lump on left side

[dermotfix]

Hi
Long time lurker, just joined the forum to ask for your help.
Moxie seemingly just developed this lump where the swim bladder is on his left side only in the past few days and I really want to help my little friend asap.

He's spending a lot of time hiding on the bottom or laying at the top on a (silk) leaf. He's swimming pretty badly but he's begging for food as normal. He chewed up but spat out some of his food today but that might be due to me feeding him garlic juice soaked Omega One pellets (for the first time) to try and boost his immunity.
Yesterday, it looked like his eyes were popping a bit.
The lump looks almost pointy and today the scales on the lump look a bit shredded.
The pic is from yesterday, I'll try and take a better one.

Housing
What size is your tank? 10g
What temperature is your tank? 82-83
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish?
99% New Life Spectrum Betta
1% Omega One Betta pellets, freeze-dried bloodworms
How often do you feed your betta fish? 3-4 pellets twice /day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Once a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 10-20%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Tetra Aquasafe (water filtered by Aquasana)

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

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 7.4
Hardness: N/A
Alkalinity: a little high

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? lump on left side of his body where his swim bladder is
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? less active, stays on leaf close to surface or hides on bottom
When did you start noticing the symptoms? 3 days ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Yes...
2 days ago added PraziPro to tank based on similarity to this thread.
Does your fish have any history of being ill?
Poor thing came from discount store in a horrible prison with fins shredded, bad color and an injured gill. The water in there was so nasty.
He was constipated once over a year ago, cured by pea protocol.
For the last 2 months he was a lot less active. Tried everything besides medicine, thought he might be depressed, now I see it was probably related to this lump (I feel stupid).
How old is your fish (approximately)? 1.5 years since he moved in

[ChoclateBetta]

More water changes, can not see your well, and IAL/Aquarium salt.

[dermotfix]

Originally Posted by ChoclateBetta

More water changes, can not see your well, and IAL/Aquarium salt.

Thanks for the response CB.

Thanks for the suggestions but do you think those will help with the lump?

Sorry about the picture quality, I'll do my best to take a better one.
It is similar in size and position to this picure.

I thought I was doing ok with 10-20% once a week considering the tank is filtered and it's one fish in 10 gallons. What do you suggest?

As I said, I tried praziquantel Fri night and haven't added anything else since.
I don't think it really helped and it's been 4 days.
What would you do next?
I picked up aquarium salt, epsom salt, Maracyn-2 (couldn't find Maracyn-Plus yet).
I guess the first thing to do would be a water change.

[DoctorWhoLuver]

Is his spine bent and is he lethargic? Pop eye could be due to bad water quality, but your parameters seem fine. Bumps/lesions, loss of scales, pop eye, lethargic, and a bent spine could be symptoms of fish TB... If it happens to be TB, unlikely, lower the water temperature, since the bacteria prefer warmer waters. TB is very hard to treat, and it is sometimes hard to stand by and watch you fish suffer...

[dermotfix]

Originally Posted by DoctorWhoLuver

Is his spine bent and is he lethargic? Pop eye could be due to bad water quality, but your parameters seem fine. Bumps/lesions, loss of scales, pop eye, lethargic, and a bent spine could be symptoms of fish TB... If it happens to be TB, unlikely, lower the water temperature, since the bacteria prefer warmer waters. TB is very hard to treat, and it is sometimes hard to stand by and watch you fish suffer...

Thanks again for the response, I really value the opinions of people on this board.

No, his spine is not bent as far as I can see.
Just the lump on the left side.

Lethargic yes, until feeding time. Although he hasn't been jumping since I noticed the lump.

I'm not sure I was right about him having pop eye.
I got that impression when he was laying on a leaf close to the surface.
It may be that he never stayed still enough for me to see his eyes up-close b4.
If it is, it is affecting both eyes equally and they haven't changed in the last few days.

I hate playing veterinarian with him.
I came across TB online and it is certainly on my list of possible diagnoses.
I'm not sure if I can rule out internal parasites but the PraziPro seemed to do nothing.
Other than that I guess it could be an infection of some sort.
Or a tumor.

I'm trying to find IAL locally as it seems that might be some help to him.
I wish I just knew for sure because I'm not sure what to do next.

[dermotfix]

I added an album with 2 pictures that show Moxie's lump...
(got my wife a nice camera for Christmas so I put it to use)

http://www.bettafish.com/album.php?albumid=5137

I have been changing water 2/week.
I got a bag of IALs and currently have three in the tank - he loves them.
His activity varies week to week.
The lump didn't go anywhere.
Is it worth adding salt?
He never refused food.

I'd really like to help him more if possible.
Any advice that might help him recover or feel better is appreciated.

I know he won't live forever.
At what point do I know he is in pain and I have to do something I don't want to?

[DoctorWhoLuver]

I don't know about anyone else, but it looks like some sort of tumor to me... I would just treat him the same and spoil him :)

[eatmice2010]

To me it looks like DROPSY. Here go to this site: http://www.bettafishcenter.com/Dropsy.shtml

These are a couple images:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VkRP-IvOke...JohnstonDJ.jpg

http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseas...pictures/1.jpg

[LeoTheLakerBetta]

No that is not dropsy. Dropsy is characterized by bloting in the stomach and "pineconed" or raised scales. Dropsy is fatally quick too; 3 days is pretty long for normal dropsy cases. It is also pretty symmetrical. Moxie, however, does seem to have some sort of tumor. I don't know how to treat this at all but its not dropsy is all I wanted to say...

[eatmice2010]

Well im out of answers, sorry.

But i did do some digging on the internet and most of them said theres continued to get bigger and they eventually died, so i would just treat him like a king for now, but you never no he may live out the rest of his life with no effect.