Dropsy?

[Kmackenzie]

Hi everyone,

I noticed this morning one of my guppies was resting right on the bottom of the tank and didn't want any food at all when I gave them their feed, it didn't even move. I read up on dropsy symptoms from some other topics here, and I am pretty sure he has dropsy. The symptoms that match it are:

1) He doesn't want to leave the bottom of the tank
2) No interest in food
3) Has trouble swimming
4) Looks like he has a 'pregnant' belly.

I don't know what to do, I've been keeping an eye on him all day, but should I isolate him? Is dropsy contagious? I do have an empty quarantine tank that I can put him in. What treatment should I give him?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Kirsty

 

[Annastasia]

Yep, isolate him in the quarantine tank. Are his scales pinconing yet? Because once they do, it's hard to cure. I've had the best luck using Tetracycline for dropsy though. If you're in the UK, I couldn't tell you what to use, but maybe someone else can.

What are your current water params?

 

[guppymonkey]

For most cases of dropsy there is not much that you can do. As far as I know its a bacterial infection most of the time. If you catch it early sometimes it can be treated with appropriate meds, most meds will say what they treat. I wouldn't hold out much hope though, its very difficult to cure.

 

[Kmackenzie]

No pine-coning yet, but he seems a bit worse, can't swim or eat. Checked water, no ammonia, very pale nitrite reading, ph is neutral. All the other fish seem fine and are eating and swimming normally, I've looked at each one carefully and none seem swollen. Thanks for the advice, he's staying in quarantine for now!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Best thing you can do right now other than use some anti bacterial meds like melafix, primafix or "anti internal bacteria" by Interpet(all though just one med, not all at the same time) and feed him some vegetable based foods like chopped peas or algae wafers to help prevent futher bloating, is good water quality. No matter how small the reading, ammonia and nitrites should always be 0 and if you have a trace of nitrites i would do a 40% water change ASAP- good water quality in itself is a very effective med and desease preventative and will help take some of the stress off him .