# PetSmart Rescue, Please Help!



## GrimlockDESTROY (Jul 17, 2011)

Ok I was in PetSmart today, looking around with my girlfriend and I happen to see this guy. Now to me it doesn't look like he has Fin Rot, I know about betta fish as I have raised them before, to me it looks like he has nipped his own fins almost off possibly from depression.

He was labeled as a Half Moon betta , but when I picked up his NASTY bowl he was in, i saw about 6 uneaten food pellets at the bottom and he was swimming around in his own waste, terrible!

In between his 2 front pelvic fins i see a small white bulge between them, this little guy is perky though and swims around a lot, My guess would be constipation but I am no expert although I do have a good deal of knowledge about them, this one puzzles me.

He will swim down no problem but stays mostly at the top so he can breathe, Judging by the amount of food in his nasty little container I do assume it is constipation. I hope you can see and tell from the pictures I have posted. This is NOT what a Half Moon Betta should look like and I will do everything I can to save this little guy.

Right now i have him in a hospital 1.5 gallon with a filter & heater, no gravel though, and I have added the correct amount of Aquarium Salt, But please if you have any suggestions as to what this small bulge may be i would appreciate it.


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## EverythingNice55 (Jul 26, 2011)

Ooohhh! Such a beautiful betta! Nice save! <3


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## masshiimarro (Apr 16, 2011)

he could be a bit bloated. seeing how they fed him so much, i can imagine.. what does his poop look like?


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## GrimlockDESTROY (Jul 17, 2011)

masshiimarro said:


> he could be a bit bloated. seeing how they fed him so much, i can imagine.. what does his poop look like?


That's the problem, i haven't seen him poop yet I bought him about 7 hours ago, which is why I believe it's constipation.


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## masshiimarro (Apr 16, 2011)

Well mine poop like once or twice a day XD i know this only cuz im QTing him so i see everything lol. Give him some time. Sometimes it takes a while for food to process thru. When u do see normal poop its like a mini cinnamon roll.


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## bettaboyshiva (Jul 14, 2011)

@GrimlockDESTROY, brave move, i suggest you add aquarium salt and some fungus guard..and yes look at the faeces..if it looks stringy its probably internal parasites...the faeces should be short and thick for a heathy betta...i believe stress coat will help with the rejuvenation of the finnage...although few bettas grow back their finnage back to their original shape.. thats just some quick tips for ya ..


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## GrimlockDESTROY (Jul 17, 2011)

OK the little guy just used the bathroom and yep his poop looks like a small cinnamon roll lol, I do believe it's constipation, so I may just fast him until monday and see what happens.


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## hodgepodgen (Feb 25, 2011)

To me it looks like a female.

The white spot sounds like the egg spot. The bloatedness sounds like eggs. And the ventral fins look way too short to be a male's.

But it does have fin rot so keep up the treatment.


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## GrimlockDESTROY (Jul 17, 2011)

hodgepodgen said:


> To me it looks like a female.
> 
> The white spot sounds like the egg spot. The bloatedness sounds like eggs. And the ventral fins look way too short to be a male's.
> 
> But it does have fin rot so keep up the treatment.



I honestly did believe this was/is a female also, judging by how short the ventral fins are, and it just has that face of a female ya know lol, leave it to petsmart to label things correctly :lol:

If it is a female though , then she will be happily accepted and i will treat her no different than my 2 boys, but yeah in between the 2 ventral fins is a small white bulge, sometimes i will look and for a second or 2 the fish will be on it's side, then when it sees me it will straighten back out again.

I have the hospital tank set up with aquarium salt and stress coat so I will see how it goes, his/her stress line is not as dark as it was when i came home and put him/her in though.

Male or Female though, nobody else would have bought this fish and it needed help, luckily I just happen to have a spare tank


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

awwh, poor girl


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## Pataflafla (Jun 2, 2011)

If she starting to flip over on to her side, I would stop the aquarium salt and switch to epsom. It's the same dosage for both of them, so that part isn't hard at all, it's just the water changes.

Epsom helps with constipation, bloating, and swelling. Aquarium helps with external and fins and can actually make swim bladder issues worse.

It doesn't look like s/he has fin rot going on, just fin nipping. Clean water and stress coat combined with epsom should take care of her fin issues and swim bladder issues at the same time.

S/he is very pretty by the way.


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## GrimlockDESTROY (Jul 17, 2011)

I am convinced this is a Female betta  , so , I did a water change today, took out the aquarium salt, added the correct dosage of epsom salt & stress coat to the mix. 

She does however look better now than she did at the pet store judging by her movements and curiosity, she is a fighter and i know she wants to live and i want her to live. I put a small piece of my water sprite in the tank with her for comfort, i hope she knows I'm trying my best to help her.

Thanks for all of the suggestions for this sick little girl, When i get some more decent pics of her i will post them here , hopefully I/We can get a better view of whats going on.


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## GrimlockDESTROY (Jul 17, 2011)

Well, my female who i have name Malon, has been in the epsom salt, but has not yet had a bowel movement that i can see, however she is not laying on her side anymore that I have noticed, so i hope this is a good sign.

She comes up to my finger when i go near the tank, but i can still see the small bulge and it bothers me, I know it has to be uncomfortable for her, she looks to be no more than 7-8 months old in my opinion, I just hope nothing drastic changes and she takes a turn for the worse.

She stays at the top moving her little fins and she will go down for a little bit but comes back up now, I know you are sick and I know, if I found out who fed you that much food i would probably go to jail, nobody loved you, they wanted to let you fade away to make room for a more pretty healthy betta, and I know you wasn't happy in that awful cloudy blue water PetSmart has, I am trying my best to help you recover, hang in there!

It's amazing how easy these betta fish tug at your feelings, people telling me AWWWW just flush it, or I would have flushed it already, I will NEVER do that! These are not just fish they are family and deserve better.


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## Pataflafla (Jun 2, 2011)

It may take another day or two for her to go. I'm sure her system is all messed up from Petsmart. Just keep dosing with the epsom salt for a week with 100% water changes. That should clear up any sbd and should also encourage her system to get back to normal.


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## GrimlockDESTROY (Jul 17, 2011)

Well, I tried my best to save her, woke up this morning and she was gone


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## betta lover1507 (Aug 6, 2011)

well at least you tried to save her to a pet store they will think it;s just another dead fish. am sorry for your lost. she had better time with you then the pet store would because they would've neglected her suffering. i felt the same way when my sorority died one by one each morning i woke up :'[.
you tried and that counts at least she knows someone cared for her.


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