Hi guys... I haven't been around for a while, but I'm hoping you can help me with a problem.

I've got a betta named Balthazar who has been living in a 5 gallon tank for a while now. He's got a mini whisper filter, lots of life plants (some cryps and java fern). It used to be divided with another male betta on the other side, named Bruce, but he passed away suddenly. Balthazar showed no signs of catching what Bruce had.

About a month ago, Balthazar started getting really bloated. But he stopped getting any bigger for a while, stayed the same (big) size, and he was still eating and swimming normally, so I didn't worry. But just during this past week or so, he's gotten HUGE. I'm attaching pictures below, they're not great, but I think you can tell how big his chest/stomach area is.

The scales aren't sticking out at all, and there are NO other signs of illness. He's eating fine, he still comes to see me when I come near the tank. He's been flaring once in a while, but no bubble nests since the other fish died. I've had this little guy less than a year, but I have no idea how old he was when I bought him. Here are some early pics of him: http://www.rit.edu/~ams8150/pics/betta.html

I've lowered the water level so that the water coming from the filter will disrupt the surface more, since it was getting a little bit of a film on the surface recently. I had a bout of blue-green algae (the stuff that grows in sheets) but now I've just got a lot of the plain old green algae.

I hadn't been testing the water because the levels were always so consistent. But I checked them just now, and ammonia and nitrite are 0 of course, and nitrate also shows up as 0 (less than 5 anyway), which makes sense with all those plants and algae. I do a water change about once a week, of around 50%. The pH has been steady at around 8.2, which I know is high for a betta, but he always seemed fine with it. I keep the water around 80 degrees F.

When he first started getting bloated, I tried melafix, and then later I tried salt (3 tablespoons for the 5 gallons). Neither of those seemed to help at all.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Here's another picture

And the last one

hi. i havent had any experience with this type of thing in bettas, but toothless just went through a similiar "look" with his betta.
i am going to post a link to the thread, in toothless' case the ending was not ideal.. but it might give you an idea of different treatments to try.

Willie's constipated thread

i'm wishing you the best.
-Tooter

Hi-this seems to be a real problem with alot of people lately. What do you feed your little guy,how much,how often?

i couldnt edit my previous post.. but i think i should add...

in toothless' thread there is alot of treatments to try.. there is also alot of banter.
perhaps next time, i'll use quotes and cut and paste.
sorry if you have to sift through to find info.. that wasnt what i had intended.
-Toot

I feed the hikari betta bio-gold most of the time, usually about 6 pellets a day (either 3 pellets twice a day, or all 6 at once). This is less than I used to feed (10-12 a day), I guess I could have lowered it around the same time this stuff started, don't know. For treats, I feed freeze-dried bloodworms and brine shrimp and frozen mosquito larvae.

Thanks for the tips... I'll look through for some more ideas. Of course I thought this was constipation at first, but if he's been looking the same for a month, and I have seen SOME poop... I just don't know what to think.

My mom's betta is going through the same thing, but I don't want to add another thread of the same question. Hers is active and swimming around happily and eating fine as if nothing was wrong.. but he looks exactly like yours in the picture.

Well, "good" news on Balthazar. He's back down to the size he was when he stopped growing for a while. Just "really big" instead of "huge." Maybe the extra hugeness was constipation... I've been feeding him every other day since I posted, maybe that helped. Or maybe he ate some baby snails that I recently moved into that tank and the added fiber from their shells helped him. I'm just happy he looks better. However, his fins have gotten ripped up because he's been sitting around more, and I think he sat right under the filter a few times. I'll probably add some melafix, but is that stuff ok to use with snails?

if his size has decreased a bit, that is definitely good news.

as it turned out (if you read to the end of my thread) willie wound up becoming constipated because of a very large tumor that was growing in his gut. my hypothesis on his sickness was that the tumor had grown big enough (or was in the right place) to block off his colon or digestive tract wich caused him to "stop up". im guessing that the tumor and constipation caused a very serious (obviosly) systemic bacterial infection wich caused his kidneys to fail. thus, dropsy and subsequent demise.

the tumor was most likely caused by him coming down with popeye last year. i treated the popeye successfully but, i think that some irreparable damage was caused because i got to him in the later stages of popeye (it was huge).

anyway, if your little guys swelling has gone down a bit, is he pooping regularly? any claerish poo strings anywhere?

my reason for asking this is that its possible that hes got a tumor in his gut that isnt getting any bigger but could be posing the threat of constipation because of the limited available space in his digestive tract. of course i could be way off base here. im just sharing my experience with you.

i do hope that balthazar keeps losing weight for you, hes a very nice looking betta!

paul

Hi, I haven't had any experience of this myself but the same thing has happened to both of my friends Great Danios. In one of them the gut was distended so grossly that he became in a 'U' position and his back wasn't straight. This little guy seemed unaffected and continued to swim, feed and act normal for about 4 months before he died. Now the other Danio has developed the same distended gut.

My friends Great Danios are in with her goldfish and as they are such fast swimmers they eat more than their fair share of food. Hey, I'm not a Vet but in the case of the Danios it was obvious the condition was related to overeating, perhaps they developed a bowel hernia.

If your little fella is constipated it would just be a side effect of the bloating. As Toothless said, a tumor is another possibility.

Sorry I cant offer any practical help, but best of luck with your fish.

Cheers! Annette