Hi guys, our Betta in my wife's place seems to have swim bladder disorder/disease. Me and my wife live in nearby cities and usually I am the one that changes the water in tank when I go visit her on the weekends. I skipped two weeks back to back and the water in the tank had gone unchanged for two weeks. so I asked my wife to attempt a partial water change and so she did. Apparently he was perfectly fine until before the water change and something went wrong following that as our betta started acting weird soon after. two days later we realize that he is having swim bladder disorder by the way he floats sideways and struggles to keep himself upright.
I want to be careful before I do anything. do you guys think it will do the fish good to do a full water change as a partial water change was performed just a couple of days ago, or just leave him be for three more days before I attempt the same? the reason I did not want to do a water change immediately is because some sites recommend against frequent water changes which will put fishes in lot of stress as they need to build up friendly bacteria and such.
any other ideas will be very helpful. I am also planning to let our guy fast by not feeding for a couple of days.
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
First generic tips:
1) Try microwaving a frozen pea with a slice of fresh garlic, shell it, and mush it and feed it to him. The garlic will absorb through the pea and act as an appetite stimulant and immune booster, but don't directly feed him the garlic.
2) Try raising the temperature on his heater to about 80-82 degrees if it's not already there.
3) No full water changes. The filter should do a good enough job to not require full water changes, only partial weekly water changes is necessary. Bad water quality can attribute to swim bladder disease, so a filter is a must for most fish, including the Bettas.
4) Fast him for a day, and then try the pea. The day you feed him a pea, feed him twice, but only the soaked pea. If he doesn't clear up within 3-4 days from now, you might want to consider medication. But only as a last resort. Good luck. ;)
EDIT: I forgot to add, try also taking a cup of tank water out, dissolving 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt in it for every ten gallons, and putting the cup slowly back in his tank. So, if he's in a 5 gallon, half a teaspoon. Any less than five gallons and that might have attributed to his illness.
Best of luck and hopefully, he gets better. ;)