# Help, my betta has a white patch on his chin



## tshaw (Jul 12, 2015)

Hello,

A white patch recently appeared on my Bettas chin under his mouth which circles around part of the left side of his mouth. The patch is not present on the right side under his chin but only on the left half under his chin and around the left part of his mouth. I just discovered it today and it was most likely caused by stress because when the room is dark and his aquarium lights are on he tends to flare and stress quite a bit. I had the lights off in the room for about a half hour and right after I looked at him and saw this large white patch under his chin. The water parameters are fine, nothing unusual, and the temperature is 80 degrees. He is in a cycled, planted 20 gallon tank with an Otocinclus, who appears to be fine with no white spots.

Additional info on the white spot: 
It does not appear to be fuzzy, it looks smooth and pastel
It is only on the left half of his chin and lower mouth area, not on the lips
Betta has no signs of lethargy or loss of appetite. (may be because it is recent)

Please, if anyone knows what this could be give me advice on what it might be and how to treat it safely. Could it simply be from stress and flaring or is it something more serious such as columnaris?

I have included pictures of the white spot.

Thank you!


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## Tree (Sep 29, 2013)

My last betta had something like this. Turned out to be a tumor on her chin. BUT before thinking it is a tumor, do you know if he scratched himself on anything when he was flaring? Maybe he hurt himself on the chin and that is the cause of it. 

This is what my baby girl had before she died,


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## tshaw (Jul 12, 2015)

Thank you so much for the reply Tree.

Since I have posted about my Betta's white spot it has mostly faded away. He usually gets white near his gills when he flares because of stress and they go away withing minutes, but this one spot on his chin stayed for a few hours and it scared me, especially since I've never seen his chin turn white before. I'm hoping that it was due to stress and the white spot will soon fade completely. 

The information about the tumor is appreciated as I will definitely keep my eye out if the white spot grows. If it does end up being a tumor that is forming, is it treatable?

Again, thank you so much!


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## Tree (Sep 29, 2013)

for tumors, there is no cure for it. but I have heard fish living a long time depending on where the tumor is on the fish. The only thing you can do for a fish with a tumor is to keep them happy and clean and hope to have that tumor stop growing or fall off. It's up to thebettas immune system to kick in and get rid of the tumor.

I'm very happy that is went away! I'm sure it was just stress. ^^


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