Betta Bellies,Fins and Breathing

Question
Dear Chris...

Thanks so much for offering your knowledge ...and for free, to boot! I, for one, GREATLY appreciate you and the educational information  service you have chosen to provide!

I have/had three Bettas and have a question about each. "Baby Blue" (he is my electric blue/teal) I have had a little over two and a half years and up until now, all has been fine. However recently I have noticed his belly (directly underneath his dorsal fin) is distended (bloated) and it appears like an intestinal problem. He does eat, however not always necessarily at the moment I put the food in. Maybe one or two pellets and the other(s) will float for a while til he is either more interested or it/they wind up on the bottom. He otherwise seems fine and is always happy to see me, still blowing bubbles and puffing up his face to say hello. He has lost a little of his 'zip' and he floats a little more (at kind of a 45* angle) and I thought at first that it was that he was just  getting old but now over the course of the last 2-3 weeks his belly is definately getting bigger. There seems to be 'junk' at the bottom of the bowl regularly so I assume he 'eliminates' but I don't know much about that. If I were to guess I would think it was some sort of blockage...so, short of a BettaLaxative (if there is such a thing), is there anything I can do for him? When I changed his water tonight, he really looked bloated. (By the way, I change (all) the water about every 7-10 days with either reverse osmosis or spring water...and suck out the 'droppings' with a turkey baster in between as needed).

Second, My boy "Ojos" (a pale iridescent pink/silver with exquisite teal fins) has developed a small (maybe a quarter (or less) the diameter of a pencil eraser) white spot on  his lower fin where it joins his body near his tail. It does not seem jagged or look 'rotted' and it doesn't seem to change in appearance. In fact it  looks more like the color in that spot simply vanished. Should I be concerned about this? He is otherwise a healthy and happy, always hungry, bubble-blowing boy.

Thirdly, my gorgeous purple "Flame" just simply died yesterday. He was my youngest (had had him about a year or so and he was just fine when I fed him yesterday morning...and when I came home in the early afternoon he was just dead. I wondered if he might have somehow gotten caught in the little roots of the ivy plant that lived in his bowl and simply drowned. There is no other apparent cause that I could find...unless he was ancient when I got him...and I don't think that is the case. Prior to his sudden demise he was his usual happy self with no evident change in any of his behavior or eating patterns. He had always lived in this environment so there was nothing new about it to him and I really don't see how he could have gotten caught on anything...and there was nothing else in the bowl and the roots were not terribly dense.

In fact, all three of 'my boys' have always lived with ivy rootlings in their containers without any problems...But I have now removed them from 'Blue" and Ojos" until I hear back from you. I am quite sad about Flame's death (I am such an animal lover) especially if it was due to some unwitting ignorance on my part...but if so I certainly want to make sure that such a mistake isn't repeated! If ivy isn't the proper component, what do you suggest?

By the way, I was under the impression that a Betta's life span was about two to three years, but I read where someone had had one for five?!? What is their actual life expectancy?

Thanks for your input and help regarding 'my boys' and I will be anxiously awaiting your reply.
Sincerely,
Pamela

Answer
Hi Pamela;

Thank you for your kind words. I am happy to help all I can.

So sorry you lost "Flame". That's hard when a fish dies of a mysterious cause that way. Especially when you take care of them so well. Bettas can drown, but if you have had no trouble with the plants before, I wouldn't think it is a problem. Just make sure they are thinned out enough that the fish can't get tangled in them. The cause of death could be so many things. Fish can die of heart attacks, strokes, aneurisms, and other common things just like humans do. They can strike at any age and are often genetic.

"Baby Blue" may indeed have a constipation problem. Bettas live to be 2 or 3 years old and in his old age he is more prone to this. Some have been known to live considerably longer, but it is rare. Try feeding cooked and cooled green peas. Pop one out of it's little round skin and try feeding a tiny chunk. If he won't eat the peas, you can soak his regular pellets in a little water with few tiny grains of epsom salt dissolved in it. Epsom salt is a laxative and works quite well. Just regular epsom from a drug store or grocery store is fine. That's what I keep on hand. If he doesn't get better after a couple of feedings of this, I'm afraid he may simply have a tumor or something. There isn't anything you can do for him if that is the case. That would be very sad, but he has indeed lived a long and very healthy life with you. You have taken good care of him.

"Ojos" probably just has a little mole or scraped himself on something. Watch it for infection or serious looking changes. Sounds like you know what to look for, so keep up the good work.

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

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