a day. Are you feeding him the flakes? Try giving him some bloodworms, they seem to stop bloating on them. My betta gets bloodworms every other day and on the other day the pellets.


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## GobbleDog (Mar 6, 2007)

I feed my Beta pellets and bloodworms until he won't eat anymore. And he's never gotten bloated. At least, not that I've noticed.

:?


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## musho3210 (Dec 28, 2006)

topaz said:


> Please help... our Betta, Oscar is looking rather bloated and his belly has a whitish colour - he also seems to be off his food. He shares a tank with a snail, no live plants and his water is changed every 2-3 weeks - not a full change only about 25%. There is no filter in the tank and he gets no direct sunlight - he is 18 months old and has always been healthy. We put anti-chloride drops in his water. He is fed on Betta fish food twice a day - he never seems to eat more than he can manage. If food left over we remove it or snail greedily sucks it up. Any help will be appreciated.


Many problems here, all lead up to the same conclusion

1. Too infrequent water changes, at minimum it should be 25% weekly for a tank with a filter and 25% two times a week with no filter. 

2. Feeding too much, with the combination of no filter and overfeeding, water params deminish quickly

3. As youve noticed, no filter

4. Seeing that it is a betta and you have no filter, the tank is probably too small.

Ok my conclusion is dropsy, it is quite common for bettas kept in bad water condition. 

There are many treatments but no real cure. Telling us this information will help us find a treatment for you. 

1. Size of aquarium (# of gallons)
2. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or saltwater?
3. How long the aquarium has been setup
4. What fish and how many are in the aquarium (species are important to know)
5. Are there live plants in the aquarium?
6. What make/model filter are you using?
7. Are you using a CO2 unit?
8. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day?
9. When did you perform your last water exchange, and how much water was changed?
10.How often and what foods do you feed your fish?
11.Is your aquarium light incandescent or fluorescent and how often is it kept on?
12.What specific concerns bring you here at this time?
13. Water are your water test results for:
pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate?

All you can do now is add a filter (if its a bowl which i think it is you can use a sponge filter) and do more water changes, preferably 10-15% daily


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