Dropsy in my house

[purple_drazi]

I can't believe it. I just took delivery of 3 girls and 3 boys today so I was so happy and excited... and I found Sparky all pine-coney this morning.

I don't know why. I did a 100% water change in his 2 gal bowl every week so he always had clean water and I was really careful about not overfeeding. I'm hoping against hope that he'll pull through. I changed the water again, added aquarium salt and a dose of Tetracycline.

I know the temp in his bowl is a bit low for a betta, it's right on the bottom line of the acceptable temp range at 70 degrees but the smallest heater I could find was for a minimum of 5 gal and his is only a 2 gal tank.
this is crummy.

 

[Kiarra]

So much sympathy! If you have any tetracycline, give it a try. Some people recommend it...and it can't exactly hurt. I've heard that raising the level of salt can help draw the excess fluids out of the body, and at the very least ease any suffering poor Sparky may be experiencing.

 

[BettaMomma]

I'm sorry to hear about your pineconey boy.

One thing I have been suggesting to everyone in the case of dropsy is colloidal silver. Supposedly, you can get it on the internet or in nutrition stores. Wuv swears that you can cure anything with it - it would be worth a shot if you could get ahold of some.

Other than that, I guess your best shot is with tetracycline. That's the big guns of the meds. Also, make sure you don't use any salt with it - that will help hold the fluids in and make matters worse.

Good luck.

EDIT - i posted while Kiarra was posting - if you do try salts to draw the fluids out, use epsom salt - that will draw the fluids out, aquarium salt will hold it in.

 

[purple_drazi]

ok, another water change coming up to get the aquarium salt out...
how much epsom salt do I use?

(thanks for the help guys!)

 

[BettaMomma]

Sorry it took so long for me to respond - I was googling for an answer, and I found several different answers - none of which matched. uugh.

What I did find a concensus on, somewhat... was 1 tsp for 5 gallons.
Hopefully someone else will come along and concur.

I do think, though, I would add it in increments - not all at once.

 

[purple_drazi]

thanks for responding.
I was hoping to get Sparky out of the aquarium salted water, but I'll have to wait until tomorrow to do a water change after all. I ran out of prepared water setting up the two new tanks for the new boys & girls so I filled the buckets again at noon and they're still not up to room temp.