Bloated Betta??

Question
Hello!! I'm not sure if you can help me or not but the other experts on bettas are on vacation...

I just bought a male betta about two weeks ago.  I've been feeding him floating pellets (Betta Bio-Gold) and at first he had a hard time eating them.  He kept spitting them out and wouldn't eat more than one pellet a day.  Now he is eating better but now he just floats at the top and doesn't move much.  He tilts slightly to the his side and looks almost dead at times.  He struggles to swim to the bottom and when he does make it down, he tries to wedge himself in between the marbles to stay down...then eventually just floats right back up to the top =(

He keeps eating his own bubble nest...could that make him bloated?!  What can I do to help him??

Thanks so much!!

Answer
Hi Sora;

It sounds like constipation and it's affecting his swim bladder. Here are links to articles about it;

http://www.petfish.net/kb/entry/12/332/
http://groups.msn.com/TheBettaObsession/constipation.msnw
http://www.healthybetta.com/articles/Illness%20Diagonsis/constipation.html

I hope he feels better soon. Look around on the other pages of the sites as well. There's other good information about bettas too.

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins