swimbladder with my betta

Question
i just bought one from a pet store because he was on his side in the little cup i thought he was actually dead til i picked it up, and have had many bettas in the past including sick ones so i decided to nurse him back to health or try to, she seems to have some swimbladder, as it looks like she has problems swimming, and is on her side at times, i didnt feed her the other day, but am also not sure about fasting her and then feeding her a frozen pea or something as i dont know what the cause of her swimbladder is,i know it could be dirty enviroment, bacterial,ect.. any advice would be greatly apprciated!
thanks
olivia


Answer
Hi Olivia,
That's so great of you to rescue that little girl. ;-)
I've rescued bettas many times in the past...

I've seen swim bladder a lot with those bettas that are in the cups at the petstore. It could be the diet that the petstore is feeding them (likely a lot of freeze dried bloodworms/pellets which is too much dry food) and she may be constipated. Do you noticed a swollen belly? Or trouble passing poo? If so you can try little bite sized bits of a green pea (fed on the end of a blunt toothpick works well) but I've also hard that feeding a good-sized meal of frozen shrimp can help get their digestive systems going better. Daphnia, Brine shrimp, or maybe even finely chopped mysis shrimp could help.


*Adding some epsom salt is a great way to relieve constipation in bettas. Usual dosage for small 1 gallon containers is 1/8 teaspoon divided into 5 equal parts. Add one part per gallon. More is not necessarily better. *

Its also possible that some bettas may have been handled roughly either in the petstore by oblivious people looking at them or by the shipping process itself. Some bettas are affected with a bruised swim bladder by rough handling. It may take some time to heal unless it has ruptured which it cannot heal then. :(

Unfortunately some bettas are born with a deformed swim bladder and may never really swim correctly and may have re-occurring problems with floating.

Now your betta may simply have a diet-related swim bladder problem but I just thought I'd list some of other possible causes for this condition.

I would probably watch her closely to determine if she needs a special diet change, ect... Some fish take weeks or months to get over this condition. But don't give up on her. This article might help also-
http://flippersandfins.net/SwimbladderDisease.htm

Best of luck!!
Karen~