# More Betta drama oh god oh god what the hell is that?????



## inkl (Mar 31, 2010)

Yeah, so a while ago my old betta's face exploded, and someone said it coould be a parasite.  Well!  I don't have much money/resources, I wasn't able to seperate my other betta out, and now there's something horrifying growing on his fins.

I'm sounding like the worst pet owner here, but I just don't have any experience with aquariums.  

Last night I noticed a blobby thing in the corner of the aquarium, and then I noticed that it had ARMS!  Holy crap, has anyone seen The Thing?  You know how a husky's head falls off or something and these tentacles grow out of it?  LIKE THAT.  And it's nocturnal  Last night there were all these wormy tentacle things coming out of it and waving around all casual-like, this morning it's retracted and playing dead!

Anyway, I scooped out the betta, the two snails, and the little bottom feeder guy into a jar and now...I don't know what to do.  I'm obviously cleaning out the entire aquarium and starting new, but what sort of thing do I need to get rid of it off the fish?  There's white things trailing off the new betta's fins.

In all honestly, I'm really curious about what this parasite is, I still have the aquarium set up because I want to get pictures and video, if possible.  It's horrifying and fascinating at the same time, woo biology!

Anyway, help, fish are screwed if I can't clear this up, I don't want more exploding fish faces.


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## Teal (Mar 31, 2010)

*I want to see the weird little parasite thing!!

I really don't know what to tell ya... fish aren't my thing. But that just sounds weird!  *


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## ametan (Mar 31, 2010)

Hmmm.... Don't know what to tell you as I'd probably be more likely to keep the "The Thing" than the fish.


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## Obelisk (Mar 31, 2010)

Exploding fish faces and blobs with tentacles? It sounds like the tank just needs a strong dose of radiation 

....... ok, but seriously, that blob with the tentacles _might_ be a freshwater hydra (which isn't a parasite, they feed on tiny invertebrates in the water).


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## Widowman10 (Mar 31, 2010)

take a pic if you can. hydra does sound like it might be a possibility...


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## inkl (Mar 31, 2010)

I'm going to try to get a video when it comes out tonight.  I just noticed there's more along the one edge of the aquarium.  I am really tempted to pony up the money for a second setup and keep the fish in there, then see what happens in this tank.  

Assuming I can get rid of whatever it is from the fish + snails!  I'm guessing Ned brought the parasite in, since he had the exploding face.  My brother used to keep Ned, and I remember him mentioning once that Ned got this weird bubble above his nostril and then it popped.  Considering Ned came from a toilet...who knows what The Thing is!  Aside from cool.  If I name it, should I consider it all one organism, or will I have to come up with 20+ names for all the individual tentacles?

Oh, and it's definitly not a hydra!  I've seen those guys before, and this is way different!


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## ametan (Mar 31, 2010)

Ummmm..... Ned came from a toilet? This merits a story, not just a casual mention.


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## ZergFront (Mar 31, 2010)

Please get a video as you have my curiosity perked.


 no pics/video..never happened on this forum.


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## inkl (Mar 31, 2010)

About 3 years ago my brother moved into a new place.  There was a betta swimming in the toilet!

He's named after King Edward IV (I think?) who was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

I've never wished for a better camera more than I have now.  I am so incredibly freaked out, in a non-girly way, I swear.  IT KNOWS I'M HERE.  I walked into the room and flipped on the light, and all the little tentacle thingies....flinched.  I tapped on the glass and they all retracted!  It took them ~2 minutes of caution to come back out again!

Anyway, this is the best I could do, I had to hold a flashlight and have my room lights on at the same time to get it to show on camera.  The tentacles are less than half a mm wide.


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## Teal (Mar 31, 2010)

*I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine.. and he shall be my Squishy! 

lol 

Sorry, I am no help... quick! Find someone in your area with a really good macro lense! *


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## inkl (Mar 31, 2010)

I think I might name it Bill.

It moves and retracts the way anemones do, all the tentacles went at once.
I'm freaked out sleeping in the same room.


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## Teal (Mar 31, 2010)

*Don't feed it after midnight, and don't get it wet!

..

Oops.

Too late.

Good luck! 

lol *


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## Mack&Cass (Mar 31, 2010)

It looks like an aquatic scavenging worm, possibly tubifex or a similar species. A clearer picture would help.
Mackenzie


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## Thompson08 (Mar 31, 2010)

Wow that is creepy and at the same time interesting. Hope you find out what that is!


