Prepare to salute General D. Macarthur!

Heya all,

My fisrt fish since a kid and a nice Betta! He is still getting to know his tank and seems to like hiding behind the filter pump before taking forays out to the heater and I caught him sneaking through his log cave! His home is a 5 gallon tank with the water nicely regulated at 26c. He will get a few nice live plants later in the week to finish off his home.

 

Congratulations! He is beautiful.

He looks like one I saw in my lfs about a couple of weeks ago.

Gwenz

 

Oooh I wish I was General D Macarthur! What a lovely home and what a beautiful fish too ... he reminds me of my lovely Taro. Such a fiery colour ;D

 

Decerto, I just noticed you have the exact same background as me and you also, well it looks like, you have the exact same heater as me too! Is that an AquaOne 126 tank, because it looks just like my tank, just a bit smaller, and I know that the AquaOne 126 is the smaller version of my tank as my lfs sells it.

This is really wierd. Where do you live, we might live near each other? I know that quite a few lfs' might sell the same things, but it's just really weird that we have nearly the exact same products in nearly the exact same tanks.

Gwenz

 

That is a really nice home for General D. Macarthur! He would be so honored to share his name I am sure! The little guy is just lovely and so bright and happy looking. He will love some nice plants, but that cave will be a favorite place as well.

You have a beautiful boy. Welcome General!! We salute you!

Rose

 

Decerto, I just noticed you have the exact same background as me and you also, well it looks like, you have the exact same heater as me too!    Is that an AquaOne 126 tank, because it looks just like my tank, just a bit smaller, and I know that the AquaOne 126 is the smaller version of my tank as my lfs sells it. 

This is really wierd.    Where do you live, we might live near each other? I know that quite a few lfs' might sell the same things, but it's just really weird that we have nearly the exact same products in nearly the exact same tanks.   

Gwenz

Yep it is an AquaOne 126, it was on sale with the whole setup. I just got the background the other day and though it was the best out of the lot! I live all the way down in the bottom of Australia, AquaOne seems to have a monopoly on all things aquarium related down here as all the tanks and products are from them. The Genreral is settling in nicely and swims around a lot more now and likes to come to the front of the tank when I enter the room to see how he is doing ;D

 

I though it was. I live in Wales - UK. It's the same here, most of the tanks we have are AquaOne, and they have loads of different sizes, from small fish bowls (which nobody ever buys), to 120 gallon tanks.

I'm glad he is settling in to the tank. I bet he's having a great time.

Gwenz

 

I'm worried about him not eating the flakes, I'm going to get some pellets tonight for him and see if he likes them. He is swimming around a lot so I don't think he is constipated.

 

sometimes they are very very VERY active when constipated I know InarI is and the reason he may not eat the flakes is that he may have grown up on the pellets or they just dont' appeal to him InarI sometimes he'll eat them sometimes not usually they go as shrimp food which i'm sure he will eventually eat lol

 

Bettas do not eat flakes well because they are carnivores and their mouths are not shaped the same as other fish's. It is hard for them to get ahold of a flake to eat. It is much easier for them to grab and eat a pellet or a bloodworm in their mouth as the jaw opens like a little trap door and flakes tend to float and it is hard for them to get them into their mouths.

Pellet meals are 3-4 pellets (it is a good idea to give 1 at a time and make them chew them up before you give the next) they can have this amount 2 times a day

Bloodworm meals are 6-7 bloodworms they can have this amount 2 times a day.

they cannot have both at the same time but can have 1 pellet meal and 1 bloodworm meal in the same day. Usually though Bettas are very picky eaters (especially if they do not have tankmates) and will settle on one food they really like and reject all the others.

Rose

 

key word is sometimes other times they will eat ur freaking hand when u are pruning the live plants lol it just depends on the betta

 

ok I should make a correction, Bettas aren't pirahnas so then won't eat ur hand but InarI does try on me sometimes not that it hurts its just annoying that's all

 

It looks like he could be contipated, he is now spending a lot of time on the bottom. Unfortuanatly the humans of the house ate the last of the frozen peas the other night and he will have to wait till tomorow to get some peas. He nibbled ate some flakes but spat them out, is this a sign he is hungry and just not interested in the type of food? Either way I'll try him on the pellets tomorow and see what he thinks of them.

