White Bump on Betta

Question
Hi, I have a female betta and she's a few months old. I just recently moved her over to a 1.5 gallon tank with two guppies who had previously been in a 10 gallon tank at my friends' house. There's just the 3 of them and everything seemed fine until my betta started getting this large white bump near her 'chest' area. I'd asked my friend who's started looking up a lot about fish since he has many and loves fish but he can't tell what it is. We've ruled out her maturing because its too large and looks 'tumorish' and we've also ruled out dropsy. She eats and she swims perfectly fine. I'm more worried about her being in pain my guppies maybe giving her something. The tank has been set up for a few weeks now I want to say between 3 and 4 but this just started showing up maybe last week. The filter is one that came with it and it functions by an air pump. I just changed the filter cartridge yesterday figuring a few weeks was enough time for adjusting. The water is clean and not really cloudy at all. There's two plants and the 3 fish interact fine. She eats the tropical fish food I bought for the guppies and they all get fed and everyone eats, they generally get enough because I never see them fight over the food. I don't know the pH ammonia or nitrite levels but I did use water dechlorinator when I put in the tap water. The tank has a light that's about 6 inches from the top thats put on usually between 2:30PM to 9PM and then off the rest of the time. They get sufficient lighting during the day. I really don't know what else to tell you because other than the bump she seems perfectly fine. Any feedback would be helpful because I have no idea what to do. Thank you.

Answer
Hi Jessica;

Without actually seeing the fish I really can't say what it is. If the area looks evenly swollen it could be eggs developing, or it could be a tumor of some kind. Since the fish seems to act normally I would just wait it out and see what happens. There isn't anything else you can do in either case anyway. If you could get a picture and send it to me in a followup question, it would be very helpful.

One thing I do know for sure is that a 1.5 gallon is far too small for your 3 fish. A betta just by itself needs at least one gallon of tank space (2 gallons or more is better) and so does each of your guppies. Get them a larger home, or relocate the guppies again and it will be much healthier for everyone. They will love the extra space too! They need at least a 5 gallon, 10 would be better. Make some water changes, at least twice a week replace 25% of the water in your little 1.5 gallon until they get a bigger place. Their waste will overwhelm them very soon. The filter won't be able to help them enough. All tanks need a 25% water change once a week anyway.

No matter what size tank you have they all have to go through the break-in period. Your little tank my still be there or has just finished. It can be a tough time for fish. Here is my web page about it to help you get them through it;

http://expert-fish-help.xanga.com/

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins