Ruptured Lump on Chin [pictures]

[Sea Dragon]

So I came home today to find a fleshy, ragged lump on Gibb's chin. He was going through a salt treatment for potential external parasites.

Housing
What size is your tank? -2.5 gallons, currently kept in a betta cup for treatment
What temperature is your tank? -80
Does your tank have a filter? -No
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? -Yes
Is your tank heated? -Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? -1 ghost shrimp, but they are separated atm.

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? -Omega One pellets, freeze dried blood worms, and mosquito larvae when theyre in season
How often do you feed your betta fish? -4 pellets a day, but I've been fasting him for 2 days so far.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? -2.5 gal: 50-75% a week bc it's a NPT. Betta cup: 100% a day
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? -See above
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? -Stress Coat. He's in 1.5 tsp NaCl/gal concentration atm.

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: n/a
pH: 8.0
Hardness: n/a
Alkalinity: n/a

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? -Nice fleshy lump that reminds me of a partially popped pink pimple. No visible pus however
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? -Ever since his fins overgrew last year, Gibbs settled with lazing around near the top of the tank. Now he just seems anchored to one spot.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? -10 minutes ago (I was at school)
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? -AQ salt and double dose stress coat is all ive been doing.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? -He had aggressive fin rot one year ago. His fins never grew back evenly and he went through a phase of severe tail biting after I floated him in a bowl after his heater died a month ago.
How old is your fish (approximately)? At least a year, I got him March 2012

[Chevko]

I will admit I don't have any experience in this, but I was wondering if you could get a closer shot of the lump from the front again. Does your camera have a macro button it? If so, turn it to that and either get a bit closer or zoom in a tad.

[Sea Dragon]

Originally Posted by Chevko

I will admit I don't have any experience in this, but I was wondering if you could get a closer shot of the lump from the front again. Does your camera have a macro button it? If so, turn it to that and either get a bit closer or zoom in a tad.

I do have a macro option, but I was unable to focus at all on the fish.

[callistra]

He has stress stripes and some nasty fin rot too..

I don't really know what that is. It looks like a tumor or lymphocytis but that's an odd placement for either.

I don't think it's possible to have a FULLY NPT with no filter.. if it's heavily planted and sponge filtered, sure.. but just plants, I don't think it's enough.. So if you test the NPT what are all the readings? What test kit are you using? Can you share photos of the tank please?

That cup will need 2 or 3x a DAY 100% changes. You will see ammonia as high as 4 ppm in 24 hours in something that little.

[Sea Dragon]

Originally Posted by callistra

He has stress stripes and some nasty fin rot too..

I don't really know what that is. It looks like a tumor or lymphocytis but that's an odd placement for either.

I don't think it's possible to have a FULLY NPT with no filter.. if it's heavily planted and sponge filtered, sure.. but just plants, I don't think it's enough.. So if you test the NPT what are all the readings? What test kit are you using? Can you share photos of the tank please?

That cup will need 2 or 3x a DAY 100% changes. You will see ammonia as high as 4 ppm in 24 hours in something that little.

Tested the cup water for ammonia, it's 1.0 ppm so you're right, the daily changes aren't enough. I've moved him to a ~quart container, what changing schedule would you suggest for that?

I'm not an expert so I can't say for sure, but it was suggested in the NPT threads to remove a filter from NPTs under 5 or so gallons. I'm not sure what a "full" NPT means. I'll be happy to upload an updated photo in a minute though.

I already posted the Ammonia and Nitrite readings for the NPT itself. The Nitrates are over 0, but less than 5.0 ppm. I use the API liquid test kit.

I realize he has stress stripes, but that was because I lifted him out of the tank and put him in sunlight to get a clear picture. He's still a bit paler, but stripes are gone. And I know his fins look ragged, but in my opinion, I don't believe he has fin rot. He's looked like that for the past year because his fins never regrew correctly.