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## Shell (Apr 1, 2010)

inkl said:


> I think I might name it Bill.
> 
> It moves and retracts the way anemones do, all the tentacles went at once.
> I'm freaked out sleeping in the same room.


Oh Pleeeease name it Bill, that's my exes name and I think it's perfect 

Sorry, that's about all I have to contribute to this thread, I've never seen anything like it before.


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## Tim Benzedrine (Apr 1, 2010)

Obelisk said:


> Exploding fish faces and blobs with tentacles? It sounds like the tank just needs a strong dose of radiation


Sounds to me like it already got a dose of radiation!



			
				inkl said:
			
		

> I'm freaked out sleeping in the same room.


I don't blame you. Sooner or latter, you are likely to hear "Splorch! Splorch! Splorch!" coming from the direction of the tank and getting closer to your bed with each "Splorch" until -"Skwop-Schlurpp!"-you've got a fishtank version of an alien face-hugger French-kissing you. But look at the bright side, you might be asleep before it  splorches over to you.


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## Teal (Apr 1, 2010)

Shell said:


> Oh Pleeeease name it Bill, that's my exes name and I think it's perfect
> 
> Sorry, that's about all I have to contribute to this thread, I've never seen anything like it before.


*



I don't know why, but Shell.. that post completely cracked me up! 

Tim... That's just creepy. Now *I* am scared too! lol*


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## Tim Benzedrine (Apr 1, 2010)

Oh dear.  It wasn't my intention to creep anybody out. That's why I tried to reassure her that she might be asleep when the thing (Bill?) drove it's ovipositor down her throat, and the only thing that might seem out of the ordinary is that she gets up the next morning and eats a dozen eggs and a pound of bacon in order to nourish the 700 larva residing in her abdomen. It might even be a blessing in disguise. The critters would probably sell like hotcakes down in the for-sale section of AB. Or maybe at the baitshop. Like I always say "When life gives you parasitic mutant lifeforms, you make..." well, to be honest, I never thought of the rest of the saying, because let's face it, you are pretty much toast when they emerge.
 Unless they are symbiotics, in which case she'd probably spend a lot of time hunting and consuming other life-forms. Or transferring the larva to other aquariums to continue their life-cycle See? The possibilities are endless! 

Splorch!


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## inkl (Apr 1, 2010)

Mack&Cass said:


> It looks like an aquatic scavenging worm, possibly tubifex or a similar species. A clearer picture would help.
> Mackenzie


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxYBiBi3EbE
and 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubifex_tubifex

I think you're right!
They come from the sewers, that makes sense considering Ned.  The article doesn't say anything about parasitism or encysting in animals, but it does seem like something in the Tubifex genus.  Hmm...says they're fed to fish!


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## Cirith Ungol (Apr 1, 2010)

Now is the perfect time for you to read Dean Koontz's Phantoms!! 

Anyway, parasite? Sounds like it. Will it infect any fish you put in there? Might likely do. You might want to take it out (carefully) and put *it* into a jar and put the fish back into the aquarium.

You could try to carefully dig it out by lifting the gravel out of the tank where it is sitting.

3 years sounds like an awfully long incubation time for a parasite however. Sure you didn't feed the fish anything wild caught?


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## Shell (Apr 1, 2010)

Teal said:


> *
> 
> 
> 
> ...


hee hee, glad I could provide some entertainment 

and yes I agree, I'm now freaked out also, I will be obsessively checking my son's tank for *blobs* now


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## pwilson5 (Apr 1, 2010)

my mom's saltwater tank got some of these "spiney worm" things that came in with the live sand... i managed to snag one with some tweezers while feeding and pulled out a 3-4" spiney worm thing... it was creepy


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## inkl (Apr 1, 2010)

I definitly didn't feed my fish anything wild-caught, and I didn't go collecting pebbles from the creek or something.

And hey, I already eat a pile of eggs and bacon in the morning so how will I know if I'm Bill's babymama?

I think I'm gonna scoop some of Bill out to save, then clean the rest of the aquarium out.  And get something from the pet store for the poor Phil/AntiChris/Mr Zippy/Bleh Snail.  I hope they'll be okay.


