Betta: Not Sure What This Is?

Hello, I'm pretty new here but every now and then I find this forum after doing google searches on fish stuff.

I wanted to ask if there was something wrong with my betta fish and what could it possibly be. He started getting this patch of white on the top of his head that wasn't there before. It feels like its been gradually getting bigger over the past few days. I tried looking around various diseases and it seems like this could be columnaris or maybe just some kind of fungus? Its only this patch on his head though, it doesn't look as fuzzy yet as in most people's pictures, and his behavior has not changed at all: very hungry and active, eats all the food I give him, swims around, flares at his reflection. So I'm not sure what I should do if anything at this point. What do you guys think?

I've included photos of him from September when he didn't have the white spot to today.

 

There is something called hole in the head but I don't think this is the case. Is it possible he couldve scraped his head on the filter or something in his tank? Or if he has tank mates maybe someone bit him? To me it looks more like an injury but if it happened gradually over time it's probably a disease. If you could fill out the sick fish template that could give us a better understanding of his environment and what could have caused it

 

Hmm I didn't think about injury. He is a very active fish and it's possible he could've hit the filter or driftwood I have in the tank...There are no tank mates besides tiny snails. I'll fill the template out and post it.

 

Tank

• What is the water volume of the tank? 5 gallons
• Does it have a filter? Yes
• Does it have a heater? Yes
• What is the water temperature? 76 degrees F
• What is the entire stocking of this tank? 1 Betta fish

Maintenance

• How often do you change the water? Once a week
• How much of the water do you change? 25-30%
• What do you use to treat your water? API stress coat
• Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Just water, I vacuum every once in awhile

Parameters

• Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
• What do you use to test the water? API Master Test kit
• What are your parameters? We need the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.

Ammonia: 0.25ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm (note: I used one of those bacteria starter things when I first started cycling the tank way back and I've never caught nitrite)
Nitrate: 5.0ppm
pH: 7.6 (our tap is pretty high)

Feeding

• How often do you feed your fish? Once a day
• How much do you feed your fish? 3-4 pellets
• What brand of food do you feed your fish? Wardley and Aqueon betta food
• Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? No

Illness & Symptoms:

• How long have you had this fish? Under a year
• How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? Couple days ago
• In a few words, (more room for details below) what are the symptoms? White spotting on head
• Have you started any treatment for the illness? No
• Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
• How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? No

 

Can you post a bird's eye view picture of it? That isn't Columnaris because it would look fuzzy and act pretty fast, not hole in the head either because there isn't actually any holes.

 

Sure, I hope this is alright. He moves too much haha and I had to turn flash on otherwise you don't see the spots

 

Is it indented into the head? Raised? Looks like to me it may be the start of a tumor. More pictures please!

 

Phone quality pics but there's the best I could get right now. It definitely looks like its a little raised off his head

 

Ok yeah those pictures definitely helped me confirm it. It does look to be the start of a tumor. Nothing you can do about those. They rarely affect the betta and he'll still live a normal life.

 

Oh man poor guy. I guess as long as he can still live normally with it then that's good. I'll still keep a close eye on him. Thanks so much for helping me out here!
Can I just ask, this is not something that is contagious to other fish right?

 

Can I just ask, this is not something that is contagious to other fish right?

Nope.