Tango, just an FYI BTA's do the inflate deflate thing quite often. I know what you've been going through with your carpet lately and just wanted to say that BTA's are normal when they do this.
Becca, the more you feed it the faster it will grow. You can feed it Mysis shrimp, or can buy some store bought fresh shrimp that hasn't been packaged with preservatives or even get some fresh salmon and feed it very small pieces of either, small meaning the size of a pencil eraser and feed it every other day. Just keep the food small and it will keep it down. If it upchucks the piece you gave it was too large. Also if you're feeding it store bought shrimp take the shell off, as it's hard for the BTA to digest, which is hard on them. Sure they can and do in nature but why put it though that stress.
One other point about stress, over feeding and water changes are stressful to the BTA and they are prone to splitting when stressed. So be careful not to over feed and try and keep your water change replacement water as close to temp and SG as what's in your tank.
