Subject #2
A young Betta in my son's classroom was listing at the bottom of his aquarium. Maybe that's just how they sleep, but it didn't look right to me, when we were there for Open House. I told the teacher of my spinach juice, and surprisingly (nobody listens to me) she gave it a try, since she was already considering bottled water. She says the little fish approached the drops with interest, just as my fish had. I speculate that if spinach is high in iron as well as oxalate, they might be thinking it's the blood of their prey! At any rate, he was much livelier when I looked in on him again. It surprised me to see one swimming above the bottom, with a functional air bladder.
Poor Pancakes apparently won't recover that kind of mobility, but he does glide more easily, put on displays for me and stand on his fins more often. Luckily, the air ballast is under voluntary control, so what he did recover doesn't leave him in an awkward, head-up position all the time.
I give him the "jungle rain," spinach juice treatment at water changes and when it rains outside, and an occasional pumpkin juice soak of his floaty pellets.
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