Disease Identification and Treatment

[Neleono]

Hi!
Woke up yesterday morning to my fish looking like this (Picture below), my first instinct is to assume its a parasite but I'm not fully sure. The poop is like a very light brown and not stringy which makes me think otherwise. He has been swimming strangely lately (Swimming sideways) but I assumed that was a swim blader problem (Here's a link to the forum where I discussed that: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/new-fish-swimming-sideways.468686/#post-4019404). Any help or recommendations are welcome, I assume this is a parasite or something but I just would like a second opinion.

Edit: I'm starting to think this might unfortunately be dropsy. Not only is the fish beginning to become lethargic, I noticed an almost checkerboard pattern on his scales. Not necessarily protruding per say, just much more visible. I will try to get a picture but my phone hasn't been able to get one that shows it (My camera isn't very good).

Parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <10
pH: 7
Temp: 77

Fish in the tank: 4 Platys (One of which is the sick fish) and 6 neon tetras

Tank Info: Tank is 29 gallons, has a few live plants. Water changes are done weekly, 25-30%, Just did a water change yesterday, along with a gravel cleaning.

Recent additions: He is about 3 weeks new and came along with 8 others (2 more platys and 6 neon tetras) I also got a few new plants at that time.
(Anymore info needed please ask)

 

[Sgooosh]

dropsy, comstipation, or other types of bloating

 

[Neleono]

How would I go about dealing with that?

 

[Sgooosh]

feed blanched peas for constipation, use Melafix for dropsy
sorry, i do not know much

 

[Neleono]

Ok, I have definitely confirmed this is dropsy. I have melafix but it is quite old, I will get some from the store tomorrow. In addition do I make a hospital tank for the infected fish or do I treat the whole tank. Lastly, if I do need a hospital tank, how do I set one of as I do not currently have one. Thanks!

 

[Sgooosh]

Ok, I have definitely confirmed this is dropsy. I have melafix but it is quite old, I will get some from the store tomorrow. In addition do I make a hospital tank for the infected fish or do I treat the whole tank. Lastly, if I do need a hospital tank, how do I set one of as I do not currently have one. Thanks!

For me I did not need a hospital tank BUT my snail does not like melafix, he says it is snot good for his skin (just kidding snails just don’t like melafix)

 

[Neleono]

Ok ,I will start the treatment on the whole tank. I took out the carbon filter. I did set up a hospital tank though, so if things go bad I have it for backup.

 

[Neleono]

I've been doing a lot of reading about this and found that anti-biotics are very dangerous and should be used only if necessary. With this being so, I don't think that melafix treatment is a good idea. Though I'm pretty sure it is dropsy I'm still not positive I'm right. Since the main symptom is bloating should I first do treatment for a protozoan infection?

 

[Sgooosh]

I've been doing a lot of reading about this and found that anti-biotics are very dangerous and should be used only if necessary. With this being so, I don't think that melafix treatment is a good idea. Though I'm pretty sure it is dropsy I'm still not positive I'm right. Since the main symptom is bloating should I first do treatment for a protozoan infection?

umm, melafix worked for one of my guppies, not sure, @Colin_T do you know what to use?

 

[Colin_T]

What makes you think it is dropsy?

Is the fish eating?
Does the fish have normal coloured poop?
If the answer is yes to both of these questions, then it is not dropsy.

Dropsy causes fish to stop eating and do stringy white poop, then they die a few days later.

Melafix won't do anything to fix dropsy.

As for the fish leaning to one side in the video, that is a territorial threat display because you have 2 male platies fighting over dominance.

 

[Neleono]

What makes you think it is dropsy?

Is the fish eating?
Does the fish have normal coloured poop?
If the answer is yes to both of these questions, then it is not dropsy.

Dropsy causes fish to stop eating and do stringy white poop, then they die a few days later.

Melafix won't do anything to fix dropsy.

As for the fish leaning to one side in the video, that is a territorial threat display because you have 2 male platies fighting over dominance.

At the time I thought the fish was pineconing but later I realized that wasn't so, just a lot fatter than normal, allowing me to see his scales much better than usual. He's been doing much better now, the swelling went down a lot, he's much more active, isn't being targeted by the others, etc. He seems to be doing fine but if this happens again it might be a different cause. He has always been short and wide and fatter than the others but I've kind of come to the conclusion that that is genetic (Most likely). But, there's nothing I can do about that, I do have to buy from a big box store because the closest local fish store to me is about an hour away and it has mostly salt water tanks and sales, but the fish from the big box store are subject to mass breeding so they aren't the best quality unfortunately.