My poor betta!

[Leopardess]

Ok,

So, the past couple of days, my sexy betta boy looked a little more tired than usual. Thought he was maybe just getting a little old.

Last night, his tummy looked a little swollen...which worried me. I took him out of his tank and put him in a 3g I have. Today, his scales kind of look pine-conish!

Now, I thought fish only got dropsy from poor conditions or bad diet or stuff like that....He's fed a well balanced diet and his tank is so clean. Plus, there are 6 pygmy cories in his tank that are all fine...and if the tank were dirty they'd be the first to get sick from it.

I'm so sad This guy is my favorite fish of all of them

It doesn't look good at all for him. He can still swim alright for now. Though he's pretty lethargic.

Can fish get dropsy for no reason at all? I mean, his tank is planted, had less than 5-10ppm of nitrates at any given time, temp of 78, its a 10g, and everything else in the tank is fine (adf's and pygmy cories).

sigh....

 

[FroggyFox]

Oh that sucks Poor sexy betta boy...

I can't say I've ever heard of a fish getting dropsy for no apparant reason, but I'm sure it could happen. Maybe he IS just getting old and not feeling well is causing him to look like he's got dropsy? Is he eating ok?

How about food...is it possible that some food he ate made him sick?

 

[Leopardess]

Hm, I posted on another forum too, and someone said they'd had anabantoids develop dropsy for no reason...

No, I think its definitely dropsy now. Exhibits all of the symptoms...one of which is they stop eating...so no, he isn't eating. Plus, he hadn't eaten anything different than his usual.

 

[revfred]

Yes, I agree with the article. Have had bettas for years and some of them just "develop" dropsy for no apparent reason. My local SE Asian breeder, told me that the inbreeding for color and specific fin characteristics, in his opinion, have affected the immune system. I wish I could be more helpful, but in my experience, the likelihood of him surviving is quite small.

 

[Violet]

Have you treated him with anything?

 

[bobrob]

I had two zebra danios die recently of dropsy. They are like the hardiest fish in the tank and my cardinals didn't even get siuck. I'd say it can happen in any kind of condition. It seems to attack betta's quite often and large bellied fish in general. I thought my danio's were pretty safe but theyre weren't. This sounds a little harsh but hopefully he will starve to death before it gets worse. Or maybe you should just euthanize him (I never had the heart to ).

 

[Leopardess]

I haven't treated him and his prognosis isn't good If you look in the Obituary section, you'll find his obituary from...oh I dont know...a couple months ago