Obese fish help

[TangoKitty]

I have a female betta that has become obese. She doesn't swim anymore, she lays on the bottom of the tank, leaning against something, and she only goes to the surface to get air. She won't even eat from the surface anymore, she will wait for the food to sink and she lays on her side and sucks it up.

I've checked online, I can't find anything that really discusses how to help an obese fish, other than reducing high protein foods, and feeding smaller amounts, and less often. So I bought some Fluval Bug Bites Betta Formula because the grains are very small, and I feed her 5 or 6 of those every other day. My thought was that it needs to be enough that her organs don't shut down and she's not starving to death, but not enough to maintain the weight. There's no real guide out there for that sort of thing, so I'm just going on instinct here.

The next thing I'm thinking of trying is adding some salt to the water to provide more buoyancy, but I don't even know if that will make any difference, or would actually be detrimental to her swim bladder. I could use some advice on that.

[BettaHomesAndGardens]

So from what I've found you need to decrease feeding drastically. Several days of fasting followed by a food portion the size of your Betta's eye. If you're Betta is already severely overweight a swim bladder issue is likely already present. Could be do to constipation as well from the overeating. Aquarium salt can actually be used to treat swim bladder issues and constipation. I would try combining a drastically reduced diet for a week (fasting for 2 days then an a eye sized portion daily for a week) coupled with using the recommended dosage of aquarium salt. Do be advised, and you may already be aware, the salt will kill your plants if you have a planted aquarium and is also detrimental to shrimp and snails so a small hospital tank would be best if these are factors. I've had really good luck with aquarium salt in the past with my Bettas just be patient and use the recommended dosage. If all goes well within about a week or so you should see improvement and then ween the diet back up just don't get back to an excessive portion size. I hope this helps and your buddy starts feeling better

[PineSong]

It may be that an underlying health problem is making her look bloated and have trouble swimming, rather than it being obesity from overeating, but it's hard to know from here. I would feed no more than 2 bug bites per day and try a dose of aquarium salt. 

Is your betta's water heated? Cool water can decrease their activity. I've never known a betta to lie around on the bottom due to laziness so I would suspect something else is making her feel poorly, but you could test her out by showing her a mirror and seeing if she gets fired up. That is good exercise for bettas who are healthy enough to react.