 

He is sure sounding a lot like he may be constipated. Do not feed him anything more until he has been on nothing but peas for a couple of days and let's see if his little insides can get cleaned out. He will not like it but he is not in the position to know what is best for him right now and this is not going to hurt him. Then when you do start him on the new food be sure not to give him but one piece at a time and let him chew until you can see that he is not chewing anymore. Then he can have another and so on until he has had 3 or 4 pellets, no more. Then he can have the same amount again later in the day. But just 2 meals a day. Once a betta has had a constipation problem, they will become constipated even more easily the second time around so it may be a good idea to give the pea treat. a couple times a week just as part of his routine. But unless he is actually constipated the pea is supposed to be a treat at another time other than meal time. (so he gets fed 3 times those days) You cannot give it with the meal or you will be overfeeding and if he is not constipated then he needs to also have his regular food as usual - just not with the pea.

I hope this has helped and he is doing better soon.

Please let us know.

Rose

 

Thank you so much, I'll follow your advice, just my luck to buy a constipated fish!

 

Beautiful fish, gorgeous tank! Best of luck with him, and may he live a long and hppy life with you!!

S.

 

I 've tried to feed him the pea but he just sits at the bottom of the tank and looks at the little chopped up pieces, he hasn't touched them and it's been about 5 hours since I put them in, will he eat them eventually? Hope this isn't a bad sign that things are worse then they seem

 

well he is definitely constipated be sure to get those pea chuncks out b4 they decompose and give u ammonia spikes....what I do with InarI is I hand feed him especially peas but if he doesn't want to eat don't try to force him the General will eat when he gets hungary just once a day be sure to try and get him to eat atleast one chunck if not he'll get hungary before too long and if u have catfish or shrimp or something like that the veggies will make them very happy!

 

He looks really nice. Good luck with the plants I'm sure the tank will look even better with the live plants.
friend_o_fish

 

Live plants can create problem with live plants is that sometimes they start to drop dead and spike your Ammonia just beware of that just wanted to warn u.....tho live plants are really nice for keeping down the toxic compounds and ions
good luck

 

good luck with plants. nice tank

 

How long has it been since he has eaten? Bettas can go for a few days without food without harm and I don't think this is a cause of concern. But sitting on the bottom of the tank is a problem. Can you raise the temperature a little? Sometimes if the temperature is a little higher they are stimulated to go to the bathroom. Also he may need to get a little hungrier before he will try the peas. My Marty will still not eat them so I got him some Daphnia and it is a kind of natural laxative for them but you have to be careful how much of it that you give them too. Another treatment that is perhaps more reliable for a fish that is bad enough to be on the bottom of the tank is to put him in a bath of EPSOM SALTS (1 Teaspoon disolved in a small amount of tank water and added to 4 gallons of water for a bath and raise the temperature of the bath slightly above the tank temperature - not above 82 degrees) After he starts to have some bowel movements then you can resume feeding him SMALL amounts of food. If sounds like he is really constipated and needs to have the Epsom Salts treatment, just make sure it is not stronger than recommended or he can go into shock. (and make sure that the salts are disolved before adding to the water.) Epsom Salts can be bought in any grocery store or drug store and are very cheap. Probably one of the cheapest remedies you will buy.

Please let me know how he is doing.

Rose

 

To be honest InarI was the same way he wouldn't touch food, peas, nothing I took him put him into the sun (it was an unfiltered, unheated tank) with a tinted foiling that I had found around campus the tint was to reduce the intensity of the light anyway, once the tank was a bit he started moving around and with in about a week he left one moster load on the bottom of his tank...just warm it up and he should be fine if he hasn't eaten by mid next week then I would start to worry...personally I'm afraid of the salt bath but that is just me good luck I hope the General feels better soon

~Inari

 

It is not a real salt bath like in an "Aquarium Salt" bath. Epsom Salts are really a Magnesium compound that are used as a laxative to fish (and can even be used by humans). They are not going to upset the fish's metabolic equilibrium the way too strong an Aquarium Salt solution would. If the correct dosage of the Epsom Salts is given it should help not hurt the fish. If you do decide to wait it out and just not feed him for a couple more days then that is the next best thing, but do not feed him until you can see some sign of a bowel movement or until he begins to return to his normal self (Sometimes we cannot tell when they have gotten cleaned out and the only way to tell is the behavior of the fish) Then I would sitll give the peas and if he is hungry enough he will eat them.

