Dropsy?

[lizard]

Hello.

As noted in an earlier post, my female Platy died. I am suspecting she had dropsy. Here's why (for those of you who don't like blood/guts, you probably don't want to read on): after she died, I decided to do a necropsy (autopsy) to see if I could find fry or lots of fluid in her abdomen. There was a fair bit of fluid in her abdomen. No fry. Before she died, she had a very large belly - looked like she was going to split in half. The scales on her sides were sticking out a little, but I assumed it was due to her being so round (but was going to post about it tonight, just in case...). Also, she had black on both sides of her (as in her coloring, before she died). However, when I had her out of the water to necropsy her, this black color scraped off and was liquid like. That didn't seem quite right to me. Up until two or so hours before she died, she acted normal. She was swimming around and ate at feeding times.

Does the above sound like dropsy to fishkeepers who know about it? If so, do I need to treat the other fish in the tank? With what?

Thanks!

Pamela
aka Lizard

 

[wuvmybetta]

well.... ,J/K

sorry about your platy by the way , I've only had one run-in with dropsy and it's a nasty disease, but as far as I know it's not contagious, someone will correct me if I'm wrong. It IS a bacteria so it could very well be contagious but it's mostly brought on from stress. The fluid in the abdomen DOES sound like dropsy, I know this only because when my little guy had it my lfs keeper gave me a syringe & a needle and told me to draw the fluid from his abdomen with the needle I couldn't do it though (I'm a wuss) nor could I bear the thought of stressing my poor fish out and bringing him up to my lfs

Hopefully someone will answer you as far as treating the whole tank, I personally wouldn't, it's not as if it was ich or anything, but that's only my opinion, I avoid meds completely and use minerals from my health food store to treat my fishies

 

[platypus]

Hi Lizard,

There are some pics of fish with dropsy here, hope it helps. It also says here that it's not highly contagious, but it's important to maintain good water quality. Have you done a water change recently? Good luck

 

[Eelzor]

I have never had a fish with dropsy, infact i have never had a sick fish! Probably because I didn't cycle at the start and they died. But by the way several are explaining it, I'd hate to have a fish with a sickness!

 

[lizard]

Hi Lizard,

There are some pics of fish with dropsy here, hope it helps. It also says here that it's not highly contagious, but it's important to maintain good water quality. Have you done a water change recently? Good luck

Thanks for the pics link. Her scales were standing out a little, but not like the fish in the pictures. Up until three or so hours before she died, she was eating and acting like, well, a fish. A water change had been done the night before. Since the tank she was in was in the end stages of ich treatment, the water was getting changed daily. The other fish in the tank are still doing fine. They're happy little fish

Pamela
aka Lizard