MamaM

It's not as if Simon the betta doesn't have enough problems with his mysterious bacterial splotch (which I started his 2nd round of Maracyn treatment after cleaning his tank yesterday), I woke up this morning to my little girl telling me "come quick, my brother's done something to the fish tank!" (She's 4 1/2 & he's 2 1/2!) I didn't realize he had gotten up (99.9% of the time, if he wakes up before me, he comes in to cuddle!) so I flew out of bed and discovered that he had "fed" Simon about 95% of a 1.0 oz jar of Betta pellets! I immediately did a 60% cleaning of the tank/water, and will do another cleaning later today to get the rest of the food out.

I must assume that Simon got more than his share of food. I'm sure it will lead to constipation and/or other problems. I know I need to fast him, and make his next meal after that as a partial pea. How long should he fast? Any advice? (Other than put the food where the kids can't get it! I KNOW--they've never bothered it before. I won't be so trusting anymore!)

Thanks!

Sharon

Phloxface

Is his belly really big and bloated? I'd fast for about 2 days and see how his belly looks. Don't feed anything, including pea until his belly looks normal again. Hopefully he didn't eat too much.

MamaM

He doesn't look really big & bloated (yet?), but it kinda looks like he has a small pea a little more than halfway down his body (it's raised a little--the body, not scales). I'm cleaning the tank again to clear out the remaining food (as much as I can!) in a few minutes.

Thanks for the response!
Sharon

nmwierman1977

Yeah, I would just keep an eye on him. Watch to see if he poops. If you notice that he hasn't pooped in a couple days or if he has and it's stringy looking then go ahead and feed him 3 small pieces of pea. If it's only constipation he should only need 1 feeding of it and then he should be fine. The pea usually works pretty quickly. Natalie

COBettaCouple

it sounds like he probably did get more than enough, but not a catastrophic amount with your fast cleaning job. just a rough guess, but he probably ate between 15 & 20 pellets. check the substrata really, really, really good - he will. it may or may not lead to constipation - crazy but they like to defy the rules. either way though, 2 or 3 days fasting is a really good call and after that, i'd feed him 3 pellet size pieces of thawed, frozen, peeled pea 2x a day (or 2 pieces 3x a day) for 3 or 4 days.

chickadee

Even if you fast him for up to 5 days it will not hurt him. Much better to underfeed than overfeed. I had to be gone unexpectedly in an emergency for 5 days and had no one to come in and feed one time and they were all fine and the tanks were sure clean when I got home. It is really surprising how little they need to stay alive and healthy. This is not something to do all the time but in an emergency like you have now, if there is a chance he is not back to normal you can actually fast him totally for 5 days.

Then when you start to feed do the pea treats for a couple of days with no other food and then start half size meals for a couple of days of regular food and then back to normal.

Rose

COBettaCouple

how is he looking and doing today?

MamaM

He looks good. He never really got bloated or anything (what I thought was a little lump is really his swim bladder--doh! :). I fasted him for a few days, then have been giving him the innards of a baby pea daily for the last few days. He'll get his pea today & then maybe a few pellets of regular food for the next few days.

He still has his splotch on his face/gill that I treated with 2 rounds of fungus-clear & 2 rounds of Maracyn. I'm taking a break from the meds as I'm going out of town (don't want the fishsitter to worry about medicating in addition to feeding), and will resume when I get back.

He's acting "normal" and looks good (other than the splotch) so I am thankful!!

Thanks for all your help!

Sharon

COBettaCouple

great!