Help Feeding Betta A Pea (swim Bladder Disease)

My bettas been sitting on the bottom of the tank for the last two days now. Water parameters are fine and while I'm sure hes extremely stressed, he almost seems dead I feed him this morning and he ate a few flakes but not as many as normal. Last night he ate like 2-3 flakes and yesterday morning he didnt eat at all. I'm thinking maybe he has swim bladder disease? From what Ive been reading fish usually float with swim bladder disease but I don't know what else could be wrong.

I read for swim bladder disease you should fast your betta for 3 days and then feed a skinned pea to him. I'm wondering if I need to fast him for three days before giving him the pea. I want him to get better sooner than later because otherwise idk if hes going to make it. Is there a reason they recommend fasting for three days first? Can I give him the pea and THEN fast for three days? Any help is appreciated thanks!

 

Can you show us a picture? How big is your tank? Is it heated? Temperature of the tank? Is it cycled? What are the parameters? Bettas with swim bladder disorder have buoyancy problems, so they either sink to the bottom or float to the top tiltedly on a side. The reason they say to fast for 3 days, then pea is because sometimes SBD is caused by constipation, so you fast first to see if they can pass things through naturally and if it doesn't work, you move onto peas next.

 

Did you mash up the skinned pea? I always find that mashed skinned peas are easier for the fish to eat than unmashed peas

 

I can try and get a picture in just a second, hes currently sitting inside one of my tank decorations but he moves every once in a while only to sit back down somewhere else.

His tank is not cycled. I just got a new filter today. It hasn't been cycled for a while though because I haven't had my old filter on for months, I was under the impression that most of the beneficial bacteria lived in the substrate so I had it off most of the time. I have added some safe start to hopefully jump start the cycle a bit.

The tank itself is a 5.5 gallon and is heated to about 80 degrees, it varies every once in a while but never gets under 78 or above 82.

I just re-tested everything, literally as I'm typing this comment out and these are the readings:
Ammonia: Between 0 and .25 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: between 10 and 20 ppm
PH: 7.6 (which is what its been at for months now)
GH/KH: between 50 and 100 ppm, probably closer to 50 ppm as it took four drops for the liquid to turn yellow

Repolie

So would you reccomend waiting the three days and just seeing what happens?

 

I'm just going to wait for the pictures before I advise anything else.

 

He doesn't seem to have trouble swimming he just isn't doing much of it. He'll sit on the ground for a minute and look normal but then he'll start to slump over a little. His fins also seem pretty droopy, I mean they usually do to some extent but more so than usual.

I did notice a few days ago he had a rather large clump of poop hanging from his cloaca. I'm not sure exactly what fish poop is supposed to look like but it wasn't white, it was the color of the flakes I feed him, it was like a little string coming out of him with a bigger ball of poop on the end. Then it happened again, I can't remember exactly how long ago but both of the instances happened within like two or three days of each other. Not sure if that means anything but I just thought I would bring it up

 

Repolie

 

How long have you had him? I don't see anything visually wrong with him. Do you only feed flakes? Feeding it for too long could make a betta sluggish and bored of it. From the poop description, it sounds like he was constipated, soak any dry foods I some tank water before feeding. Also feed a variety of foods so he can get other nutrients that the flakes might've not had.

 

Ive had him for 4 months now. I have only feed him flakes since I got him. I tried to give him omega one pellets when I first got him but he kept spitting them back out. They almost seemed too big for him, plus they didnt float which made feeding them to him really hard. I bought some aqueon pellets today so I'm hoping he'll eat those as there a little smaller than the omega ones I tried.

Can I soak flakes without them breaking apart or should I stop feeding the flakes altogether? How long do I need to soak them for? Are you thinking it isn't swim bladder? Just as a precaution should I fast him for a few days? When you say feed him other foods do you mean things such as blood worms and daphnia or do you mean different brands of flakes/pellets

I think maybe hes super stressed out but I'm not sure because water levels seem okay. He doesn't seem any better today than yesterday and I don't want to lose him which is why I'm trying to figure out what might be wrong. Thank you for the help and sorry for all the questions.

 

It may be hard to soak flakes without breaking them. You can soak the flakes by putting it in a up of tank water until it sinks and use a pipette to get them. Soak until the food becomes soft. I don' think it's swim bladder because he doesn't look like he's struggling to swim and he's upright. I wouldn't fast him, just soak his foods. Yes feed him a variety of foods by giving different types and brands of food.

 

Once they're soft won't they break apart in the fish tank and make a mess? Or sink to the bottom where my fish might not find them? I promise I'm not trying to be difficult I just don't want to do anything incorrectly and make things worse. I have to go to the pet store tomorrow so Ill definitely pick up some different types of betta food for him. Repolie

 

The flakes will probably do that, so just try soaking the pellets or you can also soak pellets in garlic juice to enhance the flavour to entice him to eat.

 

Okay awesome thank you!!