Help!! Possible burst ulcer?!?!?!

[izabeau]

I need help, I have never seen this before!!! I have searched the net, but I cannot seem to find any answers...I am hoping someone has seen this before and can help me...

I have a female betta who now for some reason has what I can only describe as a swollen lesion right on her chest below her head, right around, between & spreading behind where her 2 front trailing fins are (if that makes any sense). It looks red and raw, and honestly looks like something is bursting out of her, it's all swollen, red and inflammed and all her scales are pushed back. It's not dropsy, I have had that before and this is isolated to one spot. I have her in a hospital tank and am treating her with betta fix and I put some bacterial antibiotic in as well, that is supposed to be for open wounds, lesions etc...
She is staying near the surface, she's not swiming much and won't eat!!! Does any one know what this is??? Could it be an ulcer?? A Tumor?? An injury? (she was in a community tank with 0.00 levels across the board, and no aggressive tank mates) I don't know what this is or how to really treat it...I could not find anything on the net that really describes this "thing" she has...any help would be appreciated!!!

 

[tramca]

I have no idea but I hope she survives. Good luck with her.

 

[Velvet AciD]

Maybe she had an accident with a sharp object within your tank? Defintly keep up the anti-biotic to keep the wound from being infected.

 

[izabeau]

Thanks Tramca & Velvet!! I'm going to my LFS tonight & talk to one for the guys there, maybe they can shed some light on the problem, or at least recommend proper treatment. I am going to keep up the anti-biotics and see if I can save her...I'm just worried as she's not eating...it just looks so raw and sore!! I feel horrible for her. I don't know what she could have hurt herself on in the tank, I mean it doen't look like a scratch or a scrape, if really looks like the swelling has burst from her chest, and all the scales have either fallen off or are ragged, and her front to lower fins are all frayed as well. (Inoticed that before I went to bed last night...all I have in my tank are a piece of smooth driftwood, a moulded cave/shelf/rock thing that I checked and doesnt seem to have any sharp edges, my silk plants (not brave enough to do real ones yet)...but I do have a small piece of red lava rock with a hole in the middle that all my fish seem to love to swim through...although she's the only one injured?? Do you suppose she could have hurt herself on that??? I mean I guess anything is possible right?? I am just so worried about her...I want her to survive, she my favorite...she's beautiful, her body is opal/iridecent in colour, almost a pearly pink with whitish-blue and magenta coloured fins. I have never seen one like her before or again, since I bought her. I've been meaning tp post a picture, but I don't have one yet that's not all fuzzy.

 

[Iggy]

Izabeau, sounds like some sort of internal injury or infection. The two front fin-like things are called 'Ventral Fins'.

Yes, use a specific antibiotic like Maroxy and make sure to use an anti-fungus also (Jungle Anti-Fungus) because the open wound area will likely get a fungus growth on it also.

 

[izabeau]

Thank you for all your help...unfortunatly she died last night....however if something like this happens again, which I hope it doesn't...I will know what to do. Thank you again guys for all your help and advise. Thank you Iggy, I never knew what those fins were called!! You learn something new everyday!
Well I'm going to give it a couple of weeks, make sure all my other fishes are healthy and then go on a search for a new female betta;..I wanna make sure all the germs and stuff are gone before I introduce a new fish into the tank. I saw some females last night at my LFS, but they all had ick...it was really bad and really gross...I wanted to take them all home & treat them becuz my LFS was obviously not doing anything about it, I pointed it out to one of the fish room staff and he said he would take care of it...I really hope he does...I hate to think of all of those fish suffering!!