Is my betta throwing up?

I feel like my betta is falling apart. I came home today to find about 50 of his food pellets all over the tank. Considering I only give him about 5 a day, that's 10 days worth of food. Some were on the bottom and some floating on top of the water. They don't look digested but they do look like they have been soaking there for awhile. The tank has a lid on it so there is no way any food could have accidentally fallen in. Is there any way the food has been in his stomach the whole time and he threw it up or is someone trying to sabotage my fish. If he did throw up undigested food, does that mean he hasn't really eaten in a week and a half? Maybe that's why he keeps biting his tail. I love this guy but he has been giving me so many problems lately.

 

How do you feed him? All at once or 1 pellet at a time?
I feed mine 1 pellet at a time, when she's done she gets another.

Little buggers do make us worry, don't they?

 

I've never heard of such a thing before. If he had 50+ food pellets in his stomach, I think that you would have been able to tell. A bettas' stomach is about as big as his eye, so he would have been very swollen.

 

Wow. I've never had a betta throw up. You haven't had, like, little kids in your house that would have done that would you?

If your betta is throwing up, I don't think it would throw up a week and half of food.

 

When I feed him, I give him one pellet, wait for him to chew it, then give him another. I give him 3 in the morning, and 2 at night. When I first brought him home, he would spit the pellet right back up (not a week later) but he hasn't done that in over 6 months. I thought it was impossible for him to keep all that food inside too. I asked my entire house and no one fed him. Then I realized the only other time I have seen him do this (about a month ago) was when the house keeper was here, just like today. I really think she is trying to kill my fish. I don't blame her for being jealous though, he is beautiful...I mean handsome.

 

Hide the food!

 

When I feed him, I give him one pellet, wait for him to chew it, then give him another. I give him 3 in the morning, and 2 at night. When I first brought him home, he would spit the pellet right back up (not a week later) but he hasn't done that in over 6 months. I thought it was impossible for him to keep all that food inside too. I asked my entire house and no one fed him. Then I realized the only other time I have seen him do this (about a month ago) was when the house keeper was here, just like today. I really think she is trying to kill my fish. I don't blame her for being jealous though, he is beautiful...I mean handsome.

Well maybe she's trying to kill your fish, in which case she has serious issues and I personally wouldn't want her in my house at all. But it's also possible she just doesn't know better. You know, some people will just think "aw he looks hungry" and throw in food...they don't really realize it's bad for the fish. In any case have a talk with your housekeeper.

 

I will have a talk with her for sure...about her last day. She is one of the only people my dog barks at and I guess he was right all along. I have no idea how much of what she threw in he actually ate but he is swimming around and looks normal. He is a brat and won't eat food that has been in the water for too long; he won't eat it if it's soggy. I will definitely skip his dinner tonight though. Thanks everyone for your responses. I didn't think him throwing up like this would be possible but I figured I would double check since you guys know way better than I do. I love this site and have gotten a lot of good advice from everyone.

 

Yeah listen to your dog...animals are completely unbiased so if they don't like someone, they have a reason for it.

 

It probably would be good to fast him a day and put him on a pea and daphnia diet for at least a few days, just to be sure that his digestive system stays happy.

I'd like to have a few words with that house keeper.. *grrr*

 

me too. they shouldn't touc hother people's animals...especially one as beautiful as a betta!

 

I can see how this could happen. Anyone not experienced with bettas could walk by the tank, see that adorable face begging for food and sprinkle some in just like people do with other fish and flakes.

Your house keeper was just probably trying to help, but yeah, your dog may have it right too

 

I can see that she might have innocently put some food in thinking he was hungry, but she definitely should have asked you first. And you can always trust a dog's judgement! My two dogs are better than a lie detector to weed out untrustworthy people.

Since your betta is active (and if he doesn't look bloated) he should be fine. Just skip his dinner tonight and maybe give him peas for a day or two.

