Need Betta Fish Help/Advice Please

[halokfb]

Hello...I'm a newbie betta fish owner and I've had my little guy now for almost a year. He's in a 5-gallon filtered and heated tank (80 degrees). He gets 25-50% water changes (using water conditioner) once a week or so.

My question is this...recently I have noticed a bump on his left side. It's right in the middle so it doesn't look like his swim bladder. I fasted him for a couple of days and have been doing 50% water changes every other day. He's still very active and is eating normally. I have a feeling it's a tumor but I wanted to see if perhaps I'm wrong and there's an actual treatment that will make this go away. Please, any help will be appreciated.

 

[Chandeptitious]

The same thing has happened to one of my girls. I've been keeping Betta for a few years and this is the first time it's happened to me. I'm not sure how old my girl is, but I've had her for about 7 months now.
I wish I could help but I don't know what this is either, she seems fine other than the lump (eating normally, very active, jumps when I go to look at her). I should also add that she's had it for around 3 weeks now and not much has changed. I hope you have more success than I've had with finding help.

 

[Bbarb27]

Had a similar bump

on a betta and it appeared to be a tumor. He remained healthy, active and eating for almost a year beyond when the tumor appeared, so it wasn't immediately fatal and he didn't appear to be in distress.

 

[halokfb]

Thanks so much for the reply. Have you tried any treatments? Does it look like the lump is getting bigger or staying the same? Sometimes I think it might be smaller but I'm not sure if my eyes are just playing tricks on me.

 

[Delapool]

On the off chance it isn't a tumour or viral infection you could try medicated prazi and metro in fish food in case of intestinal worms/parasites. Both of these are fairly safe for fish.

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/fish_palace/tropicalfish_disease_identification.html


http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=161389151514#

 

[Chandeptitious]

I've tried some AQ salt and fasting then a pea just in case it was bloat, but it didn't get smaller. She also has some IAL in with her to help. I also used blue planet worming tabs just in case that was the case, but it didn't make a difference. I'd like to say it looks smaller, but i think it's just wishful thinking on my part. It got really big to start with and now it's just staying the same.

 

[Chandeptitious]

Thank you for those links too ^
Very interesting to read.

 

[Delapool]

Hope it turns out alright.

I was looking at my betta last night trying to decide if there was a small lump on one side and finally decided I must be paranoid.

 

[halokfb]

Delapool...I don't have any experience with medications unfortunately. The link for the medication flakes, those can be used with betta fish as well as other types of fish? I'm just asking because I know there's special betta food. Please excuse my ignorance...I'm new.

 

[Delapool]

No worries, in general a medicated food works better because you know the med is delivered into the fish. The food would be suitable for any fish, it's just short term to get the med into the fish. The link was an example, your lfs may stock other products.

Over here medicated foods are rare and I've used prazi and metro that are just added to the water so depends on what you can find. And if you wish to try it.

Copied another link below on common meds. Praziquantel is a wormer while metronidazole is an antibiotic, plus for internal, single cell parasites (similar to ich). Won't work on viral infections or warts or tumours.

It's a long shot. The idea would be that internal parasites (for example) may be triggering an e.g. internal abscess that shows as swelling.


http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumMedication2.html#metro

 

[halokfb]

Delapool..what about API General Cure? Also, what is methylene blue used for?

 

[Delapool]

API general cure would be fine. Never heard of any issues there.

MB is mainly a fungicide.

I've used it also as a general cure after ich treatments to prevent secondary infections and also tried it as an initial cure before going to antibiotics.

 

[halokfb]

Delapool...thank you so much for your help/knowledge. I'll let you know how things turn out if I decide to give the meds a go.

 

[Delapool]

Good luck!, yes please on how it all turns out. Hope everything goes well.