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Female dropsy

DigitalBoy

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
69
Bad news. My female in a 25 gallon seems to have dropsy - she's been very quite, swimming at the bottom, very pale and bloated, her scales are bulging out, it looks sick. I put her in a QT 10 gallon, she's been there for a day. I do not know what to do next. I've heard that this disease is not curable, and even if I use medicine that may supress the signs but will not bring her back.
Any thoughts?
:cry:
 

Richgrenfell

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
327
Location
North Haven, CT
i have encountered this problem my self. I was working with some aggie (Iquitos) and the males kept getting dropsy. I lost 2 straight males to it and I couldn't figure out why. It was a bit strange to have it happen to 2 straight fish, as I was under the impression that dropsy was usually an isolated incident. Anyway, I separated the fish to a hospital tank, bumped the temp to 83 degrees, and treated with epsom salts mixed into the food. However this method is a little useless when the fish has stopped eating as most fish with dropsy do. I did have minimal success. but it always came back shortly after returning the fish to the main tank. Unfortunately, in both cases, I had to destroy the fish, and the tank was sterilized and started over again. From the info I have gathered, that is usually how cases of this disease end. Don't go taking this as fact, this is just what I did, i'm no expert, just a hobbiest, and what I do is not neccessarily what others do.

Rich
 

mordor

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
138
Location
San Jose, CA
In December bacterial infection wiped out half of my stock. I lost many apistos and other fish. I tried almost all possible medications. It's hard so my suggestion is to focus on prevention. Healthy fish has better chance to survive if it's infected. Usually healthy fish has strong enough immunology system to resist and it do not get sick.
Since that I bought 5g tank for qurantine, I bought UV lamp for my community tank, I am feeding vitamins, I stopped buying fish from that store.
 

Richgrenfell

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
327
Location
North Haven, CT
Bravo! I agree...the best treatment is prevention. Keep the fish's immunity up, and they fight disease much more easily than you might think!

rich
 

MsCichlid

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
16
Location
MD
This is bizzare. I have a male cren. regani who is pale, breaths rapidly, unable to swim correctly and is bloated. I never have had experience with any of the fish diseases except Ich once. I have quarentined him and added medication. I am almost afraid to go in the fishroom. It's a shame really, his mate runs out and displays for him whenever he moves. This sucks. I have been working with three pairs of cren regani and these were the first to even show signs of spawning.

Francine
 

DigitalBoy

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
69
:(

I feel your pain. I got exactly the same problem, it is really sad to look at and I am not sure what to do. Is it better just to kill the fish and end her sufferings or to wait for a less likely recovery. It is sad.
 

mordor

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
138
Location
San Jose, CA
I think first step in healing is right identification of disease. So far best description I could find is in Dieter Untergasser's 'Handbook of Fish Diseases'. I might save some fish if I got proper medicine on time but I was trying almost everything and came to anti-biotics at the end.
 

MsCichlid

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
16
Location
MD
Fish diseases

In hindsight I suppose it would be prudent to buy a book on fish disease. My male died last night.

Francine
 

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