please help

[lennym75]

Hi there,
my siamese fighter died last week, which really surprised me, he seemed healthy and active, but when i brought him out the tank, 1 of his sides was looked swollen and some of his scales were'nt flat, last night i came home and my biggist pearly danio didnt look good so i checked water levels which were a bit hight. i then did a water change.
my danio is swimming funny, he seems to be swimming with his head. his scales look as if they are'nt flat.
could anyone please help me. as im really worried for the rest of my fish. i also have a load of babies( guppies) in a breeding net inside the tank, im worried the babies will be affected too as they are so young

 

[tttnjfttt]

Does he look like a pine cone from the top? If so, look up dropsey in the pinned topics. Unfortunately, that disease is very hard to cure, but some people have had luck with internal bacterial meds. If at all possible, put him into a quarentine tank, with a heater, so he won't infect the fry.

Did you clean out or steralize the tank after your last fatality? I've had illnesses passed fish to fish that way. Also, what are your water stats? Ammonia, Nitrite, nitrate, ph, etc. Those are really helpful when figuring out what went wrong in a tank.

 

[The-Wolf]

when you say the water levels a a bit high, what exactly do you mean?
the scales arn't flat? do you man the fish looks a bit like a pine cone?
if so it is probbable that he has dropsy.

to help you more we really need the water params, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.
also any other symptoms the fish is exibiting like gaspind, clamped fins, shimminig, basically anything that is not normal behaviour or looks.

 

[lennym75]

my water levels are:
nitrate 10.
nitrite 0.25
ammonia 0.25
ph 6.8
high ph 7.4

yes the danio looks like pine cone he also seems to be swimming with his head but fins arent clamped, but gills look a wee bit red
i have another tank but i dont have another heater.
this danio has lived in a cold water enviroment before i had him can i put him back to cold water? i have no idea of his age but he is 1 of the biggest danio's i have seen. i only got him about 3 weeks ago.

 

[The-Wolf]

I'm affraid that he has dropsy, caused by the poor water conditions.
Sorry to say, I don't expect him to make a recovery.
If dropsy is caught early enough it is possible to cure it, but once the pine coning is in full swing it is often too late.

you need to do a large water change now and possibly for the next few days too.
From your results it looks like the tank hasn't cycled or is in a mini re-cycle.
IME really big danios are normally quite old 2.5 to 3 years which is the average lifespan for them.