HELP!! my Betta can't swim I received my Betta from a pet store for Christmas and he was fine to begin with. Although he was raised on brine shrimp and wouldn't eat the flake food I got for him so I switched to brine shrimp. he lives in a small glass bowl about 1/2 gal to 1 gal in size and has small blue flat marbles on the bottom. he would eat regularly and I would have to clean his bowl about every other day cause of the size. HERE'S THE PROBLEM!! for the past week he has been having more and more trouble swimming and staying upright. he flips over easily and when he comes to the surface to eat he rolls upside down and swims away side ways in a panic cause he cant control it.. he's beginning to not want to eat cause its such a task to come up to the top. PLEASE what can I do? is there something seriously wrong with him? I don't want to lose him he is great, by far the best fish I have had. < You Betta has eaten too much and has some food rotting in his gut. It is easy to overfeed our fish especially Bettas. You bring home all this brine shrimp and he only needs a little bit. So well keep putting it in until he is very full. The left over brine shrimp dies and begins to rot. Later he gets hungry and eats the rotting brine shrimp. The food gets stuck in his gut and the bacteria in the gut start to take over and grow. The gut swells with gas and the fish lose their equilibrium. Now you have to treat. Get some Metronidazole and place 125 mg in a 5 gallon bucket. Use this to do a 100% water change. Do not feed. Repeat every other day until the Betta starts to eat. If it looks like it is getting worse than add the entire capsule 250mg to the water. Treat the bucket every other day. The medicine will break down in the bucket after the second day so a new batch needs to be made up every time. This is difficult to treat, all you can do is try.-Chuck> Jessica