Okay.. so last night.. for all my fish, I just made this quick mixture of peas and corn and brine shrimp.

This morning I wake up, and one of my bettas looks like he swallowed a rock. And I'm sittin here, staring at him, cause I know I didn't feed him that much. So about 5 times an hour I was coming in and checking on him and watching him. And I couldn't tell if he was just pooping this thing, or if his stomach was splitting or something, but as it turns out he was in fact pooping it. It was this round thing like, pretty much, the size of our little smilies ( ) A little bigger even. And I almost got sick watching this. Cause when it came out, and I looked at it, it looked like his guts or something had come out. And I got the courage to actually reach in and pick it up, and it like fell apart in my hands. It was bloody, and there was some corn in it that I could see, but the most of it was brown and red. He's acting fine. He was resting a bit more the usual afterwards, but now he's fine. And I'm nauseous. Anyone know what it was by any chance? I feel sick.

~Sandy

Yikes, gross indeed. Since he's acting fine it could just be that he ate too much corn (which is difficult to digest at times) and that the brown was 'poo'. The blood could have been from some tearing on the way out, not pleasent but he should be ok.

This is just a guess. My only suggestion would be to feed him very small portions for the next few days to make life easy on him. My betta only eats 3 betta bites at a time, twice a day, not too much to process.

Good luck and keep us posted!

It didn't look like poop, though is the thing. I hate saying this to describe it.. cause it grosses me out thinking of it, but it looked like intestines? With the tubing and stuff.. but I imagine he would have died if it were. I added some melafix to the water incase there was any tearing. It looked incredibly painful. Usually their poop is just a string, and this time it was like pushing out a boulder. And I was just watching him closely, cause when it was coming out it look like brown cotton almost. I thought he was splitting and his insides were coming out. BUt the final "product" wasn't fuzzy. Ugh. I'm sick again. Scuse me.

Maybe it was just 'hollow' poop from him being a little constipated trying to get the corn out. There were a few times when I thought for sure that my goldfish were pooping out their intestines, but like your fish, they were fine. After doing a little research I realized it was just hollow poo.

Did it come out all knotted up in a ball though looking like he was trying to poop a boulder?

I saw something like that in my bettas tank at work. It looked the same as you are describing but we didn't see it happen and haven't seen anything like it since. It was waaaay too huge to have come out of him but there was no other explanation.

It sounds like you may be over feeding him for sure,and as was mentioned,Corn is really not one of the best food choices because it really is too hard for them to digest. The thing to remember,is that a Betta's stomach is about near the size of their eye,so it's not very big at all.It will take very little to overfeed. The "bloody mess" could have been from the unknown food to him & the strain of trying to "get it out" "Ouch"......I'm sure that it probably did hurt!

You know Devs, I was so glad the first time you mentioned the size of their stomachs. It absolutely changed the way I was feeding my fish. I think we (Winter, Taj, and I) are all grateful.

Okay.. no more corn. I knew about the stomach size though and I just giving an itty bitty bit so I really didn't think I was overfeeding, but I'll cut back. He's been playing in the bubble wall a bit more often then usual, although he does love that thing. But he's been laying right on it quite a bit. Maybe it itches or something. It had to have ripped him up a little.

aww poor thing :\

Yep, maybe he finds the bubbles 'soothing' after what he endured
Glad to hear he's still doing ok though!

As Devs mentioned, corn isn't easy for fish to digest, so hopefully now that he has this out, things will settle down.

A better choice is a bit of pea with the skin removed.

How is he doing?

Ah he's acting like his old self, but when I came in this morning over half his tail and dorsal fin were gone. I don't know what happened. I'm trying to figure out if he got caught on something or what but I don't see anything that could have done it yet. It's just a hospital tank he's helping to keep cycled, so there's really not much in it. Its barebottom and there's a ornament and plant for him to hide in if he feels the need. The heater and bubblewand are on his side. The filters on the other side with the other betta.

I figure if its fin rot I would have noticed and that big of a chunk wouldn't be missing in the matter of 8 hours.

Oh no! I hope he just got himself snagged. Can you find any fin peices in the tank?

Nope.. haven't seen any pieces anywhere. He looks like a female now. I really feel bad about everything he's going through lately, especially since all of its pretty much my fault. He's not like the other bettas I've had, he's always been kind of "sweet" I guess is the word I'd use. I'm still looking for things he could snag on.

Its not all yout fault sandy, you didn't even know that corn was hard on fish's stomachs. I didn't even know that one. I learned that rice isn't good for fish because it expands, even if its cooked already. I learned that one from experience The fin snag is DEFINATELY not your fault. Don't feel bad, you didn't do anything. Is he still acting okay?

Yeah he's acting fine. He's still playful and watches me closely whenever I'm in the room. He seems to be looking around for a napping spot right now. I think he's upset cause I keep moving his stuff around in search of something he could have snagged on. I messed up his "bed".

Lol, he'll forgive you for the bed Glad to hear he's acting playful and aware, thats the best sign

Yeah I've been trying to keep his spirits up. I press my finger against the glass and he follows it around. He could do that for hours, why I don't know. I get sick of it waaaaaaay before he does. And whenever I stick my hand in the tank he nips at me. All my other bettas hide. So either he's mad at me and wants to eat me, or he wants to play. He just had some spirulina for dinner, and is back to playing in the bubble wall.

It sounds like he's doing great He makes me want a little betta. I find its getting harder and harder to leave that end of the isle at the pet store...I keep finding more favorites everytime!

They are incredibly beautiful and intriguing. I've never had a problem with any of them before. The troublemakers are usually my goldies. Lil Devy's fine. I'm going to try and get ahold of my friends camera so I can show you all how bad Rainbows tail looks.

Okay, that should help. Is Rainbow his name?