looks like a tumor to me, unfortunetly I don't believe any sort of medicine will get rid of it. your betta should last at least 6 more months+ if in perfect water conditions.

 

thanks for the quick reply!

But if it is a tumor how did it pop up so quickly...like I didn't notice anything the two days before, other than just a bit of a belly bulge, but no more than it would have looked if he had have overeaten a bit.

 

it happens, 4+ years ago I bought 5 black skirt tetras I now only have 1 remaining. The rest just had tumors pop up suddently however they did last awhile about 1+ years before dropping like flies.

 

I just read, the other day, an article which described swellings on fish that 'popped', and what comes out is whitish. Usually they appear quite suddenly. The stuff that comes out is pus, and the swelling is the fish version of an abscess, which is a bacterial infection that the body manages to wall off until internal pressure makes it burst. If it breaks to the outside, the infection drains & usually they recover. If it breaks and drains inside the body, it often results in death, as the infection gets into the blood stream.

Advice was never to try to handle or squeeze bumps like this, as you could force the infectious material into the blood stream, and kill the fish. Much the same applies to mammalian abscesses too.

 

hmm interesting, it does seem bigger and it looks about ready to pop, I am just hoping it pops on the outside. he seems to be happy still.

Thanks for the input. Will keep people updated

 

I was thinking myself that it could be a cyst or something.

 

That sucks, sorry for your loss.

 

If you still have the body, you could reach out to Dr. Sandra Fazakas (Ripley Aquarium) as she does have a private fish veterinary practice.
http://www.kwas.ca/forum/showthread.../showthread.php?24782-KWAS-Meeting-Tuesday-September-3rd-2013-Dr-Sandra-Fazakas

 

I don't still have the body, but I have pictures of it...

 

For an animal that size, that is a truly enormous swelling. I think chances are high it was already leaking to the interior and quite probably had reached the blood stream, which would have caused sepsis and death.

I can understand the desire to help by trying to puncture it, but it's the one thing you shouldn't do. Even vets don't often use a needle on an abscess, unless they are trying aspirate some contents to analyze when the diagnosis is in doubt, and in that case they are using a very small, hollow needle.

Lancing is the usual relief method, a scalpel drawn across to cut the skin and release the pressure, but given the size of that thing, I fear the fish had little hope. I am very sorry for the loss, that really sucks.

The most common cause of an abscess is some type of puncture injury that heals over, closing any contaminants inside, where they fester. Sometimes it can be bacterial invasion from the outside, but we don't know all that much about bacterial disease in fish yet. Be interesting to see what a vet could tell you, but without a sample to examine, she can probably only speculate on cause. I doubt the other fish are at risk, especially since the thing did not rupture in the tank.

 

Ya I was afraid of the same thing that he didn't have much of a chance

thank you for the advice about the other fish though, my Otos still seem to be fine so I think I will leave it one more week let them get more comfortable, then get another betta...thanks for the comments guys!