I have a quick Betta question. Neither Kimberly, nor Jimmy, nor Carl has had this (They were all dark colored fishes. Carl was an incredibly vivid dark sapphire. Jimmy is a Purple/Magenta with Deep Dark Blue accents … and spots of darker blue on his fins and Kimberly is the Magenta color of Jimmy’s body, but she hasn’t got the other markings.), but Pearl, Lily, all 3 Nemos and now Felix (Pearl and Lily were white and they were almost opalescent white. Two of the Nemos were a pastel yellow and Nemo 3 is a Bright orange with a darker orangy red stripe and blue accents on his fins. And Felix … wanted to be white, but is actually a very pale pink, his fins are transparent with pink blue and little black accents – he also seems to be much younger than the other boys.) Anyway all the pastel fishes have had this almost gilt, like the inside of a shell, color at the edge of their gills. I was thinking that perhaps the golden shiny thing was just a part of the lighter colored Bettas, or is this indicative of a problem?

Pherhaps It Could Be..But I Dont Really Think So.
Is It Possible To Get A Pic?

Many people get mixed up with normal coloration
and actually think it;s not normal.
We will need to see a picture to be sure.

Sounds like normal colouration to me. My boy Stormy has golden coloured lines on his gill covers. Sometimes they show up more than others

Thank you, I don't have any pictures of them thus far, but I will try to take some as soon as I get the film that's waiting for development done. There are almost twelve rolls ... procrastination is the mother of all evils.

Anyway, I had another question, if you didn't mind. Felix is also rather bloated in the belly. He's a translucent fish so you can see inside him a little bit, and the bloated part is dark ... almost black on the inside. I think he is constipated. I got some daphnia for him to try, but he doesn't seem to think it's food. He responds similarly to blood worms. I think the store probably fed him just dry foods. (We've only had him for ... under a month)

Are there any other suggestions for helping to relieve him, and if not are there any ideas on how to get him to eat a different variety of foods?

I'd appreciate any help you can give me.

Kuliraga

Thank you for the advice. I've been trying for variety, but Felix is like my kids ... a very picky eater. I have Betta Bio-Gold and two other dry foods, brine shrimp flakes, freeze dried daphnia and blood worms, and I try to alternate them. However, Felix will only eat flakes and the dried composit foods. It's like he doesn't see anything that looked like it was once real/alive as actual food.

(Could be why he never hunted the Neons ... I'd bet that if I were to put Nemo 3 in the Neon Tank, he'd devour them.)

Do you know why the pea thing works? I will give it a try. I've fasted him once before and he's thinned down, but it seems to be a continuing problem for him. I feel so bad for him, cuz I can only imagine how uncomfortable he is. I'd be traumatized if he started not being able to swim right because of it.

Thanks again!
Kuliraga