The blight of the Constipated Betta, NealeM - 4-12-08
Hello Crew, please kindly forward this email to Neale since he has been such a great help to me in the past. The situation is:
<I will... but will also give this a go... as Neale has taken on some more work, and has very little time currently for WWM>
5 gallon established tank with 1 Betta
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
pH unknown but has a piece of driftwood and I use Tetra blackwater extract
Temp 80 F
Diet Hikari BioGold Betta pellets x 4 once a day, occasional bloodworm/brine shrimp treat (I now know that in future I should be soaking the pellets and feeding less, of which I have learned the hard way!)
Its about day 17 now where my Betta has been extremely constipated with very bloated belly (swelling is localized only to belly and scales are not sticking out - no dropsy) that is not getting worse or better. The first week I noticed it I fasted him for 4 days to try to clear it. Nothing, I fed 2 pellets,
<I would leave off with the pellets... look for live or frozen brine shrimp, Daphnia... much more laxative effect>
waited another 2 days nothing. Fasted for a few more days and then fed some boiled pea pieces with skin taken off. Fasted another few days and nothing. Repeated pea treatment again and nothing. About 5 days ago I did an Epsom salt bath for 30 minutes with conditioned water that was brought up to same T as the tank.
<Good... but if the other occupants can tolerate it, I'd add the Epsom directly to the system>
The next day nothing. Then about 2 days
ago I just went straight ahead and added Epsom salt to the tank at 0.5 tbsp for the 5 gallon tank.
<Oh! Good>
Yesterday I fed him a bit of brine shrimp for a bit of roughage and nothing again. His behaviour is normal, still looking for food, no swim bladder problems, no lethargy, no flashing, color is the same and he is active. The one thing I notice is that since the beginning of this starting on one of his sides has what looks like a few scraped off scales that have left a lighter color on his side. Other than all this he seems fine but I do not know what else to do and he looks like he is about to burst and I am worried that he might start to develop swim bladder issues if not resolved soon.
My questions are:
What else can I do?
<Mmm, more of the crustacean feeding>
Are there other treatments that I am not aware of that I can do?
<None that are safe, efficacious>
How long will this take to resolve?
<Should have by now>
I know you cannot give me a straight answer but I'm just wondering if I should be waiting longer or if I am not doing something correctly.
<Do leave off with all dried food use>
Does my Betta have parasites?
<Mmm, possibly>
I cant visually see anything externally (except for the 2 or 3 scraped off scales). I bought a pack of Jungles parasite Clear.. but none of the symptoms for parasites I have read about include large belly swelling?
Thank so much for your help.
Cheers
Terri
<I urge patience here... and the above leaving off with pellets, feeding exclusively with small crustaceans. Bob Fenner>
<<Concur with Bob 100% here. Dried pellet foods simply aren't a good food for most freshwater fish when fed as the dominant part of the diet. Too much protein, too much fat, too little fibre, too little moisture. Wet-frozen bloodworms and mosquito larvae would be about perfect food items for Betta spp., being essentially what they eat in the wild. Compared with freeze-dried foods wet-frozen foods are much cheaper and I find fish take to them much, much more readily. I'd certainly switch to some high fibre live foods (daphnia, brine shrimp) immediately, and perhaps try using cooked/tinned peas as well (bizarrely enough, some predatory fish like Betta spp., happily go for them). Use this regimen for the next 2-3 weeks. If the fish doesn't eat, don't worry. Try again the next day, and the next... Epsom Salt should help. With luck these will all help clear the blockage. Do take care not to overfeed: 4 meals per day for a fish that basically doesn't do anything and has nowhere to swim and no water current to swim against is A LOT of food. So he may merely be fat! One meal a day should be oceans, and to be honest one meal every other day would probably be fine. In terms of bloodworms or mosquito larvae, that's perhaps 5-10 pieces per day. Fish need miniscule amounts of food compared to equivalent sized mammals, so we often wildly overfeed our fish. Not only does it cause problems for the fish, it also wallops water quality too. As for parasites... possible, but rather uncommon, especially with a fish that's been kept "in solitary" for months/years. Of course intestinal worms can cause abdominal swelling, but to be honest in 25 years fishkeeping, I've only ever seen one (freshwater) fish that, after autopsy, actually had sufficient worms that its body was distended. Every other time it's been things like 'dropsy', constipation, swim bladder infections, teratomas in the uterus, and so on. Cheers, Neale.>>

Re: The blight of the Constipated Betta  4/19/08
Hi Neale and/or Bob,
<Terri>
Thank you both for your reply. I am very worried now since I wrote last week because my Betta has not improved. Since I last wrote (7 days ago) I have been alternating by every second or third day feeding either very small amount of mashed pea/brine shrimp and then fasting in between. About 3 days ago I saw this very thin, thinner than a human hair white filament coming out of his anus.
<Mmm... could be...>
The filament I am pretty sure was not a worm, it was somewhat irregular along its length, and was not moving. To be sure I treated the tank with .5 tab of Jungles Parasite Clear fizz tabs (with .5 tbs Epsom salt already in there from the days previous).
<Good>
Next day was nothing. Through all of this my Betta was swimming well, active and begging for food. However, he is now starting to look a lot thinner to his "backside" where he is starting to waste away from not digesting any food for a total of 3.5 weeks.
Then last night I got sort of desperate and did a 75% water change and added 2.5 teaspoons Epsom salts to the 5 gallon tank since I read somewhere that amount would be good to "purge" the Betta. Today nothing and when I came home my Betta looked very miserable, pale and in fact the missing scale on his one side got worse and now it looks like a few more scales have come off his side. The missing scales are not ulcerated but it is noticeably bigger with sort of white edges to it. I am now extremely worried as he is getting worse so I went ahead and changed 50% of his water to relieve him of the high Epsom salt concentration and since it was not doing anything for about 2 weeks (well for 2 weeks the concentration was at .5 tablespoon for the 5 gallons, I am not even sure that was high enough to do anything) I have just decided to not put anything at all and give him a break. I fed him 3 tiny pieces of brine shrimp as well.
Also tonight when I came home again a spindly thin white filament was hanging from his anus. It is not a worm I am pretty sure and is not mucusy but just looks very thin, almost transparent and spindly. I am stumped as to what else to do. Help!!!!!!!!!!!
<Do please read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwwormdisfaqs.htm>
Please if you have any suggestions as to what is going on or what else I can do...my Betta is wasting away before my very eyes and it must be so uncomfortable for him in this state. any help is greatly appreciated. thank you so much for your time.
Regards,
Terri
<I would treat this fish, quickly... as per the notes/symptoms of Camallanus. BobF>