Betta has a bubble tail!!

[Feline]

I noticed my betta sitting on the gravel these two days and thought nothing of it until today.

He has a scale coming off his right side, and tonight I noticed his tail end has a bubble in it! It truely is a bubble coz it makes the tail to kinda "float" ...

It's best to take a look at the pictures instead of me describing it.

Just did a 30% water change today. 0 ammonia & nitrite, 10ppm nitrate. 78-80F, pH 7.2, with 0.1% salt solution.

He hasn't got ick or anything fungus looking. The white blops in the pictures r just food (bait for picture taking).

He's active when I come close, or when it's dinner time, so he's still in good shape except the scale and the bubble. Any ideas why?

Thanks for any input in advance!!

 

[juliethegr8t]

Can't see the pics Feline...

 

[Feline]

Hi, just changed the image link (has posted the pictures in the members picture section) so should be able to see the pictures now, cheers!!

 

[White Whale]

I dunno about the bubble in the tail (I see it), but that's one hell of a resolution your picture has! What type of camera did you use?

 

[FlareBettaGuy]

Maybe you should try popping the bubble, and pulling the loose scale off with a pair of tweezers. Maybe the scale is just shedding off, and will fall off by itself soon...or maybe it's a mini version of dropsy or something...I dunno a thing about this, this was just random advise.

 

[juliethegr8t]

Wow, that is one of the weirdest things I've seen for awhile!! This interested me a lot because I had absolutely no clue what the cause could be, so I did some research. The only thing I came up is called "Gas Bubble Disease". Here's some excerpts I found about it:

This phenomenon [GBD] is the supersaturation of gases in tap water due to pumping under pressure and/or cold water heating up to room temperature.
Tap water distribution systems are maintained under pressure at all
times, both to insure adequate flow and to prevent polluted water from
outside the pipes to enter in at leaks. Any additional gas introduced
into these pipes (e.g., a leaky manifold) will be dissolved at these
higher partial pressures, and will often be supersaturated when it
emerges from the tap. Also, gases are more soluble in cold water than
warm, so when gas-saturated cold water emerges from the tap and warms up
in an aquarium, the water becomes supersaturated and can form bubbles.

The problem resulting from this phenomenon is called gas-bubble disease.
This is characterized by the formation of gas bubbles in the body
cavities of fish, such as behind the eyes (causing exophthalmia) or
between layers of skin tissue. [Fins!]

Another source said, "Also, with gas bubble disease, you can usually see symptoms in other areas of the body as well, like under some scales or in the skin of the fins." Maybe this is the cause of the fin coming off? The same site also said:

Gas bubble disease, like Melissa said, is not due to air bubbles in the water, but actually dissolved gases (both O2 and N2). With many fishes, signs of GBD, will show up when the total dissolved gases exceed 110-130%. With some fishes, O2 levels of over 300% did not produce GBD. Usually, on smaller systems, this is due to the entraining of air on the intake side of a pump. The easiest solution to this is finding and fixing the pump, but having a trickle filter (dembolizing tower), water "fall" into the tank or sump or strong aeration in the tank or the sump will off gas any supersaturated dissolved gases.

There's more info on the web if you just do a search for it - I don't know if this could be the cause of your fish's bubble, but it is the only option I can see! Hope this helps.

 

[freshmike]

That was amazing information!!! I really hope that is not what Felines betta has though

I nominate julie for researcher of the month!!!

 

[wuvmybetta]

that's wild

I wouldn't pop it though

 

[freshmike]

Nope. That would be kinda scary!

 

[juliethegr8t]

I nominate julie for researcher of the month!!!

!! I'm not a great researcher, I'm just the type of person who has to know everything. As soon as I find something I don't know, I'm out there trying to find all the information about it possible! I'm known around here as "The Girl Who Can Find Anything Online". I just like to figure stuff out, and the net has been a very helpful tool!

By the way Feline, I hope he doesn't have GBD either . However, if he does, maybe it's not very far progressed and you can fix it.

 

[Feline]

Itty, my digi cam is just a Olympus Camedia 2.1 megapixel 3X opital zoom, bought 4 years ago (and it's still working ). I switched to macro mode, ISO 400, full zoom on the Betta to get the pics.

Julie, thanks so much for the information! I suspected it's GBD yesterday night when I looked up on my fish book but not sure then. Now that I've read ur message I think the possibility of GBD is high on him

Right now I've increased aeration in the water hoping to get rid of the nitrogen gas. Hopfully I'll bring everyone good news soon! *fingers crossed*

Thanks for the support everyone!!