Betta Fish Swelling

Question
My betta fish has a lump on his chest and is laying on the bottom of the tank.  He swims once in awhile, but he doesn't swim straight, like he used to.  He has been this way since yesterday.  He has also become a little discolored.  He should be approximately 2 years old.  I have heard about betta bloat, but I think the cause is overfeeding and I only feed him 5 pellets every other day, so I don't think it is that.  Our other betta gets the same amount of food and the same treatment and has the same exact tank setup and is fine.  He should be about the same age because I bought them both on the same day.  I want to know if there is anything that I can do to save him, because I know that he is suffering.

Answer
Hello Heidi-

There are a few things that could be causing this behavior. The first (and worst) could be dropsy, which is fatal and has no real cure. The easiest way to determine if our fish has dropsy is to look at his scales; are they raised up like a pine cone? If so, he has dropsy, and the only thing you can do for him is make his life as comfortable as possible, or euthanize him :( Other more common causes of the symptoms you mentioned include swim bladder problems, and tumors. Tumors appear more frequently as your fish ages, and usually the fish "scrapes" the tumor off and heals in a few weeks. Swim bladder problems, on the other hand, can be caused by many things, and the best way to treat them is to fast your fish for 2 days, and then start feeding him bits of skinned peas to help clean out his digestive system. Once his swimming returns to normal, start him back on his normal food. Try feeding 3 pellets per day, rather than 5 pellets every other day. Turning the water temperature up to about 80 F will also help him recover.

Hope this helps,
Amber Worman