[Sea Dragon]

I forgot to add that for the past month, i've noticed the tiniest bump in the same spot as the lump above, the size of a grain of sand (same color as his body so it was hardly noticeable at all). It seemed odd to me at first, but I brushed it off because behavior was normal and it never seemed to worsen. I stare at my fish for hours at a time, so I'm confident I would've noticed if it did. When I got home, it appeared to have blown up or something in a matter of hours because he was fine this morning.

Pictures:



Used flash to get rid of most of the reflection of my bed, so you get to see all those ugly water stains that I didn't notice were there. The water is tannin-stained, but lighter in person.



75% ground cover as suggested to be considered "heavily planted"

[callistra]

That's a quarter gallon.. I would try 100% daily, but test to be sure. You may need twice daily.

Okay well as long as you're using a reliable drops kit and not strips, and you are shaking all bottles, vial and letting it sit 5+ minutes it must be working :)

He's so clamped in that middle picture.. can you get a photo of him more fanned out. His fins are really concerning. They should be growing back and looking better by now if he was getting everything he needed.

The stress coat and salt treatment is a good start. If you can find vitachem you can use a dose of 1 drop per gallon and that I've found really helps regrow fins.

If it's a tumor there's nothing you can do... unless it's fluid filled then maybe epsom salts can draw the fluid out. If it is lymphocitis the best thing you can do is boost his immune system and keep his environment perfect. I'm not sure what else it might be..

[Sea Dragon]

Originally Posted by callistra

That's a quarter gallon.. I would try 100% daily, but test to be sure. You may need twice daily.

Okay well as long as you're using a reliable drops kit and not strips, and you are shaking all bottles, vial and letting it sit 5+ minutes it must be working :)

He's so clamped in that middle picture.. can you get a photo of him more fanned out. His fins are really concerning. They should be growing back and looking better by now if he was getting everything he needed.

The stress coat and salt treatment is a good start. If you can find vitachem you can use a dose of 1 drop per gallon and that I've found really helps regrow fins.

If it's a tumor there's nothing you can do... unless it's fluid filled then maybe epsom salts can draw the fluid out. If it is lymphocitis the best thing you can do is boost his immune system and keep his environment perfect. I'm not sure what else it might be..

I'll probably do twice daily to be safer since I looked up some stuff on lymph and the only treatment suggested was an optimum environment, like you just suggested. Hopefully it's not a tumor :(

Can bettas be clamped for a year? Since he's been like that ever since he rebounded from the aggressive fin rot. Idk if you can see, but his rays are bent and his fins are warped. It's pretty unsightly but it didn't really bother me. Even when full-on flaring with Blair, the fins barely perk and I chalked it up to it being too much luggage for him to lift. My avatar is a pic of him before the bout of fin rot and even then, his fins hardly changed when he flared... as if he were already in full-flare 24/7 :/ If you're curious, I treated the rot with 2.5 gal daily 100% water changes, salt up to 3 tsp/gal, and eventually a salt dab on the afflicted area. It was a lot of work lol.

Darn I was just at the pet store, but I'll check soon if they have vitachem. I doubt the warpiness you see will ever return to its old form. Gibbs had a chunk of his dorsal ripped off when Blair jumped the full 6 inches out of a 2 inch gap into his tank. The dorsal is visibly healing, but as you can see, he still looks pretty ragged in general lol.

Thanks for the advice!

[callistra]

If he's clamped, he is either very stressed and/or sick. That's not healthy betta behavior ever, unfortunately.

[Sea Dragon]

Originally Posted by callistra

If he's clamped, he is either very stressed and/or sick. That's not healthy betta behavior ever, unfortunately.

I don't believe he's clamped, just limp? When he was still in the tank, his fins swayed and spread out with the water movement like a flag. He doesn't put much effort into moving his fins on his own. If I had to guess, it's because his rays are permanently damaged.

Otherwise he flared, ate normally, had a healthy color, and swam around his tank (all before this lump issue of course lol). If he's gone through severe stress 24/7 this past year I'm very impressed that he's still responsive with new fins double the size.