I recently bought a female betta at Petsmart (Thursday) and there is something seriously wrong with her. For starters, she barely uses her tail- her front fins work just fine but she drags her lower tail with her. She can flutter it barely-but she is acting like a parapalegic. I looked up betta diseases and I considered swim bladder disease. But she doesn't have any swelling-if anything its the opposite. She is ridiculously skinny. Her fins are really sparse, but I cannot find any indications that she has fin rot. She's just not eating and is barely swimming. All she does is lie on the bottom of the tank-her tail notably lower- and use her gills. Can I force feed her? Should I try the pea treatment for swim bladder even if she has no swelling or difficulty swimming down? I'm worried because she's so skinny but I cannot entice her to eat at all-I even took tweezers and held the food right in front of her (I tried flakes, Betta bites, and bloodworms). Is there anything I can do?
I feel silly asking this-but can anyone help me save my betta?
- Thread starter horseygirlrock
- Start date
Bowl for now because wanted her to be able to reach the surface easily to breathe. No, filtration or heater. She is alone and I use room temp distilled water. She just barely moves and when she does her lower body drags. I'm just really concerned about how skinny she is and how she is not at all interested in food
I think Death Pony's point is that she may be able to use her tail and just doesn't need to so you don't see her use it. If she is barely moving it may be a temperature issue. Bettas come from tropical southeast asia and are comfortable in a temperature around 80 degrees, usually significantly above room temperature. A lot of people have this issue when the room temperature gets a little low in the winter and whatnot and their bettas get really sluggish. I would add a heat source of some kind
Also seeing how the tank has no filter the tank isnt cycled or bowl in this case. So you need to be testing your water and doing frequent water changes to keep things in check.