Dropsy Or Dgd

[stanleo]

Hey all,
 
My dwarf gourami is sick. I just noticed it today. He is almost double the width, his coloration is drastically duller, and his scales are standing up like a pinecone. And he was up at the surface and I was able to touch him. For a normally skittish fish this is not good.
 
Is there anything I can do?
 
If not should I just euthanize him? I don't want him to suffer.
 
Thanks

 

[fm1978]

Dropsy, by the sounds of it!

From fish-disease.net...


Treatment:

Treatment of this disease is difficult, as by the time it is recognized, permanent damage to the internal organs of the fish will have occurred. Immediate treatment must be performed if there is to be any chance for survival. Metronidazole (Flagyl) and or Clout are the best medications for treatment of Dropsy. Notwithstanding, not much is known for certain about the etiology of this disease and some experienced aquarists use antibiotics to fight Dropsy. For oxytetracycline, baths of 20-100 mg/litre for five days is suggested. For tetracycline hydrochloride, treat with baths of 40-100 mg/litre for five days. And for minocycline hydrochloride a dilution of 250mg/10 gallons of water is recommended. On day 2 change all the water and add the medicine again at the same dose for another 2 days. Increase aeration during treatment. Do not use minocycline a third time in a row. Caution: tetracyclines are photo sensitive so turn the tank lights off during treatment and cover the whole tank with a blanket. If the fish is still eating, you can soak the food in a concentrated solution of the antibiotic before feeding.

 

[DrRob]

Does sound like dropsy sadly.

 

[stanleo]

Yeah its dropsy. Poor thing. I have been combing the internet and there seems to be a general consensus that once the swelling and pine coning occur that the fish rarely recovers even with the best treatment so I think my best course of action would be euthanasia.
 
Also in my reading I have seen that this occurs mostly from stress. I tested the water and everything is normal with that. I change 30% of the water a week and clean the Fluval 304 filter once a month. I just cleaned it on Thursday. This tank has been up and running for almost 2 years and the gourami was one of the first fish I got after cycling it.
 
I feed flakes and shrimp pellets once a day with one day of fasting, every few days I replace that with frozen brine shrimp and once a month I feed live bloodworms. When I feed with worms I just dump the whole lot in at once without a feeder and whatever they don't eat I assume gets taken care of buy the shrimp and snails and everything over the course of a couple days.
 
I'm concerned with my other fish getting this. The stocking is 5 flame tetras, 4 peppered corys, 3 neon tetras ( 3 died a few months ago and I didn't want to continue with the species) a dojo loach, BN pleco, 2 whisker shrimp and this dwarf gourami in a 29gl tank. The tank is heavily planted so I never vacuum the substrate.
 
The only new thing is we got a new kitten that was a stray and I catch him drinking from the tank.
 
The tank is in the living room and in order to enter that room we do have to walk by the tank. There is a surround speaker (a small one) next to the tank. Photoperiod is from 12 to 8pm.
 
Anything I should change? I will take any advise seriously. Except for a bought of swim bladder decease last year I have never had these issues in the tank.
 
PS the temp is 78/26 degrees
 
Thanks guys

 

[snazy]

Just observe the fish. It maybe the fish had some underlying organ malfunctioning which eventually took its toll, just like in humans and when failing, it caused pineconing. Other possibilities are stress caused by some enviromental factors in the tank making the fish succeptible to bacterial/parasitic overload. In both scenarios the rest of your fish may not be affected if their immune system is not compromised but it's really hard to tell. It depends on the individual case. The "dropsy" term is just describing the symptoms, not the cause.  Pineconing happens overtime, not just overnight so it's easy to notice if one observes the tank regularly enough. 

 

[DoubleDutch]

Coning can be one of the symptoms of DGD, but dropsy or DGD : In both cases the fish can't be saved I am afraid.
Often Dropsy is said to be caused bij bad waterconditiones. It can, but viral infections can cause this as well. In that case waterconditions haven't any thing to do with it.

 

[the_lock_man]

Coning can be one of the symptoms of DGD, but dropsy or DGD : In both cases the fish can't be saved I am afraid.
Often Dropsy is said to be caused bij bad waterconditiones. It can, but viral infections can cause this as well. In that case waterconditions haven't any thing to do with it.

 
The advice that is normally given on here is that bad water conditions are one of the more common causes of dropsy, but by no means the only one.

 

[DoubleDutch]

I know. Bad waterconditions are often the cause of a lot of diseases, but think we'd be a bit carefull to link Dropsy directly with bad waterconditions. 
I've seen Dropsy or better coning fish also with fish kept under perfect conditions !!! If you tell a keeper, doing a lot of effort to keep the water pristine, you'll have war hahahaha. So I don't deny or argue the fact, but I do ask to be carefull with that conclusion.
Greets Aad

 

[stanleo]

Well I watched him for the last 3 days and he was just getting bigger and worse. I couldn't let it go on anymore so I had to euthanize him. He didn't even fight the net at all when I took him out. I am really upset about it. I don't know if its the water quality or not. I know that I keep up on all the maintenance and the water is testing fine.

 

[snazy]

Was he subjected to any other stress stanleo, like inquisitive or aggressive tank mates, someone chasing him off all the time? Stressed fish succumb to diseases easily and it's not always the water quality. 
 
I am sorry about your fish. It's very sad watching them wither and die like that.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Sorry to hear !!!! As said : In a lot of cases like this you shouldn't blame yourself !!!

 

[stanleo]

All of his tankmates are peaceful except the shrimps but they never bothered him

 

[Meeresstille]

So sorry you had to go through this Stanleo. I almost cried reading about you netting the little guy out, and him not even fighting it. It is hitting a little close to home, you see! Had this happen a while back with my male Betta and it still sends a pang through my heart!
 
All we can do is try to consider any possible cause so we can learn from it and prevent it from happening again. But sometimes there just aren't any answers and it could very well have been a fish with some underlying health issues that he had been born with!
 
Again, very sorry for your loss!