Fat female betta

Question
I recently purchased a female betta splenden from PetSmart, and I've read up everything a million times on how to care for them. I keep her in a 1/2 gallon tank with a ventilated lid with a Hornswort plant and some pretty stones. I clean her tank once every week, keeping 20% of the old water, and I feed her 5  pellets a day. I used to feed her 4 bloodworms a day, but I realized that that diet had far too much protein for a fish her size. I noticed she started to get a little swollen in the gill area, not too much, but her belly's definitely not as small as it was before. I thought she was constipated, so I gave her pellets soaked in tank water and castor oil. She's since passed waste, but the swelling hasn't gone down. It hasn't gone up either, though. Can you tell me whats wrong with her?

Answer
Hi Ashley,
 Hmmm... the odds that it is a female are very small.  Almost all the bettas at Petsmart are males. If it has lots of color and long fins, it is a male.  Females are much less colorful, have short fins and few people buy them.  I've never seen them at Petsmart.  

 5 pellets a day is a lot for a betta.  I would cut down on that.  Bettas do swell a little in the head area as they get older so there might not be anything wrong with him at all.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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