Thursday, March 11, 2010

Betta Constipated - How often Epsom Salt Bath? How Much?

New owner to female Betta. As per instructions, I was giving the little girl 6 pellets a day. Found out previous owner was only giving 2!!! She hasn't gone ';number 2'; in about 6 days.


3 days ago gave small amount of Pea only. 2nd day fed nothing. 3rd day tried spinach (she spit it out). Put her in a small bowl and gave epsom salt bath (1/2 tsp to 1 gallon H20). Still nothing-very worried as this is my daughter's pet and I love the little critter! When i put her in the bowl she flipped around a bit. is this what is called stress? I've read about adding various amounts of epsom salts-some say as much as 1 tablespoon to 1 gallon. What is a good amount? Should I keep giving her baths daily or is this too stressful. She doesn't seem like a fragile fish: plays in filter stream and rarely hides. I hope someone will help-i've tried to give this girl a really good home. She lives in a 5 gallon tank w/ filter at 76 degrees. Is the bath inBetta Constipated - How often Epsom Salt Bath? How Much?
epsom salt won't help constipation, it's more for dropsy.





the best thing to do is to stop feeding for 3 days. not peas, nothing. this will give her insides time to clean out a bit. then, after 3 days feed her another pea. then, feed her nothing the next day as well. after this return to normal feeding.Betta Constipated - How often Epsom Salt Bath? How Much?
Get a book on the care of fish from the local library.
How do you know she is constipated? She's a fish.
Epsom salt baths are very stressful and will weaken her immune system, she will end up with another disease. Epsom salts dont do much to help with constipation.





first of all, how are you so sure she is constipated?


maybe you just done see her poop, because the tank is pretty big. And the gravel would hide it pretty good.





If she looks big, it could be that she is full of eggs. If she is not even bloated, i dont think there is even a chance that she is constipated. The only way to know for sure is to put her in a bare-bottom container.





And what fish stress is is that the fish is scared, (feel stressed out, just like humans) or if their slime coat, which is what protects against some diseases is damaged due to handling, injury, or that she is not producing enough slime coat because she is just scared. Fish stress has more to do with slime coat.





If you are sure that she is definately constipated, just stop feeding her. dont feed her for 4 days.





constipation isnt really deadly, if it gets serious,it causes swim bladder disorder. usually swim bladder disorder is because people keep feeding them when they are constipated.

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