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Treating dropsy ?

anewbie

Well-Known Member
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1,365
I gave up on the prazipro now that 5 days has passed; I have sincere doubt it was parasite to begin with for a number of reasons - some provided some not. I put her in a pail with fresh water and started treating with melafix. Not clue if that is a better or worse choice than furan-2 but it seems milder and others reported some success with it. I'll treat her for 7 days with it and see what happens. She is still swimming but appears a little weaker. I'm given her 2 grains of food every other day but doubt she is eating it and i've added a pair of small mystery snails to eat the uneaten food. I do think it is a hopeless cause but i figure by trying to treat her i might gain some insight esp if something actually works.
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,365
So it has been 4 days of melafix and this morning she at a bit - i'll treat her one more day and if she is still eating tomorrow morning i will put her back in the main tank. The bloat has gone down a bit but i think she is still a little bloated - not sure if the original bloat (which i thought was quite severe damaged her).
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,365
Well i'm not sure what is going on but she seemed to have fully recovered and has been returned to the tank. At first (30 sec? 1 min) she went pale white and clamped her fin but after finding her old tank mates her normal behavior and colouring returned.
 

anewbie

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Messages
1,365
Well it has been a couple of weeks and she is still doing well. I am really amazed at how well she has recovered given the amount of bloat she had. I thought her eyes were going to pop out. I wish i had tried this treatment on that male nijensi that died a year ago.
 

anewbie

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Messages
1,365
Well it looks like her bloat is starting to come back so I'm not sure if i should try treating her again or just let nature takes its course. Also the 'second' male developed extreme bloat. I treated it for parasite for 3 weeks and the other stuff for 2 weeks - it is still in a pail but it is only getting worse. I will say that both of these fishes were picked on a bit more than the other 2 hong - the other 2 are a female which is substantially larger than this one and the dominant male. Before asking why i kept 2 males in the same tank - they were purchased at under 1/4 an inch over a year ago and were hardly sexable at that time and i've run out of tank space. I guess if the female gets much worse i'll stick her in the pail with the male and treat until they pass.

Is it worth trying some other parasite medicine just in case it is a parasite? I've been using hikari prazipro and it doesn't seem to do much for them (good or bad).
 

MacZ

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,958
Location
Germany
Got something against internal protozoan parasites? (Hexamita meds work against those, too.)

If it's not that either I wouldn't know what to use. You say they got picked on quite a lot? Could be opportunistic bacteria, then.
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,365
Got something against internal protozoan parasites? (Hexamita meds work against those, too.)

If it's not that either I wouldn't know what to use. You say they got picked on quite a lot? Could be opportunistic bacteria, then.
Isn't the prazipro internal parasite? If not where would i obtain hexamita med ?
 

MacZ

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,958
Location
Germany
there is not just one type of internal parasite. There are two groups that are frequent enough there are targeted treatments: worms and protozoans/flagellates. Both require different meds.

No idea what's available to you.
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,365
ok. api general care seemed to be what people used but fda made api pull it a couple of months ago so it can no longer be purchased.
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,365
So it has been about a month that I've had the male hongsloi in a pail. I've tried four treatments (2 for bacteria and 2 for parasites) and none of them have worked. He is about 3x normal width and very pale but he is eating. I'm at a loss what to do with him. I've kept him in the pail so he can't be harassed but I'm not sure that is the best environment. I could put him back in the tank with the other hongsloi, leave him in the pail, try some other treatment or put him down. Well I do have a 5 gallon tank with some shrimp but that isn't any larger than the pail. Hum suggestions?
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
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11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
I'm sorry if I appear heartless, but it seems you have spent a lot of money on trying to save this fish, with no apparent success. You might consider it time to "put it out of its misery".
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,365
I'm sorry if I appear heartless, but it seems you have spent a lot of money on trying to save this fish, with no apparent success. You might consider it time to "put it out of its misery".
It isn't heartless; I am aware of the cost and some of the medicine i already had on hand. Mostly i view it as an 'experiment' to try to find a cure. Right now the fish has a strong appetite and the poop is black so I'm reluctant to euthanize him. I suppose if he shows strong distress (have trouble swimming; stops eating; ...) I will go that route but right now he was strong enough to chase a female out of the pail (and bite off her tail in the progress - this was last week). Her tail has mostly regrown now that i moved her back to the main tank. I'm just a bit at a loss what is wrong with the fish. I've done a lot of reading that indicate stress; bacteria and parasite can cause this but no real way to identify the root issue.

Maybe i will go the euthanize route in a couple of days - want to sleep on it. The other 3 hongsoli seem to be doing fine.
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,365
For the record the male passed today. The female continues (she was returned to the tank 6 or 8 weeks ago).
 

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