Whats wrong with my Betta fish (Siamese Fighter)?

B

Bubbles

New member
He is usually a happy, sociable and an explorer type of a fish the past day and a half he has been quite lazy, just laying near one of his plants at the top of his tank, he has lost a little color near his pooper, he is quite white underneath, and a tiny bit fat, and his scales are quite raised! which he has never had anything wrong with him since i brought him 7 months back. the tank is cleaned on a regular basis, he is a tropical fish so he's in warmth and set at right temperature which i keep an eye on. i just can't figure out whats wrong, he usually follows your finger when you play with him and whenever you leave the room he swims over and watches but at the moment he only moves a couple inches to get air! please help.
as shown in the picture from the first person that replied, his scales aren't that bad, they are raised though, probably only half raised.

if that makes sense
 
Raised scales indicate a condition called abdominal dropsy. Some people just call it dropsy. It's not a disease, but a symptom.

There are many possible causes ranging from bacterial infection to organ failure.

Epsom salt and a strong antibiotic could help. Kanamycin would be what I would use, and it would be even better if you can get him to eat something that contains it.

Sadly, at this point, it's more than likely going to be fatal. The point at which the scales start to pine cone, it's often too late for treatments to be effective. Doesn't mean you can't try. I have saved fish after that point, but it's the exception, not the rule.
 
See if he'll take a few little pieces of cooked de shelled pea, then leave him be with immaculate water conditions for a few days, no food. It sounds as though he may have got constipated and the worry is that it could have developed into a serious bacterial infection. If he looks like he's pine-coneing like this:
http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/images/7/7b/Platywithdropsy-9022.jpg
Then there won't be much you can do - when they get to that stage, called dropsy, it's a sign their bodies can no longer regulate fluid within it, causing swelling, and the fish's internal organs will have begun to shut down. Fish with dropsy symptoms rarely survive.
 
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