Sick Beta Named Blu

Question
7/25/2007

Ron,
I have had my fish, Blu for a little over two years.  He lives in my office at work in a flower vase that holds about 2 liters of water and the thermometer usually ranges between 74 and 76. No filters..fresh water changes weekly.  When I change the water it's a complete water change.  Blu is very energetic.  When I enter my office in the morning he swims to the side of the bowl when he see's me.  When I feed him he gets excited.  I feed him one pellet at a time and when he's finished with the pellet he looks down at the bag of food as if he's asking for another.  When I got into my office two days ago (Monday, 7/23/07) I noticed that he was not energetic and was floating upright with his face towards the top of the bowl.  He's been laying on the bottom alot and almost appears to be leaning to one side.  It was time to clean his bowl and I did so.  After I cleaned his bowl and put him back into the water I noticed that he was bleeding on one side just forward from his tail.  A friend of mine told me that he might be constipated and to feed him pea's.  I've tried this but he doesn't seem to eat.  I've fed him a few dried worms on Monday (7/23/07) but I don't think he's eaten anything since then.  When I got into my office this morning it looked like a little bit of poop was hanging off of him.
I'm very attached to my little fish...everyone at the office loves him and come in to talk to him.  Can you help me save Blu?

Thank You.


Answer
Hi Connie,
  If you hadn't mentioned the bleeding part I would have said that he was just getting old (two years is a long time for a betta).  The bleeding is unusual though.  Where was the blood coming from?

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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