Pregnant Guppy With Dropsy

[saffholly]

Just put one of my pregnant guppies into the breader as she was looking square but when i fished her out the tank i noticed her scales sticking out (the pine cone look) so it looks like she may have dropsy . She is squared off and i can see eyes of the fry (so she's close to birth). Do you think she will give birth before she dies?

Do there scales ever stick out like this when pregnant or is it deffently dropsy? she seemed happy, swimming around, not haning around at the surface like they usually do with dropsy.

I gues we will have to wait and see, crossing my fingers that we get some fry before she dies.

 

[Billsfan905]

If the scales are sticking out it definitely isn't from pregnancy- unfortunately it's dropsy
But if you can see eyes and you know she's pregnant you can cross your fingers that she drops her fry before she passes away.

If she's swimming around happily she may not die for a bit, my fish with dropsy had scales protruding and lived for about a month after that with no signs of suffering until the last week

You should check your water stats though for ammonia, nitrites, & nitrates- there's probably a reason she has dropsy.

 

[saffholly]

We had problems with nitrate in the tap water last week which is probably the cause (water has been treated now and all ok but we did lose a lot of fish). She was in the breeder all night but no sign of fry yet, were about to go out so hoping she will give birth when we are gone (at this often seems to happen). Fingers crossed we will get fry before she dies.

 

[Billsfan905]

I will cross my fingers for you!
Let us know how it goes!

 

[saffholly]

Sadly she died this morning and hadnt given birth.

 

[Billsfan905]

Aww !
She is in heaven now

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Shame I didn't read this sooner. Sorry for your loss. I was going to suggest the moment she died slicing her open and seeing if you could free any fry that may survive.

 

[saffholly]

I was going to ask if anyone had ever done that ( a c-section on a fish), sadly i didn't find her until i got up in the morning so she must have died in the early hours, her gravid spot had turned red so i guessed the fry had died. Luckily another one of my guppies decided to give birth in the tank yesterday and i managed to fish out 10 fry (theres still a couple in the tank that i havn't managed to catch but i'm happy with the 10). I lost one of my males today and a Molly so there is still a problem with my tank. Not sure whats going on as its all testing ok (though i do need to buy a beter testing kit). The last 3 guppies that have died where all bought from a aquatic shop which i never have much luck with (often the fish die within a few days of me buying them), i'm hoping that is the problem and not my tank.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I'm having some problems myself at the moment. Well, have one sick male in my male tank who isn't looking too promising... my favorite one (from my avatar)... hoping in the least it won't spread.

 

[saffholly]

I lost my favorite male yesterday (blue tail yellow body), i'm hoping he made one of the females pregnany before he died (as he was the only mail in with 3 of my females. So far today we have had no deaths and all look healthy so fingers crossed we are over the worst of it. My tanks are now looking a bit empty but i dont want to add any fish until i know all is ok (plus 2 of my mollys are about to drop so i might be over run by fry by the end of the week so extra space may come in handy).