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## Teal (Apr 1, 2010)

*LOL this thread has proven to be most entertaining!

I definitely agree that you should keep Bill and see how it goes!

What doesn't amuse me, however... is that they are sewer-born. 
You won't hear me say this often, but... Ewww. lol *


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## Tim Benzedrine (Apr 1, 2010)

inkl said:


> And hey, I already eat a pile of eggs and bacon in the morning so how will I know if I'm Bill's babymama?


Oh, I'd say that about the time you start waking up with no memory of where you were the night before, but you are covered with sludge, smell like sewage, and neighbourhood pets start coming up missing, you'll start thinking "Hmmm. I'll bet the house will be full of the splorching of tiny tentacles soon!" By that time you will probably also have encased the family in cocoons for the future nourishment of the Bill Juniors, which should be a tip-off as well.


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## Shell (Apr 1, 2010)

I love this thread  

I also very much like the fact that you did name the weird sewage creature, "Bill" :clap:


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## inkl (Apr 1, 2010)

I have cats.

Now I am worried I will have Bill-cats.


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## Tim Benzedrine (Apr 1, 2010)

That is another possibility. In that case, be careful scooping the litter-box. You don't really know what might spring out and attach itself to your face. If you are lucky, it might just be a mutant parasitic, mind-controlling worm. Which is probably preferable to what normally gets dug up from the litter.


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## Irene B. Smithi (Apr 1, 2010)

wow, I need to come to this board more often!!


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## myrmecophile (Apr 2, 2010)

It sounds as if this is a viral infection.Try looking up Lymphocystis Virus and see if that is what you are seeing.


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## inkl (Apr 2, 2010)

Hmm...I just looked it up, and the bump that showed up on Ned's face was more like a blister that popped and then healed, not a cauliflower-like growth.


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## Kirsten (Apr 3, 2010)

Oh *please* name one Randy.  Trust me, if you knew what I know,you'd name one Randy...and then set it on fire

Splorch is my new favorite word. 
I have bettas as well as other fish and I now will be up nights listening for that tell-tale sound...S p l o r c h...or is it *SPLORCH?*


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## Tim Benzedrine (Apr 3, 2010)

And at this point how are we supposed to know that you are really inkl posting, as opposed to what _used_ to be inkl  being controlled by Bill's tendrils controlling your nervous system ?

Be careful people! If you get a PM inviting you to visit inkl to "come take a look at my betta tanks", you may want to give it some thought! One minute you may be  and the next you've become


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## inkl (Apr 3, 2010)

Tentacles really slow down my typing.



*SPLORCH*


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## deathwing (Apr 3, 2010)

Oh no...


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## Selket (Apr 3, 2010)

Tim Benzedrine said:


> Oh, I'd say that about the time you start waking up with no memory of where you were the night before, but you are covered with sludge, smell like sewage, and neighbourhood pets start coming up missing.


Sounds like a normal friday night to me.


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## inkl (Apr 3, 2010)

Okay...
Tank is totally cleaned and renewed, new gravel and everything.  Fish are FREAKING OUT BECAUSE HOLY SHIT THEY DON'T KNOW WHERE THEY ARE!

It looks pretty.

Oh, and I did a bad thing:  Bill and Randy are gone.


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## RoachGirlRen (Apr 3, 2010)

Various weird critters sometimes grow in the sub if it isn't being kept sufficiently clean or if overfeeding is going on. Snails also tend to have invertebrate "hitchikers." I'm guessing that's what's going on. Do you do a very thorough weekly gravel vac on that tank? What have your water parameters been like?

Most parasites wouldn't be hanging out in the sub. They need a host. So I'm guessing these guys were your typical "Mmm! There's poop and food down here!" tank pests. Ugly, but mostly harmless.


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## Warren Bautista (Apr 3, 2010)

Tim Benzedrine said:


> One minute you may be  and the next you've become


No way! I wanna be Cthulhu!


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## arachnorama (Apr 3, 2010)

Guys, you're making me laugh WAAAAAY too hard for ten in the morning!

But those worm-thingys are freaking scary!


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## Teal (Apr 3, 2010)

inkl said:


> Oh, and I did a bad thing:  Bill and Randy are gone.


*

That's just what "you" (aka them, because they [you] took you [what used to be you] over) want us to think!

