Adopted Betta with bloated belly

My betta looked the same after GF's mom took care of it for the summer. The problem is severe overfeeding/constipation. The betta pellets contain ash and are harder to digest, and they also expand in water. What you need to do is starve him for ~3 days, then feed him a cooked pea, which is a laxative. The tummy should shrink dramatically. Maybe also vary his diet a bit with live/once live foods.
 
Thanks for all the replies :)

I bought some peas and he ate a little of that (I fed him the peas before reading that I should starve him for a few days first :duh:). I do not think that he is pooping very much so hopefully they will get things moving. He was eating those hard pellets before, and the girl I got him from said he was eating ALOT of them, so that may be the problem. I feed all my betta fish frozen blood worms and freeze dried blood worms so hopefully this won't happen again. She really must have been over feeding him to get to this point, I have never seen this in any of my betta fish before. Also, the water was really, really dirty so that could not have been helping things.

Thanks again!
 
I just finished reading through the suggested thread. I find it interesting that all of these fish are of the same colouring. Another interesting thing is that one of the individuals mentions that they bought their fish at Walmart, and that is where bob6 was bought (I name all my betta fish bob,lol). I wonder how many more of these cases there are out there that get flushed and never questioned. Sadly, all the other fish in that thread seemed to have died. I really hope that bob6 does not meet this fate :*(
 
I hope he makes it too! Please keep us posted on his condition. Did the previous owner mention how long he was like that? Or how old he was?

Too bad they haven't identified this issue yet. :(
 
The old owner had him for about a year. She said that he has been like this for about 2 months, but that it has been getting larger and larger. She said that he was pig and has been eatting more and more, so I am hoping that this is a case of over feeding. I will let you all know if his condition improves :)
 
Your fish should be fine if it is just overfeeding. My betta's swelling has gone all the way down, but he's still fat and lazy haha
 
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