Sinking Betta Fish

Question
Hi,

For about 4 days now my betta fish has been acting very lethargic, has difficulty swimming, hangs about on the bottom of his bowl or in the plants, and can't seem to stay afloat for very long.  He sinks to the bottom shortly after struggling to the top to eat. His swimming motions are unusual and, when he's trying to swim or is sinking, he can't seem to stay horizontal for very long.  I think perhaps he's dying yet, he's still very interested in food.

Any advise on what could be wrong with him and what might help?

Thank you.

Answer
Dear XL (or XL75 ;-)
Sounds like your betta has a swim bladder disorder. The swim bladder is a special organ running along the fishes spine in betweeen his belly and tail. This is what helps fish maintain equilibrium and what level they want to be in the water columm.

When something interferes with this bladder, the poor fish loses total or sometimes just some equilibrium and the symptoms can be varied from uncontrolled floating at the surface and continiously sinking to the bottom as you are seeing, this type of swim bladder disorder is called "belly sliders"
*The most common cause of Swim bladder disorder is often directly related to food. Sometimes overfeeding or not providing enough variety may cause a blockage in their digestive system that affects the swim bladder from functioning properly. This problem is not contagious, nor is it a actual disease in itself, but mainly just a symptom of a enviromental or diet problem...

The first treatment would be to fast the fish for 3 days solid. This will allow your betta's digestive system to purge and process, hopefully clearing his system and allowing the pressure to diminish on his swim bladder, therefor allowing the swelling to go down. Even if this is not due to constipation it will not hurt just to prevent any added pressure to his swim bladder. If at the end of the three days he is still not better, he may require an even longer time to allow the affected swim bladder to recover. Do not worry about your betta going days without food. As long as he was well-fed previously before he will do fine and won't starve. Now at the end of the fasting period, feeding a completely thawed, deshelled, and mashed up pea can have great affects on further cleaning out a bettas system especially those with constipation. Feeding a bite sized piece on a blunt toothpick works well, patience is everything when trying to get bettas to accept them. Dahnia, which is a live or frozen food, can also be fed to your betta once his fasting is over and will act as a laxative as well.

The most frequent cause of Swim bladder disorders in bettas and some other fish is feeding dry pellets. When a betta eats them eagerly, they can swell in his stomach and cause this kinds of problems. Remember some individual bettas are more prone to SBD than others, and older fish are even more suceptible.

Prevention means offering much variety rather than the same old thing everytime, offer frozen and freeze dried worms, brine shrimp, red worms, and other frozen foods as well as a good staple flake or pellet food. If you have found your betta to be more suceptible to swim bladder then presoaking his pellets until they are well absorbed with water will really help before feeding. A great cup to use for soaking his food is the cup that the betta use to live in back at the petshop. ;-)

Please do not give up on your betta, he will not croak from this ailment, he just needs proper treatment right away. A very important thing to remember anytime your betta seems ill or off-color is to immediately do a water change according to the amount he is used to normally. Remember to always insure the replacement water is equal in temperature to his bowl and that it is properly dechlorinated. Aged water works well also.

Well, I really hope this helps! Swim bladder disorder is usually easy to cure but it just depends of course. Rarely will it ever be related to a problem besides improper diet.

Only my very best wishes to you and your betta!!
Karen~
(for lots more info on bettas- please visit-
"www.bettatalk.com")