Pink Growth

Hi,

I noticed a couple days ago that my betta has a new pink growth on him. He is struggling to swim, mostly stays at the top. It seems he is having trouble swimming down. He has gotten swim bladder before and this looks entirely different. He is normally a blue/green fish with some red marks on his fins. But this growth is pink and is located inferior to his body. I am assuming it is a tumor, but does anyone else have any ideas? He is in a filtered and heated tank.

Also if it is a tumor, what are some ways I can make him comfortable? Is he in pain? How can I help in any way? Thank you in advanced!

 

I'm not seeing this as a growth, more as extreme bloat.
What do you feed him? How often?
Could you get a picture of him from above?
What are you water parameters?
I would fast him for two days and start him on a pea diet.
Or spinach.
Cook a pea and deshell it, it must be very soft, squish it into small pieces the size of his eye and give him one or two and hope he eats it. Then repeat, fast for two days, try a pea or spinach and his bloating should start to go down.
With bloating this bad you kinda start to worry about damage, when our betta got really bloated he came down with dropsy, edema. He was swelling with fluids internally which could kill him. After he was fed a more veggie based diet his bloating started to go dwon and his dropsy went away. He is very healthy and no longer over fed.
Bettas are pigs.
Does he have a tank mate?
How big is the tank?

 

Research "Lymphocystis" and see if that applies to your situation. Plenty of info. Available on line about that virus. Hope things get better soon.

 

Research "Lymphocystis" and see if that applies to your situation. Plenty of info. Available on line about that virus. Hope things get better soon.

I don't think so... This is an from science direct, it creates very ugly growths that look like tumors. This just looks like stretched skin.


Fig 14-3. Lymphocystis causes unsightly, tumorlike nodules. (See Color Plate 14-3.)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/lymphocystis

 

I did fast him for the past two days, just to make sure it was not the swim bladders disease again. I have tried the pea diet before, he won't eat them. I normally feed him betta pellets.. but only 2, once a day because of how often he gets bloated. He is in a 3 gallon tank. It is heated to about 78-80 degrees and water parameters are normal. He does not have a tank mate, as I don't think his tank is big enough for another mate, right? How do I prepare spinach for a betta?

 

I did fast him for the past two days, just to make sure it was not the swim bladders disease again. I have tried the pea diet before, he won't eat them. I normally feed him betta pellets.. but only 2, once a day because of how often he gets bloated. He is in a 3 gallon tank. It is heated to about 78-80 degrees and water parameters are normal. He does not have a tank mate, as I don't think his tank is big enough for another mate, right? How do I prepare spinach for a betta?

Yeah the only thing you would be able to add to his tank is a snail or some shrimp.
When you say normal, does that mean ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate between 5-40?
Usually when people ask they want more than "normal" but rather real numbers.
Have you noticed he's gotten worse after fasting him?
Your temp and everything else seems fine.

Spinach is basically the same as peas, you can either blanch it or boil it. Blanching is taking it raw, and putting it in boiling water for only a few minutes or seconds even, where as boiling you start from the begining usually.
Just make it soft, then you can choose to blend it up so it's in small shreds, or you can cut it into tiny pieces or tear it if it will tear. Again same size, about the size of his eye.
Sometimes fish don't take to things right away, he's used to pellets so of course he doesn't want veggies right now lol picky guys.
If he doesn't eat the veggies, fastt him for a third day and he should be hungry enough to eat them. Or you can try to find frozen daphina, it's said to work like a laxative.
You could also try soaking his food in a small amount of epsom salt before feeding it to him, this is also a laxative.
I believe it was 3 tsp for 1 gallon, so 1/3rd gallon would get on tsp and his two little pellets of food or so. Soak it for just a few minutes in the salty solution, then feed it.
Try to lessen his pellets to two or one if that's the route you go, so that he isn't eating a 'big' meal while trying to take a laxative.
Daphina is a good food for them, as well are kinds of shrimps, and cyclops. My bettas love mysis shrimp and cyclops. You should be able to get all those items in the frozen fish food section at petco. The packs are between 3.99 to soke being 12.99 I think, but most of those ones are in the 5.99 range or less I think.

There is one pack I love, it's usually called veggie delight or seaweed delight, it contains seaweed, romaine lettuce and a few meaty pieces as well so it's not toally veggie based.
I like to feed that one or my veggie mix food at leats one to two times a week with all other days being mainly meat and insect based.
Some pellets cause issues for fish, and a continuous diet of only pellets often leads to swim bladder and bloating, so variety is something I really recommend. Plus, he'll go crazy for things like shrimp and cyclops.
I hope any one of these methods proves effective against this!