Dropsy.... Cured?

[phurn]

For the past few weeks I've had a platy in isolation with a huge dropsy swelling, I've been keeping an eye on her and as soon as she was suffering I was gonna kill her.... Anyway after about 3 weeks she wasn't any worse, no loss of appetite or change in behavior, just a colossal swelling, which was starting to stop her moving so I thaught ok, time to kill it.


However! When I picked it up it burst! Which made me feel abit sick tbh so I dropped it back in the water..... And we're now a week later and she's still swimming around happy as ever, with no sign of the swelling returning at all.... So when do I say enoughs enough and throw her back in the main tank??

 

[panda_cory]

If there is no sign of it within say a week and she seems happy enough then put her back in.

 

[phurn]

Maybe all dropsy could be cured, or extended atleast by bursting the said fish!!!

 

[Ludwig Venter]

I am sceptical..... were the scales protruding and all???..... if dropsy cured.... it'll be the first account I hear of in 40 years.....

 

[phurn]

They were. Not as severe as I've seen but they were defiantly protruding... I'm sceptical mysekf and I've got the fish!!

 

[Neptune54]

It's a miracle!

 

[FishBlast]

Maybe all dropsy could be cured, or extended atleast by bursting the said fish!!!

Uh... What do you mean by bursting? Like... making the fish poop by force?
Another fix for a dropsy would involve being a surgeon. That could technically allow you to see inside the fish and fix whatever problem it has. Which would make only liver/kidney failures and cancer be almost incurable causes of dropsy, while blockages could be fixed no problem. But, since most of us are not surgeons...

 

[OldMan47]

Your miracle fish should be left in isolation for at least another couple of weeks. There is no telling what its real problem was, since dropsy is merely a symptom description, not a diagnosis. (You could consider it like saying pneumonia where the disease causing the pneumo to swell is not known.) If your fish is rid of whatever disease was causing it to be severely bloated, it should show no recurrence in that time and then I would consider releasing back into a no0rmal environment. If it is not cured, you will likely start to see symptoms again.