Dwarf Gourami [male]

OK, my male has been swimming lethargically for a day or 2 now. I've not seen him eating recently either. He's swimming with his head up and tail down. He was lying on his side on the bottom of the tank at one point. We were going to put him out of his misery but thought we'd give him overnight, he perked up a little but is still swimming strangely.

He's also a bit bloated around his stomach. Here are some snaps:

Any ideas?

Its Dropsy.....
Not an illness itself more an affect of something else (struggling for my words), do not as may be suggested treat him with a salt bath. Epsom salt will be fine but not sodium chloride.
What do you feed him and how often?
Has he or any other fish shown any symptoms?
It is often related to bacterial illness, osmoregulatory function and/or nutrition/feeding issues.....
I'll try and drag up some comprehensive info, but from what i've seen Dropsy info on the net is often misleading or down right incorrect, in the meantime try Googling; "epsom salt bath fish dropsy" or similar.

yup definatley dropsy, sorry to say this but it's best to be upfront, but once fish gets dropsy very few survive. So while you should do all you can to try and save him, you should also prepare yourself for the likelihood that he may die.

as germ hinted at it's likely a result of something going wrong in the tank rather than an illness being brought in from outside. please post full details of your set up, occupants, equipment, maintenance routine and water parameters and we'll try and track down the root cause of the problem. even if you can't save this fish you must find out what is wrong before you loose any more fish.

Miss Wiggle said:

yup definatley dropsy, sorry to say this but it's best to be upfront, but once fish gets dropsy very few survive. So while you should do all you can to try and save him, you should also prepare yourself for the likelihood that he may die.

as germ hinted at it's likely a result of something going wrong in the tank rather than an illness being brought in from outside. please post full details of your set up, occupants, equipment, maintenance routine and water parameters and we'll try and track down the root cause of the problem. even if you can't save this fish you must find out what is wrong before you loose any more fish.

Click to expand...

OK thanks for the speedy response guys. I'll read into dropsy today, run some water test tonight and post back tomorrow.

Balls...
The info is not that great, heres my understanding;
Basically Dropsy while possibly related to various issues results in liquid retention in the affected fish, leading to bloatedness and the pineconing effect obvios on your fish (the slightly lifted scales) it has a high mortality rate and treatment is not always succesful, especially considering the wide variety of different possible causes.
As i mentioned in my previous post;
Bacterial, Nutritional, Osmoregulatory and a new addition (having just checked) Viral.....
The reason a salt bath (or adding Epsom to the tank, rather than just bathing the fish) is a bad idea is that this may further interfere with the Osmoregulatory function of the fish, Osmoregulation to my little knowledge is the process via which fish maintain a healthy level of minerals. This function can be impeded by dissolved solids in the water, a lack of dissolved solids and countless environmental factors. What are your tank stats, do you make any chemical additions to your tank aside from Dechlor?
Viral is probaly the least commonly reported cause (which realistically means very little).
Bacterial appears to be fairly common, but you may have trouble treating bacterial dropsy for reason i will soon go into (look for the *).
Nutritional dropsy is generally linked to over feeding, particularly too much protein (bloodworm seems to be mentioned the most often).
The best steps you can take at the moment are;
Quarantine; easier to treat and will hopefully prevent the illness (if bacterial/viral) from spreading further, that is, if it hasn't already.
Feed pea; Just normal defrosted and mushed up garden pea is accepted as a laxative when fed to fish, at least it does seem to get their bowels moving. If nutritional this may help, either way it is more likely to benefit your fish (if my understanding of dropsy is correct) at ths time, more than flake etc. Daphinia is also apparently good for fishies bowel movements. Do you give your fish any vitamins. As i asked before, what do you feed and how often?
Oxygenation; Fish may struggle to get oxygen, due to stress and also if you use a medication*, make sure the potential for oxygen is as high as possible by making sure surface water stimulation is as high as you can get it.
Medication; Personally i'd use a general med or a bactericide. If you have access to antibiotics these could also help.
Epsom Bath; To draw off excess fluid, this link deals with it better than i can--> http/badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article24.html
Further prevention; Once you have analysed the possible causes and decided which is the most likely cause, if you can... rectify it. For the benefit of your fish.

Anyhow, hope that helped, i do enjoy wittering, apologies.

Good luck to your fish
GB

Some further reading; http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/bactin2.shtml (not read it myself yet, more of a personal reminder than anything, sorry )

Edit; If wrong on any account please correct me, this is what i've picked up over the 5/6 months i've kept fish and would much appreciate the info, hints, tips or discussion on possible gaps/flaws in the knowledge i presume to have.

Hello - my fish also looks like this and I am trying to treat him at the moment.

I was just wondering if there was any more info on nutritional dropsy as I have never heard of it before.
Thanks