Has Anyone Successfully Treated A Betta W/ Dropsy?

[Gazoo]

Yesterday evening I noticed my betta was pineconing on one side of its belly. I have an empty 7 gallon tank with a power filter and heater that I can use for a hospital tank. Any tips would be appreciated.

Could this be something other than dropsy?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sounds like dropsy to me, first thing is to make sure the filter in the hospital tank is mature and the tank is spotless (in terms of water stats)

now i'm not 100% so please get confirmation of this before you do it, but I believe a salt bath can help with dropsy. you make up some water to marine salinity with proepr marine salt and put the fish in it for a few minutes, then back into it's normal tank. It's a pretty harsh treatment and not nice for the fish, but can be very very effective.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Dropsy isn't a disease, its a symptom. Considering pineconeing can be a sign of anything from excess fluid to full blown organ faliure, its a real gamble as to what treatment to use.

 

[RandomWiktor]

I had one betta survive dropsy. Another was on the road to recovery but my mom left his feeding door open while I was on vacation and he jumped to his death However, 9/10 times, it is organ failure, especially if they fish is older. I have lost almost every single one of my dropsy patients.
I would suggest an epsom salt bath, a broad-spectrum anti-biotic, and an anti-biotic food. GelTek makes a gel food that targets kidney infections especially, and since kidneys are usually the organ failing when a betta has drospy, it is always worth a shot. The one betta I saved got this round of treatment, and has been happy, healthy, and blowing beautiful bubblenests.

 

[starrynightxxi]

sounds like dropsy. i have had a betta survive dropsy and i didn't do anything for him. Part of it just seems to depend on the amount of fight in the betta. I wouldn't suggest doing nothing if i were you, though, and definately keep the water clean as clean can be as poor water quality seems to be one of the causes of dropsy.

Like RandomWiktor said, an epsom salt bath, antibacerial food, and clean water will give your fish the best chance at recovering.

 

[Ravenwing]

Awww pour little guy! I hope he gets better!! As OohFeeshy stated dropsy is a symptom of something else going wrong. It could be organ failure as others have stated or it could be related to constipation. How much are you feeding your fish per day? And more importantly what are you feeding your fish? The site below may help...

http/www.fishjunkies.com/Diseases/dropsy.php

Good luck!!

 

[Gazoo]

How much are you feeding your fish per day? And more importantly what are you feeding your fish?

I've had the betta for 2 and a half years and its in a 16 gallon (US) with 7 rasboras. They are fed once a day and get a variety of food. I use Hikari micro pellets, micro waffers, tropical flake and the occasional bit of frozen blood worms and brine shrimp. The betta also has his own stash of Hikari Betta Bio-Gold. I would say I'm careful to not over feed. So far the betta has a good appetite and is behaving normal.

I perform 25% water changes using SeaChem Prime every 1-2 weeks.
Water results from today:
pH 7.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate ~10

I think in person the pineconing is a bit more pronounced then what my picture shows and it is only on the right side. From other pictures I've seen, it appears that other fish have more symmetrical swelling.

Thank you for your comments.

 

[willtang3000]

I've never cured it myself but esha2000 is suppose to do what it says on the packet