Since you all are the most fish-savvy people I know, I didn't know where else to take this question!

But my betta seems really bloated - just behind his beard he's got a huge lump that hangs down. Is this normal after a betta has eaten a lot, or does it mean illness, or what? The only thing I could think of is that I've been feeding him freeze-dried blood worms and I read that those can sometimes cause bloating. But I wanted to check if I was hurting him so that I can somehow fix it.

Thanks so much you guys.. I really appreciate all of you.

There's a tropical fish section--this'll probably be moved there.

How much do you feed him? Betta's stomach's are only the size of their eye, or just about. If he's getting that fat, he's eating too much or he's constipated.

Is he acting normal otherwise? Did you look at him from above? If his scales look pinecone-ish that's a bad sign, it means dropsy.

In my experience, bloodworms aren't a good staple diet for bettas. I'm not sure if you meant you feed those all the time or that you just fed them recently? If it's the first, you can definitely feed those to him, but not all the time, it's more like a special treat now and then because it's too fatty for them to eat every day. If you can, you should pick up some betta pellets instead, and feed maybe 3-5 per day in total, and not all at once (like a two for meal in the morning and two at night).

For now, I suggest that you stop feeding altogether for a day or two, then try feeding him a bit of thawed frozen pea to clean out his insides.

I agree with Tonko about fasting your betta for a couple of days. It'll be best for your betta, assuming that what you are describing is indeed something relatively minor like bloating or constipation. After fasting, if your betta won't eat some green pea, start him on a high quality betta food. The bloodworms should be used as a treat only.

I actually have Betta pellets for him, but he refused to eat anything else but bloodworms. Honestly, he won't eat betta pellets. But maybe if I try just giving him that for a long while he'll get used to them.

I'll fast him, and try a pea maybe tomorrow (it's his second day without food).

But yeah.. I just looked at him in the light.. and I'm not sure he looks too good (this was a fish I rescued from nnnnnn about two weeks ago). His head until next to his fins has a much darker, rougher looking skin, and he's starting to get a few white spots on his front fins. What's the best way/best medicine to give him right away? White spots means Ich, right?

A betta's skin around his face sometime just looks different, so don't jump to conclusions too quick. Make sure that and the white on his fins aren't just mottled colouring (I had a betta who was white-spotty but wasn't ill, he was just, y'know, white-spotty in some places).

White spots can be Ich, yeah, though if it's not actually spots and more like cotton-ball fuzz around the edges of fins, it might be fungus. Or if the spots are flat and shiny and only visible at certain angles, it's velvet. They don't all have the same treatment so do your best to ID it before giving him any medecine. Though if you're 100% certain it's Something Bad, in all cases a salt bath is probably a good idea (that means putting a WAY higher than normal concentration of salt in a container of tank water and giving the betta a 10-15 minute bath) to stimulate his skin and slime coat. It helped some of my bettas!

Also, keep his water as clean as you can! But that's pretty obvious.

I've definitely heard stories of people with bettas who are picky about food, so I guess you'll have to take the hardline approach for pellets and just offer those. Hopefully he'll smarten up. You could offer tropical fish flakes just to see if he'll nibble those--they're not the best but better than pure bloodworms. By the way, for the pea, if he doesn't grab it as you drop it in, you might try stabbing a little piece on a toothpick and sort of waving it around in the water for him. Worked for me once.

Some of my bettas have been very picky about their food and spit it back out or just ignored it. But if you continue offering it, I have found that they will eventually start eating it.

Tonko mentioned trying tropical flakes -- you could also try Hikari Micro Pellets.

Thanks, I will definitely try the pea trick. The only thing I worry about is that I hope I have caught something too late, you know? But I will definitely buy some aquarium salt today and give him a bath! How long of a grace period do I have before it becomes dangerous that I've left him too long with a disease? I just feel nervous because I'm a new betta keeper and don't know much about diseases... my goldfish have never had them before. I don't wanna get it wrong!

I don't really think it's ever too late, especially when you're already paying attention and taking care of him. Certainly if you can tell he's actually getting worse then you don't have to wait at all! One sure sign he doesn't feel well, by the way, is a visible change of attitude and no appetite. If he's still acting normal, that's a good sign.

Did you find some pictures to ID the white spots? Here's Ich, Here's fungus (columnaris), and here's velvet, though that one's such a close-up, it's generally more that you see gold-shiny spots when the fish is in the right angle of light.

The first fellow I ever had, when he got fungus, lost his appetite and didn't move, just stayed still hanging in the corner for about a week, but he recovered with treatment. When a betta girl I had got velvet, she didn't actually seem too sick, but she did look "itchy", would rub against stuff in the tank, but it took a while for me to realize what it was and see the spots, and she still made it through.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped - I did a BIG water change and gave him a new plant, and he seems to be more than happy. (Fins are open again, he's active and eating). I also tried feeding him a pea, and that seemed to help clean him out. Thanks!