I got a new betta this past week, and I've been waiting to put him into his new tank (he's got a gill cover sticking out, so I'm a little worried about any ornaments). He's currently in a small globe, similar to the size of the one he was in in the store. They keep theirs in bigger containers than most stores.
Up until this morning, he's been spending most of his time down at the bottom of the globe. This morning when I checked on him, he seems to just be floating at the top of the tank. He's still watching everything and is swimming around, but he's staying at the top when he's not swimming. It looks like his swim bladder might be a bit bloated, but I'm not sure.
Any ideas what could be wrong, or if there's anything wrong?
After looking at some older pics of him and comparing to some pics from just now, he doesn't seem to have a bloated swimbladder. Either that or his swimbladder is always bloated. Still kinda just hanging out at the top of the bowl, though.
Dramaqueen is right, he's probably bloated. This is the result of being overfed, or being fed dry air-filled foods like freeze-dried stuff, pellets, or flakes. These things should always be fully rehydrated in a little bit of tankwater before you give them to your betta. Proper temperatures are also vital to the digestion process since the metabolism of cold-blooded animals relies on warmth from the environment. Cold temperatures cause digestion to slow, so food gets caught in the gut, putting pressure on the swim bladder, causing the betta to float.
If you cannot heat the tank safely due to its size, you should move it into a warm stable area. Fasting and feeding fibrous foods is also a good idea, frozen brine shrimp and frozen daphnia both have a lot of fiber because brine shrimp and daphnia are mostly exoskeleton. Some people also use the blanched pea treatment--take a frozen, unsalted pea (canned peas are too salty), take a paper towel and dip it in tank water, wrap the pea in it, and heat for a few seconds in the microwave. Remove the skin, moosh up the pea meat, take off a pellet sized piece and feed to the betta. This is effective, but bettas cannot derive nutrition from the pea, so it's basically like taking straight up fiber.
I only use aquarium salt for treating open wounds and tail injuries, it's not necessary or really helpful in this situation.