I'm on to you, Bill... !!

Or are you Randy.. ? *


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## Kirsten (Apr 3, 2010)

Teal said:


> *
> 
> That's just what "you" (aka them, because they [you] took you [what used to be you] over) want us to think!
> 
> ...


Exactly!! There's no way they'd go down so quick without a fight.  It's going to be a hostile takeover starting with the AB members, then slowly infiltrating society, blending in with our own, disguised as leaders,etc...WAIT...!!!!


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## Shell (Apr 3, 2010)

Teal said:


> *
> 
> That's just what "you" (aka them, because they [you] took you [what used to be you] over) want us to think!
> 
> ...


I would say it's Randy. I don't think Bill is clever enough to plot that on his own AND use the computer


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## Kirsten (Apr 4, 2010)

Oh...then there must be *THREE*!


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## Teal (Apr 4, 2010)

ksmith999 said:


> Oh...then there must be *THREE*!


*

Don't look at me  *


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## Tim Benzedrine (Apr 4, 2010)

And why NOT look at you!?! Could it be that it's because a careful examination might reveal that you are not the Teal that we all knew and loved( Well, maybe not actually loved, but  at least relatively respected in a vaguely non-committal way), but who would now be more properly known as "Trill" or "Trandy", an amalgamation of the posters formerly known as Teal and the poster formerly known as inkl(Bill(Randy)), but now more properly called "The Queen Mother" and "Incubator of The Betta Horror", respectively?

At this point, I don't trust anybody in this thread! One minute we may be normal, the next composing nearly incomprehensible run-on sentence-laden paragraphs similar to the one above.
As far as I'm concerned, I'm the only non-infected one in this thread!


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## Selket (Apr 4, 2010)

Tim Benzedrine said:


> As far as I'm concerned, I'm the only non-infected one in this thread!


Or is that what you want us to think since you are actually the being that bill/randy/trill/trandy originally came from???


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## Kirsten (Apr 4, 2010)

I'm wearing a tin foil hat;I will *NOT* be assimilated;P


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## Shell (Apr 4, 2010)

ksmith999 said:


> I'm wearing a tin foil hat;I will *NOT* be assimilated;P


 hahahaha Im off to make my tinfoil hat right now as we speak. I keep checking our tanks for Bill's and Randy's, so far so good, but I lay awake at night listening for the telltale splorch.


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## Shell (Apr 4, 2010)

Selket said:


> Or is that what you want us to think since you are actually the being that bill/randy/trill/trandy originally came from???


I agree, Tim seems to know WAY too much about Bill's and Randy's to be a "normal." :}


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## Tim Benzedrine (Apr 4, 2010)

Splorch!  Uh, I mean, don't be silly.  I am one of- if not the only-normal in this thread, I tell you!

Don't let your guards down if you hear no splorching sounds. After the third instar, they also develop suction cups and as well as splorching, they can also sort of "squaffle" across the ceiling to drop down on your face from above as you sleep. So it would be wise to listen for squaffling as well. And if you hear both "splorch" and "squaffle" at the same time, God help you!

Now, if I had been assimilated by Bill/Randy/Trill/Trandy, would I offer helpful advice on how to avoid them? I think not!
Do notice that Teal, or whoever/whatever that is, suddenly took a low profile after I directed attention to her/it's direction!


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## Kirsten (Apr 4, 2010)

BS!!  That's just a ploy to keep us distracted!  You know these creatures like to attack from below...from under the bed,couch,hot dog vendors' carts I for one will sleep with an eyemask with eyes painted on so the little demons will think I'm looking!


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## Shell (Apr 4, 2010)

Tim Benzedrine said:


> Splorch!  Uh, I mean, don't be silly.  I am one of- if not the only-normal in this thread, I tell you!
> 
> 
> Now, if I had been assimilated by Bill/Randy/Trill/Trandy, would I offer helpful advice on how to avoid them? I think not!


Hmmm, this all just sounds like a brilliant plan to distract us from your true identity


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## Teal (Apr 5, 2010)

*Spllllooooorrrch squaaaaaffflllle splllloooooooooooooooorch!!!

<.<

>.>

I mean...

YES! Tim is trying to distract everyone in MY direction, so they won't realize that HE is really the Mother Splorch! Er.. Squaffle! Er... THING! *


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