 

Someone is messing with him and more than just one or two times a month if he is unhappy enough to be eating his tail and all that food is showing up. I am so sorry to have to ask this but are you positive no one in your family is "playing with him". Sometimes children will do something innocently and then be afraid to tell you because they think they will be in trouble. They do not see any harm in it until we get upset by it and then they are afraid to say what really happened but this is important enough that the really important thing is not so much getting angry but to find out what is really happening. Maybe if you make everyone little "detectives" and give a "reward" of some small kind for finding out what is wrong with the betta. It does not have to be anything huge but maybe the ability to stay up an extra half hour or a special treat at meal time or the ability to chose which movie to watch or something pretty harmless like that. If you find that something pretty serious has been happening then a calm talk about what could have happened and why it is not a good idea to do that again with the people involved would perhaps keep this from happening again. I cannot believe that anyone is seriously trying to kill the fish but may be doing what they think is helping and in reality almost killing him. Hide the food and explain that bettas are very high strung and do harm to themselves if they are upset and need to have peace and calm and that is why he has been making a meal of himself. They need to allow you to care for him and when you are there then if they want to perhaps you will let them help. Please do not think I am accusing your family if they did not do anything. I just cannot believe that someone who is only there one or two times would upset that betta enough to be eating his tail and getting that nutsy. Something else is making him squirrely and I am sorry to say I cannot think it is just the housekeeper unless she is there every day.

Rose

 

I skipped his dinner last night and just gave him one pellet this morning. He will get some peas for dinner later on today. Thank you everyone.

 

It doesn't sound to me like your housekeeper or anybody else in your house was intentionally trying to sabotage your betta, but I dunno. One thing I know for sure, as mentioned by others in this thread and that you have already agreed upon, is that there's no way your betta could have retained that much food and thrown it up. My guess is that someone was innocently and ignorantly trying to "help out" by feeding him and had no clue about overfeeding fish and the damage this can cause the fish and the tank's cycle.

Fortunately, it sounds like you probably caught it in time. How's he doing now?

Unfortunately, I had a similar experience, but this was a malicious one and I did not catch it in time. My first betta, Sparkles, lived in my office at work. I had quite a bit of experience with both fresh and saltwater fish from quite a few years ago, but never a betta. My boss, the complete Boss from ****, brought in a betta, named Nippy. He was a gorgeous mostly maroon-colored crowntail. While I hated the boss (and I don't use the word "hate" lightly), I kind of fell in love with Nippy. That's how I was introduced to the charms of bettas. Boss kept Nippy in a tiny unheated, unfiltered bowl. Not unexpectedly, Nippy got very ill and died an agonizing death over a period of about three weeks. My boss knew full well that it was important to not overfeed, and I'd made a big deal of it. While Nippy was in the process of dying, my Sparkles was doing fine and great and acting like one of the happiest fishies in the world. My boss just didn't want to be bothered with trying to take care of Nippy. I will never know for 100% sure, but I'm almost positive the boss is the one who poisoned Sparkles with a huge amount of food over the weekend when I wasn't there. There was so much food in his tank that the water was brown, and the ammonia level was so high that I could smell it! Nobody else would have been in the office on the weekend, and nobody else would have known where I stored the fish food, and nobody else could have been so vindictive toward my own little happy, healthy fish when her fish was dying from a combination of neglect and ignorance.

I brought Sparkles home that very day, but he never recovered. I believe the ammonia poisoning caused some of his organs to fail. He never returned to his "old self" and died about six weeks later.

Whatever happens, I hope you caught it in time. Your betta's tail biting could be from stress due to ammonia poisoning because of the overfeeding, or possibly nitrite and/or nitrate buildup after that happened. Do you have a good-quality test kit? Most people here recommend the API master test kit.

 

I am sorry to hear of this happening to your Betta. My first betta I had did that to himself also and I didn't know why. The first 3 months I had him he was happy and after that he started growing aggressive and started biting his tail. He bit more then half of it off and it never grew back. I learned from Rose that he was doing it because he was unhappy and the reason he was unhappy was because he was living in a 1 gallon tank. I didn't know better at the time and as soonas I learned this I got him a bigger tank.There is a reason he's upset and stressed and you need to try to figure out why. Have a family meeting or something about it, so you can fix this problem. If you don't fix it he's going to get worse and we don't want that happening.

As far as the fish food it sounds like it could be the housekeeper, but I don't think she needs to be fired for it. I think you just need to have a non accusing conversation about it and if she admits that she did it just explain to her that you appreciate her trying to help, but to please not feed him. If you are suspicious of her set up a video camera or something in an area that's not so obvious, but you know you can see her in the area your fish is at, that way if she denies then at least you'll have proof that she is indeed doing it and you were giving her a chance to fess up about it. Is there anyone home at the time she's there? If not maybe there should be, so she can be watched. I'm not sure I would trust someone to come into my house to clean w/o someone there. I would have to know the person a long time before I could do that. These are just suggestions. You can take them or leave them, but something needs to be done. Natalie