Odd Lump On Betta

[cutecotton]

Hi everyone!!

It's been along while since i posted on this forum - my friend currently has a betta that's sick and I thought we could use some advice from you guys

He's had this betta for approximately 4 months now but for the last 3 weeks he's been acting really strange. It started off as being really lethargic, no energy and didn't want to swim everywhere but just hid in a little house in the tank.

For the last week or so things got more severe. We noticed all his fins were clamped together and there is a lump on the very back of the fish - right before the tail fin. The fish haven't eaten anything for 5 days now and shows no interest in food. He also has problem swimming, it seems like his whole backside doesn't work and he can only use his front fins to try and propel himself. We also saw that his gills were *really* red and it looked like he had problems breathing. However his stomach area is not bloated at all, just two strange bumps near the end of the fish.

Any ideas what this could be? I thought it might be swim bladder disease but I'm not sure. Water changes have been more frequent lately to keep the tank clean, we treated the tank wiht melafix for a while but didnt' seem to do much. He's always floating on the top and cannot swim downwards (looks liek he's magnetically attached to the surface of hte water).

If anyone has any idea what thsi could be or what coiuld be done to make him more comfortable plesae let me know - really appreciate any help!

Thanks!

 

[cutecotton]

this is quite urgent, so can someone who knows the solution please reply?

 

[catxx]

do you know how old the fish is?
when bettas get on in age they're prone to tumours, which could well be what the bumps are, there is no cure for this. could he have got a scratch there that got infected?

swim bladder would (as far as i know) only be noticable as swelling in the stomach area.

are his scales pineconing at all?

i'd lower the water level so he doesnt feel so stressed getting to the bottom of the tank.

 

[cutecotton]

hi, thanks for answering. I dont' know the exact age of the betta (we got him from a petstore).

He's not pinecconing at all so it wont' be dropsy i dont' think. To be honest it does really look like a tumor to me, but the fish hasnt' eaten anythign for 6 days now and i'm thinkign if he doesn't die from the disease he'll probably die from starvation. There's no visible scratches on his body at all, though i did notice him flicking himself off hte bottom of the tank a few weeks ago.

It just looks like he's paralyzed half way down his body, like he can't move his tail much at all and he only tries to swim with his front fins which isn't strong enough =(

anything we can do to ease his pain? I don t'know how much to lower the water level by either...