Constipation and Cod Liver Oil

[Thistle]

After a spawning attempt 3 weeks ago the male stopped eating, no matter what I tried to give him (even his favourite bloodworms!) so I bought some Focus (a garlic extract) to help perk up his appetite. It seemed to have worked but then he appeared to be suffering from some sort of swim bladder problem. *sigh*

I started him on a treatment of Maracyn 2 just in case and I fasted him for a few days and gave him green pea but it didn't make any difference so I fasted him for a few more days and repeated the green pea feed.

He's now off the Maracyn 2 treatment and I started feeding him 1 pellet twice a day and he's producing very small "poops" (he's in a gravel-less hospital tank so I can moniter him better) so I'm wondering if he's still got some sort of blockage as he spends most of his time on his side. He doesn't appear to have any external problems (fungus, open wounds etc) so I'm at my wits end.

When I did a google search for swim bladder problems one of the sites I was on talked about how frequent swim bladder problems are in goldfish and that one of the treatments was to either force feed some cod liver oil into the fishes mouth using an eyedropper or a needle-less syringe or to soak their food in the cod liver oil first.

I picked up some cod liver oil yesterday and since there's no way I'd be able to force feed anything into a fishes mouth I soaked his food last night and today in the cod liver oil before giving it to him (he's still only getting 1 pellet twice a day).

Tonight I noticed that he's been "upright" a bit more. I figured I'll give him another day or two of the cod liver oil treatment in the hopes that it helps him.

I can't see any harm in giving him the cod liver oil seeing as how it was mentioned as treatment for goldfish, is a natural product and I know how well it works for humans. *grin*

Has any one else tried or heard of using cod liver oil for constipation in fish?

Feedback would be appreciated.

[sawcat]

For constipation (goes hand in hand with swim bladder), it's best to fast for several days, then attempting the pea or daphina (I don't know if fd has the same effect as live, but it's recommended for constipated fish). You might look into that, especially if that current method isn't working or advised.

I've never even heard of cod liver oil being used for humans with constipation.

[jayde]

I'm new to this site and I've found that I'm criminally ignorant about bettas. I moved up from the "Deep South" last year. I gave Mr. Boo to my Mom and he's still doing swimmingly well for two years young. I got Mr. Paddy last year sometime after I moved here. Anyway, I never realized that there was more to have a fish than just to make sure they have clean water and and food (Please forgive the ignorance). I got him from a well known dept. store (we won't mention which one). The truth of the matter he's been kept in one of those little fish bowls like I said for a year now. Okay. Spring has sprung and my window is open more times than not. My apt. gets cool. Mr. Paddy is sick and I'm not sure with what.
I saw you message and I thought the symtems that you mentioned is alot like the ones that my fish is suffering from. His color has fadded from a beautiful irridecent blue/green (color changes depending on the light) to almost a gray color. He's gone off his feed totally and lays on one side. When he does swim, he looks like he's lost his rudder. He ends up straight up and down and drifts to the bottom again. And if that's not all, he's got somekind of white stringy thing haning from him.
Do you think your remedy would help or maybe you know of someone else that could help. I'd really hate to lose him because of my ignorance and neglect.

[Thistle]

Keep his water extra clean, warm it up for him (you can get some really nice heaters for around 25$) fast him for a day or two then give him some green pea (minus the skin)

That should hopefully help him out.

Unfortunately for my lil Blue Devil he's still "listing to port" but since he's still eating/pooping and shows no other signs of illness or distress I don't have the heart to euthanize him.

[jayde]

Well, it seems that Mr. Paddy has gone to the great fish tank in the sky. I'm not going to bury him at sea though. He'll still live on through my ficus as furtilizer. It'll be quite quite some time before I get another betta. I'd like to get a small tank with all the accessaries as well as some meds and all thestuff for keeping a tank sparkling and bacteria free for a happy betta.

Thanx for the advice though.

[Thistle]

Sorry to hear you lost Mr. Paddy. *sniffle*

[beta3chg]

oy, poor mr. Paddy! i feel your pain. BTW thistle...are you sure you would want to think about euthanizing the blue devil so soon? It doesn't sound like he was sick for very long...sorry if i sound insulting or anything bad , but i had to put down my Jazz a month ago, and it was awful...i wouldn't want anyone to do it unless it was absolutely necessary . I'm glad to hear he's healing up though. it would be good to find another remedy to the omnipresent constipation. You're like a fish doctor pioneer, trying new treatments and bringing them to the fish loving world...

[Thistle]

BTW thistle...are you sure you would want to think about euthanizing the blue devil so soon?

o.O I think you misunderstood me. As long as my lil Blue Devil is eating/pooping and appears otherwise ok (other then being mostly on his side) I'll gladly deal with his "special needs" when it comes to feeding him.

I'm very compassionate when it comes to dealing with pets: I have a betta with just one eye that was given to me by a fish store supervisor because he knew how kind hearted I am when it comes to giving bettas alot of TLC. (ok, I'm a sucker for bettas hehe)