Betta Fish Ph Level
Betta Fish Ph Level
My betta fish appears to be quite bloated…?
I have a male betta fish, approx. 6 months old and he appears quite bloated lately. He lives in a 5gal tank with 4 ghost shrimp and one otocinclus. the tank is heated (kept usually around 80 degrees), there is a filter though it is rarely used (the betta hates it), and there is a bubbler. The pH is around 7 and the NH3 levels are safe. He eats betta pellets everyday, has bloodworms 3 times a week, and shrimp once a week. I put extra pellets in the tank in order to supply the ghost shrimp with food as well and I’m afraid Bastion (the betta) may be getting too much of the dry food causing some constipation. He doesn’t show signs of pineconing. This happened to my previous betta and he passed away. I noticed the bloating yesterday and did not feed him anything today. I plan to fast him for 3 days and then give him a pea to see if it helps. I was just wondering if anyone else would agree that it is constipation or if they think it is something more serious.
Dropsy isn’t a disease. It’s a symptom of another problem, usually internal bacterial infection. Dropsy usually presents with a pine cone appearance to the scales or clamped fins, lethargy, and loss of apatite. Your fish can have “dropsy” without pine coned scales, but will shows other signs. If he is not lethargic and sitting on the bottom of the tank, I would go with constipated as well.
If he doesn’t eat the pea, you could try some epsom salts as a last resort. Add it slow. It will change your pH up closer to 8. Because of that, I would only use epsom salt if he doesn’t eat the pea or any other green foods.
Betta: Blue Mustard Gas HMP [Nest with Eggs]
