My Poor Baby...

[Kuroku]

I did post about this but posted on the wrong forum...

My betta, named Tsuzuki since about a week and a half ago has developed a lump along with enflamed gills. I had taken initiative and added some Anti-internal bacteria treatment, but although it cleared the gill problem, the lump is still growing (the treatment also perked up one of his tank mates who looked under the weather).

A couple of his scales have fallen off on the other side, and what's left of them in a large area are kind of pineconing a bit, although his body doesn't look swollen up enough for me to think dropsy...

All he does is hide in the plants and up against the filter, although he will eat, like most Bettas I hear about, he has a tendency to overeat.

His tank mates include 3 X-Ray Tetra's, 2 Black Neons, 1 talking catfish, 4 Corydoras and I keep forgetting to mention the Chinese Algae Eater!

My tank is 15g, and it is your average community tank. All water perametres are normal other than the temperature which given the past heatwave keeps rising and falling. It's not doing my poor fishies any good...

Is there anything I can do? Tsuzuki is about 1yr old now, maybe it could be a sign of old age? I can't imagine now a tropical tank without a Betta... They have so much character! He would always greet me at the front of the tank and he's not the only one I had in the past to do that!

 

[Taridan]

I don'ts like Dropsy to me, because of the pineconing... fish don't always exibhit all of the signs of an illness.. they're like people, in that sometimes only one symptom might show. Do you have a quarantine or hospital tank you could put him in?

 

[BWBettas]

You never know, but could it be the algae eater sucking onto the side of him? Sucking loach type frish are known for targeting slow fish and sucking to the sides of them

Bret

 

[3nafs.souls]

i hope 1 year old is not old age because i had a betta who lived 4 years. and he was in coldwater. like...50-60 f. i was 7. i didnt know that much bout fish then. still dont really now. but i'm working on it lol

 

[BWBettas]

But they tend to be around 12 months when they are sold in most LFS as the people want the long coloufil finned bettas not the young short finned ones. Hence why most people who dont know about bettas only go for males!

Bret

 

[Kuroku]

You never know, but could it be the algae eater sucking onto the side of him? Sucking loach type frish are known for targeting slow fish and sucking to the sides of them

Bret

Thanks, I'm not too sure about that, I've been observing and I've seen no such behaviour in the algae eater. Although I haven't been able to keep an eye on them all the time so I don't know. The algae eater itself is a little poorly, I did have two but one died last year, and this one appears to be going the same way.

Anyway I have been looking at the other threads about lumps, and I think the lump on one side is a tumour. More so I'm now worried about the pineconing on the other side of him.

All he's doing now is sitting on the side of the filter, moving to the top of it at night, he doesn't really do much else right now.

And unfortunately I don't have a hospital tank, there's no room for one. To be exact I could fit a small hospital tank but there's not enough spare sockets in the house for another filter/heater/light, etc...

I don't have much luck with Betta's...

First one was bullied to death because I didn't know enough about Angelfish to know that they are bullies and that the tank was far to small for keeping one... So I gave the Angelfish to my parents who have a much bigger 180L tank.

Bought my next one, the LFS staff member, who rather than squeezed the top of the net to prevent it juming out, squeezed the poor fish in the net... The poor fish died a day later dispite my attempts to help it recover...

Then came Tsuzuki, who lasted a lot longer without tank bullies and careless staff (I went to a different shop).

Thinking about it there is a possibility of him getting weaker and as such being bullied by the other fish, which could in turn explain the reason for my X-Ray, who's face has gone funny, being bullied as well...

Thanks for your help, there may not be much hope but I'm going to continue and try to help Tsuzuki recover.