Betta has bump on nose

[XiaoYu]

Hi, I was hoping maybe someone has experience with strange bumps/injuries on bettas. My betta Charlie has had this bump on his nose. Picture below.

Housing
What size is your tank? 2.5 gal
What temperature is your tank? 74-78 degrees (it fluctuates since our house has horrible heating issues)
Does your tank have a filter? yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Is your tank heated? no, unless a nearby lamp counts
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? none

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Hikari bio-gold pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? 2 pellets, 3 times a day; used to feed him frozen brine shrimp once a week (no pellets that day), but since the bump appearance I ceased in case of ich contaminants.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? approx 3 times a week, no schedule yet, it depends on algae and ammonia/nitrate
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? anywhere from 10 to 35%, over the course of a week no more than 40% or so i think
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Since I use bottled water (my well water is too high in minerals, pH of 8 or higher), I do not use a dechlorinator (i checked with the bottling plant, it is indeed chlorine free).

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

Ammonia: .25ppm
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: roughly 1ppm (maybe more or less, my kit's first color block is 0, the second is 5ppm...not much of a middle ground there)
pH: 7.6
Hardness: n/a
Alkalinity: n/a

(to address the ammonia issue - yes i'm aware it should be 0. the tank has cycled, but there is a remaining .25ppm. it's been there for about a week. i keep detailed charts and measure it daily. currently in the process of changing water to get it to 0 without harming my bacteria. i'm also working on changing the feeding amount to see if overfeeding is the cause. oh, and working on fighting back the algae which likes to eat the ammonia and nitrate. oh fun.)

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Has a small bump on the right side of his nose, that includes the nostril and goes up to his eye, but does not seem to affect the eye. The bump has one white spot on it, and his eye has a bit of a white stripe above it, but I am unsure if that is related.
The bump is smooth and is the same color as his skin except for the tiny white spot.

How has your betta fish's behavior changed? No real behavioral change.

When did you start noticing the symptoms? About 2 weeks ago I noticed the bump, it has gotten a little bit bigger since.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? At first I thought it could be ich (since he has the history of it), and added 1 drop of Aquarisol and have kept the temperature as close to 78 as possible to see if that was the case. (i understand that it should be 80 to 85, however with the way my house heating is and the lack of a good micro-sized heater, a consistent 78 or higher is difficult to achieve.) I also added a pinch of salt to help healing in case of an injury. I also increased water changes.
After a week of no change, I also added two drops of stress coat plus at the suggestion of my aunt who has worked with aquariums. Now on the third week, there's no change in the bump.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? He had ich when I first got him (almost a year ago). Aquarisol took care of it, and I keep about 1 to 2 drops in the tank most of the time (keeping track of water changes) since I feed him the flash frozen brine shrimp which can carry ich.
He's gotten the normal fin hole or two, but always healed up nicely with a little salt and/or stress coat.
He recently had a little fin rot, but increased water changes and a little salt took care of it.

He's quite a fighter (flares at any new thing that comes near the tank) so maybe this is an infected nose scratch?
Nothing I read about fish diseases and bumps has really described what he has.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
How old is your fish (approximately)? 1 to 1 1/2 years old.


(note:the color is skewed. sorry for bad quality.)

[Harley]

Sorry to hear your fish is having problems. I'm definitely not a doctor but my guess is its either lymphocystis or a tumor. Lymphocystis is a virus that can be sedentary for possibly years before "breaking out". It can be caused by stress. It can "fade away" in time but may re-appear in the future. I don't know much about tumors other than they can be removed, but I don't know how easy it would be to do on a betta. Hopefully someone else can give you a better diagnosis. Good luck!

[XiaoYu]

Thanks for responding, Harley.

I've read about lymphocystis, and it is a good possibility. I guess it can't hurt to put him in some antibiotic treated water for a few days to see if it helps. I'm just waffling on the idea since a tank change makes him freak out. Stress definitely helped cause his bump, whatever the underlying cause.
Anyway, thanks for your time!

[Harley]

The only thing about treating a bacterial infection (if it is indeed one) is that you don't know for sure whether its a gram-positive or gram-negative type of bacteria. You really shouldn't give your betta any meds unless you know they need it or at least what you're fighting. You can give gram-positive and gram-negative type medicines together (Maracyn and Maracyn II) but you don't want them to get desensitized to the meds if they're not required.

[Thunderloon]

Furan 2 (jungle fungus clear) for a full box instructed cycle. Furans aren't gram state specific. You can use a low amount of salt with furans without worry.


I get swelling around the mouth all the time on my girls, never quite that much but it does generally go away.

DO watch it for signs of parasite activity or if he starts having trouble using his mouth.

[XiaoYu]

Thanks for all your advice!

I went to wet web media's site and read their information on lymphocystis. From what I read there, what Charlie has does resemble a wart and is probably lympho. (most other sites talk about cauliflower appearance and then say to use antibiotics...i think i'll stick to places that aren't trying to sell a product.)
They also said -- good water conditions, good nutrition and low stress are key.
Viruses don't really respond to antibiotics.

After reading that I increased water changes, and today I noticed Charlie's bump did shrink a little (though now he has a tiny tiny one on his chin!). He's pretty happy though. I will aggresively keep an eye on parameters and keep feeding him a balanced diet.

Thunderloon: Thanks. If it gets worse and nothing helps, I'll try the furan 2. :)

[zinfandoll]

I noticed the same type of bump on my fish a couple of weeks ago though smaller at the time. I wasn't sure if it was a normal bump or not but tonight, after being away for a couple of days, I noticed the bump had grown larger and looks exactly the same as your fish's bump except on the other side. So I was wondering how your fish is doing and what you did to get it to go away if so.

[XiaoYu]

Originally Posted by zinfandoll

I noticed the same type of bump on my fish a couple of weeks ago though smaller at the time. I wasn't sure if it was a normal bump or not but tonight, after being away for a couple of days, I noticed the bump had grown larger and looks exactly the same as your fish's bump except on the other side. So I was wondering how your fish is doing and what you did to get it to go away if so.

The bump grows for about two weeks and then it kind of stops, and sometimes looks a little darkish and crusty, like it's scabby. He ended up getting a second bump on his other nostril not long after this first went away. They do go down in size and it appears to heal okay.
Basically I monitored him closely, and did more frequent small water changes, adding salt as needed (and sometimes a little stress coat plus). I think the bumps come and go without much stress to the fish, though they may eat less for a time. The thing you have to watch out for is the secondary infections that seem to like the compromised tissue. Bump #2 had a little white fuzzy spot for 3 weeks... So more water changes and a little aquarium salt really do help! (if not for the bump then to help prevent any fungus).
Best of luck to you!