Dreaded Dropsy

[lilfishie]

Well i all my years of fish keeping i've never had Dropsy until now so have no clue on what to do

Tank size: Was 125l now the fish is in a 15l
pH: 7
ammonia:0
nitrite:0
nitrate:20
kH:
gH:
tank temp: 26

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): Just started to pinecone apart from that is swimming about as normal

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 25% weekly

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: nothing

Tank inhabitants: 6 *now 5* Female Bettas, Copeland Tetras, SAEs, BNs

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): plants 3 weeks ago

Exposure to chemicals: none

Digital photo (include if possible): will get 1



I was conditioning this female betta for breeding so there was an increase in size anyway so its gone unnoticed until today when the scales are slightly raised

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Ouch! lilfish..... my experience with dropsy is....... Fatal. I have seen people claiming to have had success with treatment, but until I see it work, I will not believe..... One positive thing though..... is that (IME) it is not as contageous as people say.... seclude the infected one (and expect to lose it) and do a partial water change.... It is one of the ugliest diseases I have seen. (apart from hole in the head)

 

[lilfishie]

Ouch! lilfish..... my experience with dropsy is....... Fatal. I have seen people claiming to have had success with treatment, but until I see it work, I will not believe..... One positive thing though..... is that (IME) it is not as contageous as people say.... seclude the infected one (and expect to lose it) and do a partial water change.... It is one of the ugliest diseases I have seen. (apart from hole in the head)

Thats pretty much what I have read about it

Got some bacterial meds in with her as i have no salt

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Got some bacterial meds in with her as i have no salt

Good luck!, but do not hold your breath..... I have not seen Wilder around in a while.....maybe she could help??...

 

[lilfishie]

I've not seen Wilder about either, we need our fish doctor back!

 

[the_lock_man]

Wilder's advice to me when I had a platy with dropsy, was to use an Epsom Salts bath, to try to draw out the fluid in the body. But as Ludwig says, 99.9% cases are hopeless.

 

[BettaAds]

From what I can gather, the best thing to do if you wish to attempt to treat for dropsy, is using a broad spectrum antibiotic, seeing as it is more of a symptom than an illness, unless you know the illness (which it would appear isn't the case here) then its a bit of a shot in the dark unfortunately, the only piece of advice I have come across that seems to make any real sense is the broad specitrum antibiotic, which stands a (small) chance of treating the cause.

I hope you have luck with the issue.

 

[HayzH]

my Betta looked slightly Pineconed once..i thought that was it..Turned out he was just a pig and eaten too much...so much he looked pineconed....
hope she makes it xxx

 

[the_lock_man]

From what I can gather, the best thing to do if you wish to attempt to treat for dropsy, is using a broad spectrum antibiotic, seeing as it is more of a symptom than an illness, unless you know the illness (which it would appear isn't the case here) then its a bit of a shot in the dark unfortunately, the only piece of advice I have come across that seems to make any real sense is the broad specitrum antibiotic, which stands a (small) chance of treating the cause.

I hope you have luck with the issue.

The problem I have with this is that if it isn't a bacterial infection, then you would be doing more harm than good. Most fish medications are based on heavy metals, which are poisonous to fish. The trick with them is to dose at a level which is lethal to whatever it is you are trying to kill (bacteria, protozoa, fungus, whatever) but not at a level which will kill the fish. Even at that level, it will still make the fish feel seriously grotty.

If you use an inappropriate medication, you are poisoning them, without the counterbalance of killing the illness, which will help the fish feel better.