Is it possible to have mild swimbladder?

Hi,

I'm brand new to the forum, I have a question about my crown tail betta (trI color). He lives in a 4 gallon tank, with heater and filter, water is conditioned, and 20% of it is changed out every 3 days.

I have NEVER owned a fish. I did research, enough to do basic care for my betta and when to spot anything 'off' with him. He is fed pellets, I've tried switching him to flakes, but he prefers the other food.

One day I bought freeze dried blood worms as a treat for him, I gave him a tiny pinch (1.5 blood worms I'm guessing) the next day he is swimming a little off.

He swims, but when he stops, his body just tips upwards, and he struggles to swim back to horizontal. He does not belly slide, his tail fans out nicely, his activity level is still pretty high, but when he wants to rest, he will nestle in the plants instead of just hovering in the water. He still eats like a pig, but me being concerned, I've drastically cut down his food.

Is it swimbladder?

 

Welcome to fishlore

Did you soak them before you fed them to him? I just found out recently that you are supposed to soak freeze-dried foods before feeding them to your fish or else it could swell up in their stomach and cause problems.

There might be other issues, but there will be other people along with a lot more knowledge than I to help you out more.

 

Oh dear, now I feel really bad no I did not soak the bloodworms. Should I fast him? Give him a pea tonight?

 

I would try giving him a peeled, cut-up pea and nothing else. They love them. Use frozen if you have them - canned tend to have salt which he doesn't need. It won't hurt him to go without his pellets for a day or 2.

 

My mollie had swim bladder and I fed my entire tank peas. Besides my fish loving them my mollies swim bladder went away

 

Thanks guys for the fast responses I will feed him peeled frozen peas for the next two days and see how he looks. It started yesterday, and he does seem a little better today. So whatever he may have, it's slowly regressing.

 

I usually give all my guys peas once a week instead of their food. Seems to help keep things "regular".

 

So it's been a couple of days, and he's beginning to lay on the floor of the aquarium. His energy level has gone down, maybe because he is off balance? He still eats vigorously and swims around when he sees me.

I took another close look at him, his fins are fine, color is great, no bloating or irregular shape to his body.

Does swimbladder take a while to disappear?

 

Ok, here is a short video of him, hopefully the link works, tried embedding it, failed

FWIW it's breeding time for him. For the past few weeks he's been building bubble nests and planting his sperm everywhere. I noticed a new batch of it in the plants today.