Hi,
I am really hoping someone here can help me. I can not seem to find anything on the internet that resembles what has happened with my Betta. I will just give a brief overview of what has happened. For a couple weeks he started getting picky about eating and one side of his abdomen seemed to be getting larger. I did a water change on Tuesday afternoon, after the change I noticed a small area on his side that didnt look right. It was almost like a couple of his scales were falling off. Over the next few hours this spot changed very quickly, until it was a bulging area, that looked like his side was going to rupture. When I woke up in the morning I was horrified to see a large white cyst/tumour thing protruding from his body. It was the size of a pea! It was not cottoney looking so dont think it was fungus. I talked to one fish store and he said his intestine must have ruptured and I should put him down. I wasnt sure, but wanted to wait until my daughter got home from school, as it is her fish. Once she got home we went to see her fish, he was still active and trying to swim around, but having a hard time. While we were looking at him struggling to swim, the thing just fell off!! We were shocked and horrifed. It was really quite scary and kinda gross. It left a small hole in his side and I was sure he would die very quickly. But it is now Thursday evening and he is still with us. The hole looks healed up now, you can barely tell where it was. But he is just sitting near the surface, barely swimming around and not eating. When he goes to breath it looks like he is gulping for air. I really have no idea what to do for him. I could really use some advice! Thank you!
I am really hoping someone here can help me. I can not seem to find anything on the internet that resembles what has happened with my Betta. I will just give a brief overview of what has happened. For a couple weeks he started getting picky about eating and one side of his abdomen seemed to be getting larger. I did a water change on Tuesday afternoon, after the change I noticed a small area on his side that didnt look right. It was almost like a couple of his scales were falling off. Over the next few hours this spot changed very quickly, until it was a bulging area, that looked like his side was going to rupture. When I woke up in the morning I was horrified to see a large white cyst/tumour thing protruding from his body. It was the size of a pea! It was not cottoney looking so dont think it was fungus. I talked to one fish store and he said his intestine must have ruptured and I should put him down. I wasnt sure, but wanted to wait until my daughter got home from school, as it is her fish. Once she got home we went to see her fish, he was still active and trying to swim around, but having a hard time. While we were looking at him struggling to swim, the thing just fell off!! We were shocked and horrifed. It was really quite scary and kinda gross. It left a small hole in his side and I was sure he would die very quickly. But it is now Thursday evening and he is still with us. The hole looks healed up now, you can barely tell where it was. But he is just sitting near the surface, barely swimming around and not eating. When he goes to breath it looks like he is gulping for air. I really have no idea what to do for him. I could really use some advice! Thank you!
but it sounds like it could have been either an abcess that has now burst or an internal parasite that has ejected itself from the fishes body?? did you see any movement in the thing that fell off? either way I hope you did a water change and gravel vac immediately afterwards! I would also be inclined to start an antibacterial med and poss a wormer, what size is the tank and is it heated and filtered? also is he kept by himself and do you have any sharp decorations in there? even plastic plants can cause injuries.
There was no sign of anything that looked like it could have been living. It was just sort of mush, encapsulated in a white film. Yesterday I added some Bettafix to his water as well as some Maracyn Two. Hopefully that was the right thing to do. I am very new at this, but have learned a ton since he got sick. I was one of those "not prepared" fish owners. Not by my own fault though, my daughter came home from a birthday party with "Rainbow" as her loot bag. All we got was the fish, a small bowl, some food and a pamphlet from the pet store. I was quite shocked the parents would do that without asking if it was okay or not. I have always wanted fish so I really didnt mind. But of course all I read was the pamphlet so really had no idea what the ideal situation would be for these amazing fish. I thought the bowl seemed cruel, so I went and bought him a Betta starter kit (which now I realize wasnt much better!) The tank is only 2.5 quarts, with no heater or filtration and yes there is a plastic plant in it. When he survived Wednesday night I went and bought him a 2 gallon tank ( that's all that we have room for)and some silk plants for it. But couldnt find a heater or filter that would fit, so had to order them online, it wont be here until next week, so I thought it might be better to keep him in the small tank for now. I have added some aquarium salt to the water. He now seems much better, swimming around and eating. So hopefully this was just some weird "one" time thing and he will be okay. Thanks so much for your reply, I really appreciate it. 
And I am looking forward to learning even more about these amazing little guys - hopefully not about the illnesses they can get though!
