Betta floating sideways

[Chaos_Corrupter]

My friend just got into the aquarium hobby so I'm posting on here for her. She just got a new betta about a week ago. It's in a 3.5 gallon halfmoon tank with 1 kuhli loaches and a couple plants. Since she got her betta, it has been slowly going sideways whenever it's staying still. It swims fine and actively goes for food but as soon as it stops swimming, it slowly tips over and floats at the top. I think it's some sort of swim bladder issue but I'm not sure what the cause is. It was fine in the petco cup when she bought it. 

The tank should be cycled but just to keep water clean, she's been doing small 10% water changes everyday. She fasted the betta for 3 days and it sort of got better, more of a 45 degree than a full sideways, so she gave it one pellet and it went back to fully sideways. Other than the floating, the fish look healthy. Any help would be appreciated.

[Steph’s Fish and Plants]

I agree it definitely sounds like a swim bladder issue. I don’t know how to treat it tho 😞 perhaps paracleanse/general cure? I’ve used peas in goldfish before and it worked great, not sure if a betta would go for it tho.

[Bill Smith]

It sounds like a swim bladder issue, possibly caused by dropsy, since it sounds food related. If I remember correctly, dropsy can cause the organs to be pushed aside, including the swim bladder, which can cause behavior like this. Often, even after healing, the swim bladder problem can be permanent, but it sounds like it might not be too late to have a positive impact in this case.

I agree with Steph: you need a fibrous food to help get it moving through. If he won't eat peeled peas, I would use frozen brine shrimp or, even better, frozen spirulina brine shrimp. I would feed nothing but that, and sparingly; I would lay off the dry foods for a very long time.

As for medication, this is more likely a bacterial concern than a parasite one, so my suggestion would be Maracyn.

Good luck!

[Aquanut]

I had a betta who had the same kind of problem a while back. He would swim in a straight line for food but flip onto side when still, he also ended up floating on top & struggling to get down in the water. I gave him a course of esha 2000 changed his food from hikari pellets to a less dense food (or presoak the pellet) with patience the problem resolved but it took around a month & was hard to see him struggle i hope your lillte guy gets better soon x

[JessR]

That definitely sounds like swim bladder disease (SBD). I've had good success treating it with Maracyn or Maracyn II.

[Chaos_Corrupter]

Thanks for all the replies. We treated it with Maracyn for a week and have started feeding it spirulina brine shrimp. It still seems a bit floaty but it looks better. I'll see if brine shrimp will help it long term.