My betta fish has a big belly and his scales are sticking out. Can someone tell me if what is wrong with him?

Question

I noticed that he had gotten a bit bigger this week even though I have kept him on the same diet of pellets and bloodworms for two years. He is also only two years old (or at least I bought him two years ago).

Thanks, any response will be appreciated.

Answer 1

first off the avg life span of a beta is 2-3 years, so he could be ready to croak as negative as that sounds =/

But mores so I'm guessing you're just feeding him tooo much.  Genreally for beta pellets youonly feed like 4 or 5 a day something like that, so i'm guessing like 2 blood worms would be a pretty big meal. If you are only feeding him a small amount of pellets daily and his belly just all of a sudden got bigger he MIGHT  have dropsy, not sureon the exact diagnosis of it, but i THINK one of the symptoms is a swollen belly

Answer 2

It could be Dropsy, which can be caused by a bacterial, viral or fungal infection that usually ends in organ failures. It's unfortunately pretty common in bettas. It causes all the organs to swell up and eventually the fish scales with stand out like an opened-up pinecone. A lot of fish die from this, but I'm pretty sure it's possible to treat it if the condition is caught early enough.

Here's a page with more info. I hope your fish doesn't have this:

http://www.healthybetta.com/fish-dropsy

Here's a picture of a fish with dropsy:

http://docbs.homestead.com/files/dropsy2...

I hope I helped you in some way.

Answer 3

i really hate to tell you this, but i'm 99% sure he has dropsy. here is a site that will tell you what you need to know:

http://www.bettatalk.com/betta_diseases....

sorry x

Answer 4

Dropsy sounds about right.

There's really not much you can do for your fish.

If the pellets are dry though, soak them before feeding so that they don't expand in his stomach. It might at least help a little.

Answer 5

obesity

Answer 6

If it's Dropsy, which from your description sounds correct, your fish hasn't got much chance at the 'pine-cone scales' stage.  Sorry, but that is how it goes.  You can try feeding him mashed raw peas to help him p**p, but part of the problem will be infection, and it will be so far advanced by the time you observe the symptoms that there is little you can do.  Some fish do recover, so it's worth trying, but most don't.  If it gets really bad, and he's suffering, consider destroying him humanely.

A Betta can live 5-6 years or longer if properly card for.  The 'average' lifespan of 2-3 years is because so many of them die young, due to inexperienced keepers, overfeeding, poor water quality, accidents, stress, disease, and so on.