My boy needs help :(

[Nymox]

Got some epsom salts this morning, Given it to him orally in some pea, seemed the least stressful way on the fish, and he thinks hes been fed too. Hes looking a little better this morning, tummy is flatter, still some way to go but I think he should recover.

[Adrienne]

Good to hear.

[yeh_buddy]

Hey, just a question but is it one side of his stomach sticking out or his entire stomach is bloated because a few years ago I had a fighter who got bloated and looked like he had dropsy but then it went down and he looked like he was going to be fine, he was swiming around eating just fine but then I had noticed he had a lump sticking out on his left side and no matter what I did he remained that way till he died a year later. But he never showed any signs of discomfort, he was always brightly coloured. Would flare at his reflection, attacked his food with gusto and swim around quite happily.

Then I also recieved a fighter from a trademe auction that arrived with a white lump near its tail. It lived a full life without the lump affecting his ability to live life. I did have a foto of it but deleted alot when I got my new laptop.. wish i had kept it now. Grrrr

Just thought i would ask because ive never come across the same thing again.

HAHA found it!

[Tyrannosaurus]

I'll preface this by saying that I am an almost complete newbie. Also, you say your fish is getting better, so none of this might be relevant at all. However I have had a fish who presented with the same symptoms your boy has, and maybe this will shed some light if his condition doesn't improve after all.

This looks precisely like what one of my very first bettas probably would have died of if I had not euthanized him. (He was hanging on, but I'm not of the inclination to keep fish around to die slow, painful deaths.) If you visit Ultimate Bettas, you'll see that they call it 'Mystery Bloat'. It's sort of like dropsy in the way it presents, but you just get a steady, slowly increasing swelling at the lower front of the fish where his belly is, usually no pineconing.

http://www.ultimatebettas.com/index.php?showtopic=29190

Here's a pretty informative thread related to it.

With my guy, I tried a range of vet prescribed medications, including trichozole. Also tried epsom salt baths. I added a little salt to his water. I gave him daily water changes. I was really very fond of him and wanted him to live badly. He was the first betta I ever owned and the daddy of the first spawn I ever had.

Nothing worked. He developed a secondary infection with white cottony fungus and I decided it was better to euthanize at that point. The cruel thing about this seems to be that the fish hangs around so active and happy for such a long time, but quite heinously bloated. He would eat, flare, and swim about, but eventually he started looking miserable, though to be honest, I think that may have been from all the treatments more than the bloating itself. Throwing bunches of medications at a fish in this state doesn't seem to help much.

You can try a range of treatments, unfortunately, as far as I know, there's basically a 0% recovery rate.

I would advise (and again, take this with a pinch of salt because I am a newbie,) to minimize treatments and keep him comfortable as possible in clean water until his time comes.

Just my two cents. I sincerely hope your outcome is better than mine.

[Nymox]

I would advise (and again, take this with a pinch of salt because I am a newbie,) to minimize treatments and keep him comfortable as possible in clean water until his time comes.

Your not wrong at all there matey, I think the biggest part in his recovery is that he has been comfortable and happy. Over the past few days hes been pooing alot, I havnt fed him, and his tummy is getting slightly smaller every day, because the tummy is flatter, his swim bladder has relaxed too, so that bump over the swim bladder is normal, apart from the scales still sticking out a little but I presume this wil return to normal with time. When I do feed him its small amounts of flake, colur enhancing seems to have to most fibre out of anything I have so he gets a tiny bit of that and a tiny bit of shelled pea, he'll take epsom salt crystals orally so Ive been giving him 1 of those a day too.

Thank you very much to you all, its really nice to know there are other people out there with genuine concern for a little life, Im sure all the well wishing has played a part in his recovery.

[Tyrannosaurus]

Sounds like a simple case of constipation then? I'm really glad your guy is looking and feeling better, that is great!