Hello All And I Need Your Help With My Betta

I don't have much fish keeping experience and I started my tank last month. it is a small 2.5 G tank with a double tail male betta.
the first 3 week was tough, my betta did not eat anything, at least I did not see he was eating, so I have to leave the food in the tank for a long time. and I noticed more and more of his tail fin was missing


and finally he almost lost the whole tail fin, and I thought I was gonna lose my fish.
the tank came with an air pump, I turned it on all the time to see if it could help. and slowly my fish started to eat the dried blood worms and getting his tailback.

it is one and a half month now, and I noticed another problem.
My betta belly was very big 3 days back so I tried to faster it and yesterday I found his belly seems like broken when I changed the water.






I need you guys' help
1. I want to know what caused the fishtail missing in the first 3 weeks, did the fish eat his tail? or he got scratch from the gravel?

2. what is my fish problem now? what medicine can I give to my fish? how can I cure him?
I tried to watch but I did not notice any worn or parasite

 

First a few questions. What type of shush do you have with your betta? Do you have an plastic plants, rough plastic decorations, or driftwood for decorations in your tank? And did you soak the freeze dried blood works before feeding them to your betta?

 

Sorry about the misspelling I meant what type of fish do you have with your betta?

 

First a few questions. What type of shush do you have with your betta? Do you have an plastic plants, rough plastic decorations, or driftwood for decorations in your tank? And did you soak the freeze dried blood works before feeding them to your betta?

I don't have any other fish. I just had plastic plants for 3-4 days, then I changed to live moss ball from Amazon.
I just dropped the blood worm into tank, do I need to soak them first?
do you know if my betta could cure itself of the broken belly?

 

At this stage of it it really depends on how resilient the betta is. What happened is when the betta eats the freeze dried food it reaches its stomach. After that it absorbs water and causes an intestinal blockage that then causes constipation. You can try increasing the temperature of the tank a degree or two to stimulate his metabolism, you can also try feeding him barely cooked soft peas instead of his regular food this may help clear up he blockage. You can also try adding a small amount of epsom salt to the tank for no more than 24 hours after that remove it. If none of those treatments are working it looks like he either has a internal injury that their is nothing you can really do about it, or a bacterial infection that they make medicines for. How strong is the inflow tube for the filter? The only thing I can think of is the betta getting caught on the filter and his tail slowly degrading as a result. Is the edge of his fins tinged with black at all?

 

Hello! And welcome to fishlore. Some things first. Is the tank heated and filtered? Do you have any fake plants in there? What are your parameters? To answer your question
1. If your tank has a filter your betta might be catching himself on it. Bettas do not like strong flow so if you see the filter output pushing him around you will have to baffle it. I suggest taking a price of pantyhose and rubberband onto the filter input so it won't suck at his fins.
2. Most people will say that clean warm water is the best medicine. I would do 25% daily water changes until he gets better.
Also about your betta bloated I would fast for three days and then feed him a pea. If you already fasted him then feed him boiled reseller pea

 

At this stage of it it really depends on how resilient the betta is. What happened is when the betta eats the freeze dried food it reaches its stomach. After that it absorbs water and causes an intestinal blockage that then causes constipation. You can try increasing the temperature of the tank a degree or two to stimulate his metabolism, you can also try feeding him barely cooked soft peas instead of his regular food this may help clear up he blockage. You can also try adding a small amount of epsom salt to the tank for no more than 24 hours after that remove it. If none of those treatments are working it looks like he either has a internal injury that their is nothing you can really do about it, or a bacterial infection that they make medicines for. How strong is the inflow tube for the filter? The only thing I can think of is the betta getting caught on the filter and his tail slowly degrading as a result. Is the edge of his fins tinged with black at all?

HI Jacob,
sorry for my late response, I did follow your advice to feed him a pea. I boiled the pea and cut into small pieces, I did not notice he eat the pea, but the next morning I found a big poo at the bottom of the tank and betta's belly was back to normal.
now I started to feed dried food regularly, he likes the dried bloodworm; but still, he does not like the Betta Pellets
My betta looks much thinner than when I brought him home, I don't know how much I should feed him
and do you know how to get him eat Pellet as I believe the Pellet has more nutrition?

 

That’s good that he passed the blockage. What type of pellets are you using for him? Some Betta’s can be picky about what they eat. I recommend a small thing of new life spectrum community fish or small fish depending on the size of your betta. They are better than the freeze dried food since they are a rounded diet with all of the nutrients they need to survive. Another food you could try is hikarI betta pellets. If you ever want to get him a treat or if he truely won’t eat any pelleted diets you can try live blackworms they are very nutritious for them but aren’t really a well rounded diet but better than nothing. And just to make sure, you soak the freeze dried food before giving it to him?

 

Hello! And welcome to fishlore. Some things first. Is the tank heated and filtered? Do you have any fake plants in there? What are your parameters? To answer your question
1. If your tank has a filter your betta might be catching himself on it. Bettas do not like strong flow so if you see the filter output pushing him around you will have to baffle it. I suggest taking a price of pantyhose and rubberband onto the filter input so it won't suck at his fins.
2. Most people will say that clean warm water is the best medicine. I would do 25% daily water changes until he gets better.
Also about your betta bloated I would fast for three days and then feed him a pea. If you already fasted him then feed him boiled reseller pea

thanks, the constipation is gone now after fed the boiled pea.

my tank is heated and no filter. but I have a pump

 

thanks, the constipation is gone now after fed the boiled pea.

my tank is heated and no filter. but I have a pump

Yay! I'm glad to hear that you betta got better can we see some before and after pics? Sadly a pump is no good it will move the water around but the filter sucks up the water in the tank and puts it back in the tank clean. If your looking for a filter I would recommend a sponge filter as it goes with a pump(?)