# Belly of my male betta fish is turning white. Pics posted.



## mwh72 (Dec 26, 2014)

Hello everyone. I've had a blue male betta fish for about 9 months now.

All he has been doing the past week or so is laying on the bottom and only coming up for air and food. 

His stomach area looks bloated to me and is turning white.

He is in a 2 gallon tank and I do a 50% water change every week.

He is a very large fish and he may be pretty old.

I hope somebody can help me.

I can take more pics if need be.


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## iSheree (Oct 23, 2014)

From what I can see, he is looking a bit bloated/overfed or maybe he is just getting old. Please answer these questions from the sticky. 

Housing 
What size is your tank?
What temperature is your tank?
Does your tank have a filter?
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?
Is your tank heated?
What tank mates does your betta fish live with?

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish?
How often do you feed your betta fish?

Maintenance 
How often do you perform a water change?
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change?

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity: 

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed?
How has your betta fish's behavior changed?
When did you start noticing the symptoms?
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how?
Does your fish have any history of being ill?
How old is your fish (approximately)?


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## mwh72 (Dec 26, 2014)

iSheree said:


> From what I can see, he is looking a bit bloated/overfed or maybe he is just getting old. Please answer these questions from the sticky.
> 
> Housing
> What size is your tank? 2 gallons with lots of plants
> ...


I read somewhere that he may have indigestion and to fast him for 2 days then give him a pea.

Does that sound right?


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## MikeG14 (May 31, 2014)

mwh72 said:


> I read somewhere that he may have indigestion and to fast him for 2 days then give him a pea.
> 
> Does that sound right?


I don't recommend feeding a betta peas to cure bloating/constipation. If done improperly it could do irreversible harm to it's digestive tract. I feel a fast followed by frozen daphnia would be a better solution.

When is the last time you've see him poop and what color is it?


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## iSheree (Oct 23, 2014)

With that size tank and no filter, you should be doing water changes twice weekly. 50% is a good amount. Make sure the temperature of the water you put in is the same as the tank. 

Flakes and freeze dried foods are not good for bettas. They can cause constipation or bloating. You should be feeding him a high quality pellet diet daily, fasting once a week. You can also add frozen bloodworms/brine shrimp/mysis shrimp to his diet but only in moderation (like only once or twice a week). Good quality pellets are New Life Spectrum Betta Formula (NLS), Omega One Betta Buffet Pellets, and Ocean Nutrition Atison's Betta Food/PRO. Feed him once or twice a day. And only a small amount.

Never feed your betta peas! MikeG14 is right about that. I recommend fasting and feeding daphnia too.

You say you don't use any additives while doing a water change? What about water conditioner/declorinator?


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## MikeG14 (May 31, 2014)

+1 iSheree
I didn't even notice that mwh filled out the sticky


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## mwh72 (Dec 26, 2014)

I live in Mexico so my resources are very limited. I can't just go to the local pet store and order up all the advanced food etc. I will go there again today and see what they have.

Here is a pic of what i put in the water(1 drop per 2 gallons) and the food I have been giving the fish.










These are my 3 tanks where I have 2 males and 1 female. All separate of course.










Here are 2 pics I just took of the fish in question.

One pic is where he likes to spend his time and the other is of him coming to see me because he thought he would get fed.


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## mwh72 (Dec 26, 2014)

Somebody asked about his poop, it looks like a brown piece of string maybe 1/4 inch in length.


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## MikeG14 (May 31, 2014)

mwh72 said:


> Somebody asked about his poop, it looks like a brown piece of string maybe 1/4 inch in length.


That'll be me.

Sounds normal. Keep an eye on it. If it was white and stringy, I'd say that he might have an internal parasite.

It looks like you are have to work with what you have on hand. I recommend a 2 day fast and once a week after that. Be sure to soak the freeze dried shrimp in tank water before you feed. Try to upgrade to a high quality pellet if possible, it would be a better diet for all your fish.


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## iSheree (Oct 23, 2014)

Any water conditioner/declorinator is fine, so what you have will do. I will, however, recommend Seachem Prime if you can get it as it binds ammonia and makes it less toxic. And if you can get any pellets, especially if the first ingredient is something like fish meal, it will be much better than what you feed them.


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## logisticsguy (Sep 7, 2012)

My thought is your boy may have a Aeromonas hydrophila bacterial infection. This is common with older fish as the immune system declines due to age and/or water conditions. Giants are notorious for getting this infection due to genetically weaker immune response. You may want to use an antibiotic at this point. However if you do use a antibiotic make sure to do a full treatment then follow up with probiotics as antibiotics can wipe out the good gut bacteria leaving the fish prone with an even weaker immune system.

To prevent this infection I use probiotics to supplement the diet. Lactobacteria Rhamnosis GG will poison the bad bacteria with lactic acid and outcompete the bacteria for food. Also, Lactobacillus plantarum VSG3 has proven to be effective as well as b.Infantis. 

Adding them to the fish diet is easy, simply break open the cap and sprinkle on bloodworms or spirulina brine shrimp 2x per week. Culturelle contains LB Rhamnosis GG, Align contains b infantis. Culturelle has had the best results for my fish.

http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/1565/effect-of-lactobacillus-rhamnosus-use-on-zebrafish

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1050464810000677

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1050464812004755


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