Female Betta Is Sick - Need Urgent Help!

No idea where to put this but please can someone move it if there is a problem.
My female betta fish (1 year old), who I love dearly, is very sick. She is currently in a divided 10G tank with 3 cygmy cories (only temp) on her side and a lone male betta on the other side.
She is very bloated and is incredibly lethargic, constantly puffing her gills and resting on a plant or the ground and coming up to breath surface air more often than normal. My parameters are: Amm. 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10. The tank has live plants and a pH of 7. The male betta on the other side is perfectly fine and acting normal, as are the cories. Urgent help needed as I couldnt bare to loose her.

Forgot to say that so far the only action taken has be a temp. increase (now at 27 degrees celcius) a small water change and increase oxygen levels.

 

Are her scales "pineconing"? Also, has she defecated lately? She may be constipated.

 

no she isn't pineconing luckily but no I haven't seen any evidence of her passing any food but I haven't spfed her anything but a tiny ting bit of a pea for the past 3 days

 

Let's see if we can't get some help in here... Opalescent

 

please anyone else- shes getting worse!!

Aquaphobia ???

CindiL ???

 

Hi, I am sorry your girl is sick. The first thing I would do is give her an epsom salt bath to help with the bloating and will serve as a laxative too. Take 1/2g of their tank water in a separate container, dissolve 1/2 tbsp epsom salt in it and then add her in. See how she looks at 10 minutes and if she's pooped, if she's still doing good leave her in another 5-15 minutes at most. This will help with the fluid retention. When treatment is done, remove half of the water in her bath and replace it with more tank water and let her adjust to that water for about 10 minutes before moving her back to the tank.

How long has she been like this?

 

I don't have any epsom salts! argh noooo I'm really panicking now- where in the Uk can I pick some up?? she has been bloated for about 3 days now

 

I don't have any epsom salts! argh noooo I'm really panicking now- where in the Uk can I pick some up?? she has been bloated for about 3 days now

Most drug stores and pharmacies carry it. Heck, Tesco would probably carry it.

 

Could she be egg bound? How long has she been near the male?

 

right, mum found me sime epsom salts so will try that now thank you

Aquaphobia yes it is possible she has been there for about 2 months. but I thought if she was egg-bound she wouldnt be puffing her gills so severly?!

 

Edit because he found Epsom salts

I doubt she is egg bound, she needs a salt bath then go from there. Why has she only had a pea in the last few days, has she been refusing food?

 

thanks, but I found some!

 

Aquaphobia yes it is possible she has been there for about 2 months. but I thought if she was egg-bound she wouldnt be puffing her gills so severly?!

I think if she's really full of eggs it's quite likely that they'll put pressure on her systems and make her puff like that. I know I would!

Try the epsom salts first though.

 

Edit because he found Epsom salts

Why has she only had a pea in the last few days, has she been refusing food?

Possible constipation, a shelled pea works as a laxative.

 

ahahah yes she is currently in the epsom salt bath. no she hasnt been refusing food but when she begun to look bloated, I started fasting her to be safe.

 

Ooh, I wouldn't have fasted her, aren't we supposed to be fed pickles and ice cream under those circumstances? That's what I heard anyway...

I kid

How's she looking so far?

 

this is the best photos I can get of her right now

she looking ok, a bit more active but not much different to be honest

 

Yeah, she's looking a little full. Any sign of poo? If she's a little backed up you can expect to see some!

I wonder if a bit of gentle massage to simulate the male's embrace would help? Trouble is she's so tiny I understand if you don't feel comfortable doing that.

 

The epsom will help with fluid retention and will help her poop if she's constipated.

I'd also recommend feeding her a pea with one grain of epsom in it for the same reason.

 

yeh no poo as of yet but will try a massage, thought of that earlier but didnt want her to pop!!!

 

no signs of poo, will try a massage now

 

Possible constipation, a shelled pea works as a laxative.

Yeah I know it help some constipation I wondered why it was just one over a course of three whole days! Looks like she is on the right track to being back to normal now so let's wait and see!

Good luck to the little lass

 

Good luck!

 

I ended up not doing it because I'm worried I will injure her- how do I do it properly??

 

Personally I wouldn't if your not confident as I wouldn't want to hurt her, but someone here might still direct you.

No signs of feces?

 

nope, none

 

Don't know if this will help but here's a video about an egg bound goldfish:

 

is your fish well right now ?

 

You can save that water and put a heater in it and put her in there twice a day until the bloating is better.

 

thanks everyone, I suspect she is infact egg bound as the salt bath has has no noticeable affect so will check out that video now thanks Aquaphobia and will keep you all updated with her progress

I have cime to the conclusion that she is egg bound- how do I help her get rid of them because I don't want her to get sick because of it??

 

OH gosh, I am sorry I didn't see this until now!

IF it is constipation then I would try some frozen Brine Shrimp or frozen Bloodworms. (Thaw before feeding.)

But I know nothing about eggs... CindiL << Hoping she can help!

 

Apparently it's extremely hard to do on a betta and may do more harm than good. I would keep doing the epsom salts baths. It's also possible that an internal infection has set in but since she's eating well I would hope not!

 

ok thank you for all the help

will she ever loose the plumped up egg look though?? I don't understand how egg binding works and she is still very lethargic

 

Assuming it is eggs behind this, then if she doesn't release them they're supposed to be reabsorbed by her body. Sometimes things go wrong though and no telling which way this will go I'm afraid.

 

As aqua said a great many things can happen, you've done the best you can for her and now it's just nature and our best wishes to get her better, keep us updated

 

ok thank you guys so much, I will be salt bathing her daily and keep you updated with her progress

ok so today, she still hasnt passed any food out but has stopped eating entirely :/ any help?!

could this be MalawI bloat?? I looked at symptoms and shes showing them (bloated, reclusive, hanging at surface, rapid breathing)

 

MalawI bloat is a condition seen in cichlids mostly when they're fed too much vegetable matter and not a diet high enough in proteins etc that they need.

Betta's are carnivores, what is her normal diet?

The treatment for MalawI bloat or many other interal infections is to use Metronidazole. You can find it in Seachem MetroPlex or API General Cure, do you have access to any medication with metro in it?

 

at the moment I feed her frozen foods, occasionally some live food, dennerle betta booster and aquacare tropical pellets. I don't have any treatments with motrI in on-hand but I could pick some up tomorrow at my LFS as spthey usually have every medication you could need!