Bettas by Jennifer Lapello
Swim Bladder Disorder (SBD)
A juvenile Betta with SBD, struggling to swim upwards with the tail dragging downwards. Photograph by Jennifer Lapello.
Symptoms: Fish may lay at bottom of container/tank, only coming up for air. Swims with tail down, and appears to be "wagging"
its tail when it swims. The severity of SBD varies from fish to fish.
Cause: Usually in Bettas, SBD develops at a
very young age, when the Swim Bladder organ is forming. In these cases, it is caused by overfeeding the fry. However,
SBD can also be caused by injury, and adult Bettas occasionally develop SBD symptoms.
Treatment: Observe fry daily.
If they are obviously overeating or if you start to see any tail-draggers, be very careful about the amount of food you are giving
them. Young Bettas oftentimes do outgrow SBD if it is caught early enough. Bettas are notorious for loving BBS (baby brine
shrimp) and packing as many of them as they possibly can in at a feeding, which can lead to problems. If your fry are large
enough, you can discontinue the BBS and start offering other live foods, such as Daphnia or Grindal Worms. Any food in large
quantities can cause SBD, however fry seem to prefer BBS to anything else, and therefore are a lot more likely to gorge on that.
If
your Betta does not simply outgrow SBD with time, or if it developed as a result of an injury, just observe it to assess its quality
of life. SBD itself is not deadly, and it is not contagious. However, in severe cases, the fish may have extreme difficulty
just trying to eat or surface for air. If the Betta is able to have a somewhat normal life, it can be kept in a large, shallow
container to ease the burden of the swimming difficulty. However, in a very severe case where the fish is struggling for each
breath, euthanasia should be considered.
Prevention: Try not to overfeed fry while they are developing. This does
take some practice and experience, so don't be discouraged if you see it in some of your spawns!