Does my fish have dropsy?

Hi
I've a new tank and am learning as I go. We have some pencil fish and they have developed some worrying symptoms but want to check people's thoughts before I act in a drastic manner.

Background... the fish have been in and happy for a month or two. Three weeks ago child 2 'fed' the fish (enough food for 3 months). Water changes and lots of maintenance means that we got through without a large nitrite or nitrate spike. During my trying to sort it out, the tank went for 3 days without food. About a week ago two Ottos died, I assumed it was because the bacteria in their stomach died during the fast and they could longer digest food.

Now my pencil fish (2 of 6) have bloated stomach's too. I'd love any thoughts on what this is... my fear is that it's dropsy. I have included pictures. They have distended stomachs but no other symptoms, no pinecone scales or redness of gills (I have not observed they're poo being white either). They are active, they actually seem to 'spar' with each other more now. I have 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite and 25ppm nitrate. I keep the tank at 25 degrees but it got up to 28 in the last week or two because of the weather.

I'd love anyone's thoughts... I have ordered some clove oil to arrive tomorrow!

Thanks in advance

I’m afraid it looks to be dropsy..
Melafix worked for me once.
25 nitrates is tooo high

Sgooosh said:

I’m afraid it looks to be dropsy..
Melafix worked for me once.
25 nitrates is tooo high

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Thanks @Sgooosh - I'll order some Melafix. As a side note, I've been trying to get my nitrates down but to no avail. My tap water is way too high in nitrates (50ppm) and the lowest RO water I've found is 10 ppm and I can't always make the trip to get it. Are there any de-nitrate-ing products?

Really appreciate you taking the time to reply

Aquan't said:

Thanks @Sgooosh - I'll order some Melafix. As a side note, I've been trying to get my nitrates down but to no avail. My tap water is way too high in nitrates (50ppm) and the lowest RO water I've found is 10 ppm and I can't always make the trip to get it. Are there any de-nitrate-ing products?

Really appreciate you taking the time to reply

Click to expand...

Just get more floating plants as they suck up nutrients quick!
or any fast grower like elodea

Are the fish eating normally?
What does their poop look like?
What food did they get fed?
Video and pictures of all the fish?

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Fish don't get sick from eating too much food and their intestinal bacteria are not harmed by food.

Fish can get sick if there is uneaten food in the tank and that causes ammonia or nitrite problems. But it is not the food making them sick, it is poor water quality that kills them in this circumstance.

The pencil fish could be fat. One of them looks like a female and could have eggs. If they are eating well, sparring, and doing normal poop, there is nothing wrong about with them.

The Otocinclus could have died from ammonia or nitrite poisoning or something else.

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You can reduce feeding for a week or so and see if they lose weight.

You can do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate ever day for a week and see if that helps drop the nitrates.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.