Overnight severe betta bloat

Nothing was unusual with my betta yesterday. This morning he was a little big, like he had eaten too much. This evening he's shockingly bloated. He's pineconing and I'm scared for him. No other symptoms, swimming fine, interactive, healthy colour.

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 10 gallons
How long has the tank been running? Since redo, 7 months
Does it have a filter? yes, sponge
Does it have a heater? yes
What is the water temperature? 80F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) Betta, 6 ember tetras, lots of cherry shrimp

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Every week
How much of the water do you change? 20-30% since it's hard to keep enough nitrogen in there for the plants
What do you use to treat your water? Prime
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Just the water since there's a carpet of plants

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? API master
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: Usually less than 5ppm, hard to keep high enough for plants
pH: 7.6

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Daily
How much do you feed your fish? A little bit? Kind of by "feel"
What brand of food do you feed your fish? All sorts, daily staples are bug bites, hikari micropellets, and northfin community but there's a huge variety that gets cycled through
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? Frozen daphnia, cyclops, mysis shrimp, or bloodworms about once a week or so

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? Only a few months
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? This morning
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Bloat, pineconing
Have you started any treatment for the illness? no
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? no
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Appearance- very bloated, scales pineconing. no change to behaviour

Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now)
In the span of a day it went from looks a little constipated/over full to emergency bloat. As of this afternoon, there was no sign of the pineconing so that has developed within the last several hours. He is still happy to see me and begging for food. I'm worried about him, he's one of my favourites in the fish room. I have very little access to medication being in Canada.

 

oh no you could try some salt baths, but i think he's too far gone

 

oh no you could try some salt baths, but i think he's too far gone

That’s the only thing I could think of trying. I had no idea dropsy came on so fast!! I don’t even know what I could have done differently

 

i've read that dropsy is a result of a kidney failure, so maybe his was really bad because i've seen others where it progressed slower. hearing about dropsy always makes me sad, i'm sorry

 

i've read that dropsy is a result of a kidney failure, so maybe his was really bad because i've seen others where it progressed slower. hearing about dropsy always makes me sad, i'm sorry

God, some days I hate fishkeeping. I've moved him into my always-ready quarantine tank with 1tbsp/2gal salt as a hail mary. Maybe it'll help, maybe not, I've heard it might just help relieve the pain.

 

Amazingly... he’s doing better!! He’s been in QT with salt and his bloat has definitely gone down! There’s still pineconing, but only on his ventral side, his dorsal side is flat again!! It doesn’t read very clearly in a top view photo but there are several rows of scales that were protruding that are no longer.

 

that's great news! he looks much better, hopefully the pineconing will go down too! good luck