I have a 29 gallon tank with the following fish 1. Red tail sharks x2 for beauty 2. Zebras x5 to keep the tank moving 3. Neon's x4 beautiful and hang towards the bottom of the tank in a school 4. Glow lights x5 beautiful and hang towards the bottom of the tank in a school 5. Catfish x3 constant cleaners of gravel and such 6. Plecostomu x1 Algae eater 7. White cloud x1 Hangs at the top, fish store goofed and gave me one instead of neon 8. Beta fish x1 for beauty and keeps the tank interesting. When I first put the beta in the tank he went after one of the neon fish and I figured this wasn't going to work so I started filling up my 2.5 gallon fish bowl when Mr. shark appeared from behind a rock and chased the beta twice around the tank. That was it for the beta he now leaves everyone alone and spends his time looking at the mirror reflection of himself. Mr. shark still chases him every now and then but only chases and does not nip or bite as the beta's fins are flawless and beautiful. The tank is very well balanced and everyone gets along and the funny thing is the shark never bothers any of the other fish just the beta. I don't think fish are smart enough to protect or play king of the tank but that's just what the shark appears to have done.

I had more time to research this and found this: Index Forum Articles Product Reviews Pet Shop Reviews FAQs Aquariums Of The World Showcase Featured: - PetFish Forum - Join with 2000 plus members and talk about fish Trading Post Stock Shop Links Tank Calculators Ask A Question Site Map PetFish Index / Articles / Bettas Swim Bladder Disease By Rachel Hunt (Mushi) Swim Bladder Disorder Information and Symptoms Swim Bladder Disorder is an extremely common betta ailment, and it typically looks worse than it actually is. I know, you're probably sitting there watching your poor betta flop around, struggling valiantly to make it to the top for air, and basically looking nothing like his usual graceful self, and thinking to yourself, "This is it, I'm going to lose him." Let me make you feel a little better before I get into all the details - Swim bladder problems are not contagious, they don't seem to be painful, they are generally easy to treat, and they are usually not even close to fatal. Feel better? Good, let's get on to the fun stuff. Symptoms can include: Either floats uncontrollably to the top of the tank, or sinks to the bottom. Seems to struggle greatly while swimming, and often will swim at an unusual angle. May or may not have a "kinked" spine, often in the shape of an "S" when viewed from above. May lie around, barely moving except when a mad dash is made to the surface for air. May or may not have a swollen belly, often caused by constipation Swim Bladder Disorder Treatment Swim Bladder Disorder can be caused by several things, and it's best to try to figure out the cause of the problem because the cause will determine what treatment you will want to use. As always, I recommend isolating the ill betta for treatment if you have him/her in a community tank. While Swim Bladder Disorder isn't contagious, isolating the betta will make monitoring and treating the condition much easier on you (and will give the sick betta much needed "quiet time" to recover). If your betta is having a hard time getting to the surface for air, it is often a good idea to lower the water level to make things easier on him. Just remember if you do this that you have much less water volume than before and water changes must be increased to keep him in good health. Below is a list of things that can cause Swim Bladder Disorder, in order from most common to rarest. Constipation - Constipation is the number one cause of Swim Bladder Disorder in otherwise healthy bettas. If your betta is showing symptoms of Swim Bladder Disorder, I always suggest treating the betta as if he has constipation first, because they usually do (click on the underlined "constipation" for treatment information). Overfeeding - If your betta is displaying symptoms of Swim Bladder Disorder immediately after feedings, and the symptoms tend to go away after a few hours, you are probably overfeeding. It is helpful to remember that bettas only have stomachs approximately the size of one eye, so try to feed smaller meals several times a day instead of one giant meal once a day. That is the treatment for Swim Bladder Disorder caused by overfeeding in a nutshell, not too hard, eh? Injury - Sometimes bettas who have recently been through a traumatic experience (being dropped on the floor, being in a physical fight with another betta, etc) may display Swim Bladder Disorder symptoms. In these cases, many times there is permanent damage to the swim bladder. Unfortunately this means that there is no real cure for the disorder if it is caused by injury, but you can manage the illness. Often bettas permanent swim bladder problems can live normal, healthy lives if accomodations are made - such as keeping the water level lower than normal to allow for easier access to air, or providing large-leaved plants near the water surface to make a "lounging" spot where launching off for air is more doable for the betta. Swim bladder problems are not painful and are generally not fatal in the case of injury, so these guys have a wonderful prognosis in general. Birth Defects - This is one of those rare and yet common causes. If you are a betta breeder, it is extremely common to get some fry with congenital swim bladder problems. If you are someone that "collects" bettas from petstores, it would be extremely rare to find a betta whose swim bladder problems are caused by birth defects as usually wholesalers that supply the bettas will destroy fish with birth defects before they ever make it to the store. As in the case of injury, birth defects are really not curable but they can be managed so that the bettas can live normal, happy lives...if less graceful lives than non-damaged bettas. Bacterial Infections - While I have never personally seen a case of Swim Bladder Disorder caused by a bacterial infection, some fishkeepers that I respect very much have, and so I will list this as a possible cause of swim bladder problems if nothing else seems to fit. I have always heard that swim bladder problems caused by bacterial infections are incredibly difficult to treat, which makes me wonder if they are not caused by something else altogether...just my random musings. If you are convinced your betta's swim bladder problems are caused by bacterial infection (or are sure that none of the other things i've listed above could be causing it), you may want to start treatment with a good broad-spectrum antibiotic such as Kanacyn (Kanamycin sulfate), Spectrogram (Kanamycin sulfate and Nitrofurazone), Tetracycline, or Furan 2 (Nitrofurazone). Again, I have not ever witnessed a bacterial swim bladder infection, so these medications may or may not work and I would exhaust all other possibilities before treating with these medications. Swim Bladder Disorder Prevention Almost anyone who keeps bettas will have to deal with a swim bladder problem or two in their betta-keeping career. It is one of the top three betta ailments along with finrot and constipation. That being said, there are a few things you can do to reduce your betta's chances of contracting Swim Bladder Disorder in the future. Swim Bladder Disorder is almost always caused by overfeeding or constipation. Remember that a betta's stomach is only about as big as his eye, and feed small meals several times a day instead of one large meal. Remember to feed bettas with nutritionally sound foods and don't go overboard on fatty foods such as bloodworms to avoid constipation. Water quality is extremely important to keeping healthy bettas, tank maintenance is key. Back to Betta disease main menu. Visit the Petfish.net Betta Boards or the rest of the Petfish.net Forum for more fishy advice and chat.