Rose

 

Today he has been swimming around all day and I haven't seen him on the bottom of the tank once. I will feed him another pea on saturday then try pellets on sunday. I did the weekly water change this afternoon and cleaned out all the uneaten food I could get from the tank. His water is always around 26, sometimes it gets as high as 27 and never as low as 25.5. I don't know what happened to make him seem better, maybe he ate one of the pea pieces, I couldn't find them all, either he ate one or it when't through the filter. I'll let you all know how he is on saturday, fingers crossed his through his bad patch

 

He may have just been able to go to the bathroom on his own eventually.  It is just important not to overfeed at this point and maybe peas for a couple of days would still be a good idea just to make sure he is good and cleaned out. It is important that he get good and cleaned before you start giving him regular food again. If he has eaten any of the pea he will probably take it from you now. Just put a very small piece on the tip of your finger and let it float out into the water. Just remember that his little tummy is only as big as his eye and you need to take a piece about half that size and chop it into 3 pieces or so. That way he can get it into his mouth easily.

Let us know how he is doing, okay.

Rose

 

I tried a shrimp pellet today, broke it into small pieces, he let them bounce off his head and then ignored them! They are sitting on the bottom of the tank now, I'll see if he eats them eventually ???

 

Generally Bettas only eat a few selected foods like just pellets or sometimes pellets and like bloodworms other (like InarI can be sometimes) will eat the glass on their tank given half a chance u might have a picky betta or he just might not have been hungary tho I doubt that .....

 

Bettas eat foods that float on the surface of the water. If you are giving him things that sink right away he will not eat them because they get away from him too fast. I would suggest something on the order of HikarI Betta Bio-Gold pellets or Freeze dried Bloodworms or Ocean Nutrition Atison's Betta Pro. You have to be careful even with the foods that are supposed to be for Bettas as some of the pellet foods are simply too big for the bettas mouths and they cannot put them in their mouth let alone eat them. If you only have the one fish the fresh or frozen foods are not only expensive but perhaps not practical for the length of time it would take to get them used and they are expensive unless they are locally available. (shipping costs are very high). It is very true that Bettas are picky eaters and you may not have found the food that is going to tickle your little friends taste buds yet. They will turn down foods until it is what they want, but as long as they are not sitting on the bottom of the tank it is okay. I do believe that the shrimp pellets and not a good thing though as they are made for creatures with a shell and contain a lot of calcium and could cause a great case of constipation as it is not digestible by Bettas. and I do not know that peas could work that out. Just let him have a day of fasting to get his system cleaned out and then try the regular food again but give the food one piece at a time and make sure he chews before giving another piece. If he won't eat the first piece then it probably means that he does not like the food and will not eat it no matter if you dump the whole container in there. It just means you have to try something else. I have known of Betta owners who have nearly torn their hair out looking for something their Betta would eat. One thing to do is to ask the people where you got him what he was eating there and try to go to that food. Also do not go to flake food. Bettas mouths are not made to eat flakes. If you look at his mouth it is kind of like a little scoop and it cannot get a good hold on something thin and floating.

I do hope this helps him and you. Please let us know how he is doing. Also does he have a name, we like to call our little friends by their names here and would like to welcome him to our community.

Rose

 

I think it is General D. Macarthur

 

:-[ OOPS :-[ !! Not awake yet. Sorry, General D. We do want to welcome you to our community and hope you will forgive me for overlooking the obvious.

Rose
:-[

 

Well the problem is the food choice down here is limited, we don't have the brands you suggested He must be eating something though as he is not dead yet! Maybe the flakes are what he is eating as they break up in the tank.

 

Then could you find out at the vendor where you bought him what they fed him and get some of that.  I am betting he is used to it and will eat it. Although I will almost guarantee you will not find a fish store anywhere that does not carry some brand of Freeze dried Bloodworms (brand isn't too important) and most Bettas love them. You just have to make sure you don't overfeed them - just give 6-7 worms twice daily.

That is what I had to do with one of my picky little ones.

Rose

 

I caught the little bugger eating the flakes in his tank the other night so I crumbled some into the tank and he gobbled them down! I knew he had to be eating something cause he would be dead by now. He eats reguraly now and seems to be doing fine, maybe the stress of a new tank upset his appetite a bit?

 

sometimes but bettas can go about a week and a half w/o food and still remain alive if he hadn't eaten by then i'd be concerned

 

I am so glad for you. He has asserted his authority now and will probably behave himself now .

Rose