Single pair of white spots on Bettas eyes

[ACHVOY]

Hello, I have a Betta in a 1 gallon aquarium who is currently awaiting a long overdue upgraded tank. I have had this fish about a year. What's concerning me is he's had a single white spot over his eye for some time (months?) now but has remained very happy and energetic so I haven't really been worried. But as of lately the spot is getting larger and another seems to be growing in front of the other eye. Bump is not ON the eye, but in front of it on the face. Reading about ich says it is usually fluffy and happens very quickly. This white spot has existed for some time and hasn't seemed to bother him. Just recently did a 30% water change that had some salt added to it. His upgraded tank (Eclipse 12) will be here this week and while I plan to keep him alone, I don't want him to carry any diseases into the new setup. His only tankmate is a pond snail (i think.) Anyway, I love this fish!! Please help!!

[ACHVOY]

I posted a picture, hope it's showing up for everyone.

[TaylorW]

My fish has this exact some problem! White bumps on his head that come and go, and look exactly like that! Google lymphocystis, I'm pretty sure that's what my fish has. At first I treated of ich and it didn't help, so now I just treat it like any chronic health problem. I just do extra water changes, keep his water warmer than usual, and feed frozen foods along with pellets to boost his immune system. I just ad aquarium salt when his bump gets worse and it seems to make it a little smaller/temporarily disappear.

Unfortunately if it is lympho there is no cure, but it will not hurt your fish, it just weakens his immune system.

Here is a picture of my fish.

[ACHVOY]

Wow your guys colors looks a lot like mine! And I think you're right about the lymphocystis! I guess I'll just go ahead and do a 80% water change and treat him with salt and see how it goes. Be sure to keep me updated on any developments in your fish and I will do the same!

[TaylorW]

My guy's doing fine! I've got the virus under control thanks to Oldfishlady, Adastra, and the other wonderful members that have given me advice! My fish's bumps now completely go away and stay away for awhile, but he get's the occasional "flare up" as I like to call it. Kinda like a fever blister that goes away and comes back.

If you can boost your fish's immune system his body will fight it and the bumps will shed off eventually (or at least my fish's do).They will probably come back or they might stay there permanently, but as long as your fish acts happy and the bumps don't affect his movement/eating/breathing, don't worry about it :)

I've made some changes in how I care for my fish that have really seemed to help my guy. I keep the water around 80-82 degrees, the higher temperature seems to really help him. I also do more frequent water changes than usual to keep the water cleaner. I have a 2.5 gallon and I do 100% water changes every 3 days. I also noticed he started getting better once I started feeding him frozen foods as a base with the occasional pellet to make sure he was getting all his vitamins.

Sometimes when he gets a flare up, I will just add some aquarium salt and the lump will shrink or go away after a few days. This is how I usually treat it. But I don't like having to keep him in salt all the time, so sometimes I give baths. I just put a little aquarium salt or epsom salt (and I have tried some QuICK Cure) in a little Tupperware container with some decholrinated water and float that in his tank. I usually let him sit there for about 20-30 minutes before returning him to the tank. This seems to help, I'm not quite sure why, but my guess is that it's killing some bacteria so that his body can fight the virus??? But you can try this if normal care doesn't seem to be working.

If the bump looks like it's about to fall off, you can catch your fish in the net, keep the net and fish in the water and hold the net at the surface, and then GENTLY use a NON-SHARP object and rub it VERY EASILY and try to knock it off... DON'T try to force it off and don't rub it more than 2 or 3 times, you don't want to hurt your fish!!!

I wouldn't do this very often at all, unless the bump was hurting your fish's quality of life. I did it once because the lump was very loose but growing closer and closer to my fish's eye, I was afraid it would spread to his eye! But I was lucky since the lump was quite loose where his body was already fighting it, so it came right off. Once again, I really wouldn't suggest this, I was just curious if it would come off :P

So in short, warmer water, more frequent water changes, and more live/frozen food is the best thing you can do, all the other information is just my ramblings, so you'll have to excuse me!! XD