I've had my betta for almost 9 months. When I got him, he wouldn't eat, and the pet store told me he was probably anorexic because of missed feedings from his previous owner, so I got him betta treats and he loves them. He's always very happy, approaches the glass when he sees me, is relatively active, and recognizes the feed jar so swims toward me when he sees it. It's been about 4 days now since I've seen him eat anything, treat or pellet. He's swimming around a little less than usual too. He's not interested when I move the feed jars, and he doesn't approach the glass. I thought he may be bored or need a water change, so I changed his water and his plant about 4 hours ago. Now he's moving a little more but has been flaring almost the entire time since the water change, still is not interested in food whatsoever, and almost seems slightly distended right in front of his 2nd ventral fin, maybe a little dull in that area as well. He has been moved to and from my dorm room 3 times in the last month: thanksgiving break, back, and now back home, but the not eating began before the move today. Any ideas? Could he just be stressed? Should I be worried?

Hello...just coming across this post (read them all by the way) lol Always searching for info on my Betta Goliath. I'll start by saying I'm not sure where some get their improper info from....so I will go with the more consistent info which seems to be more correct in all the research that I have looked up myself. Would like to also add that just because someone works in or around selling these beauties don't always know what the heck they are talking about they are mainly there to sell & will tell you whatever (like they know) to make that sale. I use to be one of those people that worked at the Mall in the pet store. Ok on with how I came about getting my Goliath :) My daughter had bought me a 3 gal. tank kit for Christmas this past. Well from having many tanks in my younger years I began searching on the internet for which fish to choose for this small tank she bought me lol and which fish will do well together. The Betta's beauty caught my eye :) So decided that that is what I would go with...next step as to who can share this tank with him... Got all my info & went shopping. Not a happy camper on seeing how these beautiful fish are housed!! (not that I didn't see this online) but seeing in person is just awful. Of course I wanted to buy them all! But couldn't of course lol I shopped a few pet stores (leaving with a sad feeling that is) went to Meijer's and that is where I found Goliath...to my surprise they all looked healthy in nice clean plastic bowls made and labeled for the Betta's. I bought him and headed over to Jack's Aquarium which is the next best taken care of pet store. There I bought my dwarf frogs & 6 neon tetra's & a plant for Goliath to rest or sleep. I have a happy tank & Goliath is loving his new pad of room to move. He makes his bubble nests (in which is a good sign that he is happy). My neon tetra's didn't make it because they all got sucked up in my filter tube :( Sooo this opened the door for me to buy a algae eater...so I bought a Otocinclus catfish (very peaceful fish) & he won't out grow my tank ;) What a wonderful bubbly personality Goliath has. I now finger feed him :) I'm happy and my tank is very happy it all shows! Ps in left back corner of pic you can see the 2 dwarf frogs playing in the bubble stream lol but I turned that off because Goliath likes calm tank best ;)