I think my fish have dropsy

Jen21

Fish Crazy
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After looking up a few diseases I think a few of my fish have dropsy. They are very swollen... and have been for about a month. I have tried feeding them peas and medicating the tank but they show no change. My question is... Is there anything I can do? Will the other fish catch this?
 
If the fish has dropsy you will see a distinct pine cone effect on the fish's scale- like they are sticking out on end. If not your fish is probably pregnant or constipated...
 
Drospy isn't a very infectious desease as far as deseases go but it can be very lethal and not many people can cure it. I have cured it before though and these are the steps i took towards treating it;
a. Move the sick fish to a breeding net or quarentine tank and do a 30% water change.
b. Buy some anti internal bacteria med by Interpet and treat the fish with it.
c. Feed the fish mostly vegetable based foods like algae wafers/tablets or shelled cooked peas etc; the fish may not seem interested at first but it will eat it- you can try to encourage it to eat the vegie based foods by cutting down on its other foods.

The vegetable based foods helps it maintain a better digestive system as constipation in fish can often cause dropsy or worsen it.
d. You may not see any improvement for a week but you will know the med and foods are working if the desease stops progressing.
e. Try to maintain top-notch water quality conditions as this will improve the fish's chances of over coming the desease.
f. If there is no improvment after 11days, i suggest you put the fish down as it is very unlikely it will overcome the desease after that amount of time.

Hope this info helps a little and good luck :thumbs:
 
I have done another water change and added more medicine. They have been like this for a while.... but I just cannot imagine putting them down :sad: One even looks like shes pregnant, I see a gravid spot. I'm going to continue to watch them, but I dont think they will get better :/

Thanks for all the info!
 
if one is pregnant it will be worth letting her live to the end- i had a guppy with dropsy once which i think was caused by her huge pregnant belly and once she had the fry she quickly recoverd from the dropsy within 2days :) .
 
I just cant do it! :-( I don't have the heart to kill my cute fishies. I'm going to wait a few days... but they are looking bad. It is so sad to actually realize you cant help your fish :sad: I just hope the others are ok because one website said certain types of dropsy is contagious...
 
From everything I know, dropsy isn't contagious.
What causes it might be, depending on the cause.
It basically comes from kidney malfunction, and the body's inability to excrete fluid, causing the bloating.

One thing you might consider as a last ditch effort is to find some colloidal silver. Supposedly is the wonder drug.
 

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