# Female Betta Bloated: Constipated? Egg Bound? or Dropsy?



## JCD3 (Jun 3, 2020)

*Housing:*
How many gallons is your tank? 10 gallons
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What temperature is your tank? 78
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Does your Betta have tank mates? What kind? Yes. Divided tank with 2 other female Bettas

*Food:*
What food brand do you use? Omega One Betta Buffet Pellets & Betta treat Bloodworms
Do you feed flakes or pellets? Pellets & Bloodworms (Omega One)
Freeze-dried? Bloodworms are freeze dried
How often do you feed your Betta? How much? Several pellets once a day and one bloodworm about once a week

*Maintenance:
Before* your Betta became ill how often did you perform a water change? Once a week
What percentage of water did you change? 25-30 %
What is the source of your water? Tap water
Do you vacuum the substrate or just dip out water? No, Haven't vacuumed the substrate (gravel)
What additives do you use? What brand of conditioner? Aqueon Water Conditioner, Fluval Cycle Bio Booster, Aquarium Salt

*Water Parameters:*
What are your water parameters? Please give exact numbers. If tested by pet store please get exact numbers. "Fine" or "Safe" won't help us help you. Important: Test your water _before_ the regular water change; not after one.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.5
Nitrate: between 0-20
pH: 6.5
Hardness (GH): 0
Alkalinity (KH): 80

*Symptoms and Treatment:*
When did you first notice the symptoms? Yesterday (June 3rd)
How has your Betta’s appearance changed? She looks bloated
How has your Betta’s behavior changed? Not much, she's acting about the same
Is your Betta still eating? She ate yesterday, but decided to fast her today
Have you started treating your Betta? If so, how? No I haven't done anything, except fast her today
Does your Betta have any history of being ill? No, not that I know of
How long have you owned your Betta? two weeks
Was he or she ill or suffering some sort of damage when purchased? Purchased from Petsmart and she looked fine on the day she came home and up until yesterday.

So I purchased my female crowntail Betta, Delilah, about two weeks ago from Petsmart. She was doing well and had the 10 gallon tank to herself, but my goal was to have a sorority tank, so a week later purchased two more female bettas. These new bettas were halfmoons since that's what they had at the time at Petsmart. I added those to the tank, but it looked like two of them were fighting throughout the day (Delilah and one of her new tank mates, Ronni) so I had to add tank dividers immediately. They have been separated in the tank for almost a week and I have caught Delilah and Ronni flaring at each other here and there. The third betta, Angel, doesn't flare at all. Yesterday I noticed Delilah had a bloated belly area and I got worried. The water has been looking cloudier since adding the new fish and doing a partial water change on Monday night. I didn't vacuum, but I plan to do that next time I change the water. I just don't want to stress the fish too much right now. I don't know if Delilah is stressed because of her new tankmates and smaller living space or maybe the cloudier water is affecting her or if she's just bloated or egg bound or even worse, has Dropsy. Thank you for reading this far and I would appreciate any advice you can provide.


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## JCD3 (Jun 3, 2020)

I forgot to add that unfortunately I don't know the exact numbers of the water parameters. I only have an API test kit that doesn't provide exact numbers


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Delilah doesn't have Dropsy. If she's full of eggs she should either expel or absorb. Fasting for a day or so won't hurt her. If she's constipated, frozen Daphnia helps.

Do a couple of water changes until the Nitrites are 0 ppm. Here's this Forum's cycling tutorial which explains why:









CYCLING: the two-sentence tutorial


Change half the water when either ammonia or nitrite approach 0.50ppm (alternately, 25% at 0.25ppm), or weekly, whichever comes first. Add Seachem Prime at 2-drops per gallon of tank size every day until cycled. That’s all you have to do. You can stop reading now. But there’s a lot of...




www.bettafish.com


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## JCD3 (Jun 3, 2020)

Thank you so much! I will follow your advice. As a new fish owner I appreciate the help.



RussellTheShihTzu said:


> Delilah doesn't have Dropsy. If she's full of eggs she should either expel or absorb. Fasting for a day or so won't hurt her. If she's constipated, frozen Daphnia helps.
> 
> Do a couple of water changes until the Nitrites are 0 ppm. Here's this Forum's cycling tutorial which explains why:
> 
> ...


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