Treating Swim Bladder Disease in Betta?

[justinwhitening]

My betta has recently got swim bladder disease, and I am 90% sure it is because she ate too fast. She tends to eat multiple pieces very fast if I drop more than a few pellets in at one time. My water parameters have been consistent for the past few years now, so I highly doubt it is an issue with her water quality.

I already tried fasting her for three days and giving her a piece of pea on the fourth day. No noticeable signs of improvement, as she just lays in one spot. Her health does not seem to be getting worse at the moment, she just can't stay in the middle and higher levels of the water for long periods of time.

Any help will be appreciated.

 

[Rose of Sharon]

Hi,

Frozen daphnia is great for helping with digestive issues related to constipation.

Posting a few pics might help, if you can get some side pics and a pic from above.

Soaking her pellets before feeding can help prevent some of these problems, and feeding her one pellet at a time can help, too. It would just take a few minutes out of your day.

You can try adding a bit of aquarium salt to her tank to help with her osmotic processes. And you can try doing an epsom salt bath to see if that helps. Just use a clean container, fill it with some heated, treated tank water. Dissolve pure, unscented epsom salts with no additives into the bath. Make sure it is completely dissolved. Put her in, and if she doesn't have a really bad stress reaction, leave her in for 20 minutes. If she poops right away, take her out ASAP. That is a severe stress reaction. For dosing, one tablespoon of epsom salts to one gallon of water.

And you can always fill out the emergency template. The more info we have, the better advice we can give. Just copy and paste the template into a post reply and fill in as much detail as you can.

Hope this helps! Here's the template:

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank?
How long has the tank been running?
Does it have a filter?
Does it have a heater?
What is the water temperature?
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)

Maintenance
How often do you change the water?
How much of the water do you change?
What do you use to treat your water?
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water?

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish?
What do you use to test the water?
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish?
How much do you feed your fish?
What brand of food do you feed your fish?
Do you feed frozen?
Do you feed freeze-dried foods?

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish?
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms?
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms?
Have you started any treatment for the illness?
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase?
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all?

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)

Include pictures

 

[justinwhitening]

Thank you for the information, will try that Epsom salt bath today. I will try to pick up some frozen daphnia today, as well.

As with the pictures, she stays in her little rock for most of the day now since getting Swim Bladder Disease. However, I can tell you her scales on the side are a little poked out, so that's when I noticed she was bloated.

 

[Rose of Sharon]

If she gets to the point where she is struggling to swim to the top for air, you can also lower the water level to make it easier for her. And if she has something to lay on towards the top of the tank, if she will actually lay there, that would help too....maybe a big leaf plant or one of those betta beds with the suction cups that attaches to the side of the tank.

Let us know about your progress!!