HELP! Strange growths on betta splenden

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Here There be Dragons

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Please help. My betta has had these growths(?) on his body and tail for 3-4 months. I don't know what they are or any treatment that may be necessary. He was extremely lethargic for a while but I used a half dose of betta revive and he got better. He is still eating normally and swimming around. He flares sometimes as well. He hasn't been building bubble nests for a while though. He had building them for a long time after i switched him to a five gallon. He has been in this tank for around 7 months. The decor has changed a lot but not very frequently. I switched from gravel to sand about 2-3 weeks ago. I had thought it might be lymphocistis but I'm not sure. The tempurature is always 76-78 degrees farenheight. Any ideas on what this is? The one on this side of her tail looks like it may have burst since earlier this afternoon and the one on the other side look smaller since then too. Thanks.
 
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How are these? It's all the white patches. They are raised. He swimms away as soon as he sees the camera so they tend to be blurry. The axolotl in my avatar is two different colors, a chimera. Two eggs fused and made him. Also, What banner? IMG_1427 (2).jpg IMG_1425.jpg IMG_1429.jpg
 

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without knowing exactly what kind they are, seems like they may be the protective cyst of a parasite. most treatments for parasites include increasing the water temp. this speeds up the parasite life cycle. apparently when they are in that cyst on your fish you cannot kill them, but when the detach to molt into adult hood, and to lay their eggs they can be killed. the growing parasite lives in that cyst and chews on your fish for food. when they let go, they leave a hole that can get infected. the betta revive is a mixture of antibiotic (neomycin) antifungals meth (blue and malachite green), B vitamins,( cobalamin), and salts (electrolytes). not going to hurt, but it wont be enough. what I would do is...increase your temp and add a airstone. the increase in temp lowers the 02 content of the water and your little man is under enough stress already. empty your tank completely, including the rock bottom. removing all the substrates gives the eggs and the swimming larvae no place to land and hide. then water changes, 50-75% daily for the next 10 days.
doing the same thing on my 29gallon. just lost my male golden angel and I have no idea why. pulled everything out and hoping his girlfriend does ok...
 
hmmm, months? need to raise temp to 82, bettas don't like it much higher. are there any other fish in your tank? you only need the airstone while the temp is up. I would not use the betta revive while you are doing such large water changes, just waste it. you are going to have to throw the airstone and the tubing away when you are done. the theory goes like this....by raising the temp and speeding up the life cycle, you will cause the cysts to fall off faster and all the massive water changes with no other things in the tank will remove all of the eggs and free swimming larvae before they hatch and reattach to your big guy. the warm clean water should keep him from getting secondary infection, but once you put stuff back in, maybe I would use the betta revive. you should was all of your stuff from the tank with hot tap water and let dry. I dry my stuff out in the sun, figuring that between drying out and being radiated by the California sun, most of my stuff should be safe to use again. threw away my silk plants, live plants and my wood.
 
They haven't fallen off for months. I'll try any thing though. What should I raise the temp. to? It's already at 78 degrees farenheight.I have been wanting to add an airstone, but I don't see how I could do so permanately. I have an air pump with a filter and an air stone for another tank, which is currently unoccupied. I have a seperate air stone for neb's tank so I could use that and get some more air line tubing so it can reach. Should I use the betta revive while I do this to prevent infection? I only have enough for a little less than a half dose and I don't think it would last the whole time. The nearest place I have to get it is an hour away. We may be going soon though so I'll try and stock up a bit. Fish are expensive when you don't have a job. Worth it though. Thanks for replying! I new ich had that life cycle. Didn't know about others. Would you throw away sand? I can clean that. I have a marimo but I really don't want to throw that away. Could I quarentine it for a while? There are no other fish in the tank. Should I replace the filter cartridge?
 
How long has the tank been set up for?
How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?

What sort of filter is on the tank?
How often do you clean the filter and how do you clean it?
What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the tank water?

What have you treated the fish with?
Are there any other fish, shrimp or snails in the tank with the Betta?
Did you add anything to the tank a few weeks before this started?

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You don't need to change the temperature.
It's not Lymphocystis.
It looks like missing scales and a possible infection. But I need better pictures and more information before I say anything else.

Try doing a 75% water change and gravel cleaning the substrate every day for a couple of weeks. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media in a bucket of tank water.

Feed the fish 3-5 times per day for a couple of weeks. Use a variety of foods including dry, frozen but defrosted and live foods.
 
This tank has been set up for about 7 months. I change the water once a week, 50-75% ususally, but less since I switched to sand, since I just vaccume the top. About 25-50%. Today's acctually a cleaning day for my tanks. Any new tank water is dechlorinated. When I top off evaporated water, I just leave the water in pitctures(can't spell) over night with the lids on. I think it's an internal power filter. I swish the filter cartridge around in tank water I'm removing when I remember, which isn't very often. The betta and a marimo moss ball are the only atimate things in the tank, along with some algae. I have the seachem amonia and ph alerts and do I know those but not nitrite or nitrate. The Ph is around 7.8 I believe. I know that is much too high. I had been reading it as 6.2 but it showed up pink in the picture. I had been using tetra easy balance to help with the Ph but I stopped because I thought it looked to be at a good Ph. The ammonia is at >0.02ppm. A couple months ago, after I'd had this problem a while, I treated with a little less than a half dose of betta revive(all I had enough for) and aquarium salt. I'm not sure on the time frame of these but they were seperate. I think I should stark keeping a record. It's been quite aa while since this started so I'm not sure about adding anything, but it did show up after I up graded his tank from a 2.5 gallon to a 5 gallon. I have switched and added a lot of hides, plants, and decorations since then. Before the bumps are white, they look like blue bubbles(they're always on blue parts of the fish) and then it looks like the white forces the blue scales and fin tissue(?) out of the way. I only currently have dry food (pellets and freeze dried baby shrimp and freeze dried blood worms) and I don't have access to live or frozen foods except for european night crawlers that are in a worm farm but I don't think Nebs could eat them, even chopped up.IMG_1449.jpg IMG_1451.jpg IMG_1447.jpg IMG_1450.jpg
 

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