[Prometheus]

I have an "el natural" style aquarium. I've had a couple of fish die over the past few weeks. The tank is heavily planted so i don't suspect amonia problems. Recently I noticed my dwarf danio looks as if the fish scales all over his body are raised. He has a textured look :tape2: to him but he's been swimming around normally with no unusual behavior. Does anyone know what this is? What can I do to treat him?

 

[mommyeireanne]

My guess (without seeing the fish) is that he's bloated. The problem could be lots of things, two more common possibilities are overfeeding/constipation or MB mycobacterium infection (some call this Fish TB). There's a sticky about it. Here's the link. If you think it's food, then fast him for a day or two, then offer green pea mush (the inside not the seed coat). If you're sure it's constipation you could try an Epsom Salt bath. That's stressful though. I lost a whole tankful of danios to MB. If he has dropsy type symtoms, isn't eating, has curved spine I'd suspect this. If he's doing ok you might want to get a UV filter so he doesn't infect your other fish. If he's clearly dying, you might consider humanely euthanizing him. But definitely quarentine him if he acts "off". I'll have a good thought for you.
Ok I just reread the 'couple of fish died' part. I'd suspect MB and think about if you want to invest $75 in a UV filter. Not good news, sorry.

 

[Nelumbo74]

This condition is commonly referred to as "dropsy".

 

[Prometheus]

AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!

I looked up fish dropsy on wikipedia.. no good
!!!

He looks like he has that! He's definately bloated. That's soo sad.. He was a cool little fish :twitch:
So I should put him in a quarantine tank with salt? It says that the main cause is from bacterial infection which can be introduced through food or dirty water. well, I don't do any water changes that's for sure. I introduced two SAE's about a week ago but the shop I get them from quarantines all their fish before they sell them. I waited a while to get those SAE's. Could that be from the new fish? Two days ago, I found one of my platys dead without any prior signs of anything. Yesterday I was cleaning the foam on the power head. It looked like there had been a dead neon tetra stuck between that and the glass for a while. it was almost completely disintegrated. Could that have poluted the water?out:

thanks guys

 

[Prometheus]

so antiobiotics or euthanization????:tape2:

 

[Cliff Mayes]

No good answer. No one knows, just a suspician.

I at one time cured Discus, Angels and Goldfish with a drug that was banned for Humans but is still available for fish, although the fish died anyway after a few months so I stopped doing that.

It sounds as if your fish has a raging Bacterial (maybe Viral) infection so as suggested Quarantine and get your H2OQ as good as it can be so more problems do not visit you.

This is the best advice anyone can give you right now based on a very limited knowledge of you and your fish.

 

[Sunstar]

some suggest adding some theraputic levels of salt to a quarantine tank to draw the fluids from the fish.

 

[lildark185]

Haven't heard of a danio getting dropsy, but bettas are very susceptible. Try maracyn II, it's worked in some instances (coin flip odds) for bettas I had in the past. Usually by the time you see the signs of dropsy its too late but if you want to its worth a shot. The maracyn at least gives it a chance. But then again, it's a danio so I'm not sure if you'd want to purchase meds when you can replace your fish for much cheaper. :tape2:

 

[mommyeireanne]

Dropsy is just a description of the symptoms, not a clinical diagnosis.
If it is MB it's not curable with any medicine.
Your fish may be able to live with UV, but there's no treatment. All that is in the first link. If you only read one thing, read this it's Diana Walstad's presentation on it.

Didn't mean for this to sound harsh, I was in a hurry and had to log off. I do hope you have some luck with this. I personally hate loosing fish. It's a bad decision if he does have MB. How's he doing?

 

[Fortuna Wolf]

Yeah, you can treat dropsy, which is a symptom... it takes about 25g of epsom salts per liter of water. All the fish I've treated this way had their bloating go down but were always lethargic and never survived long, probably because of internal organ damage.

 

[dwalstad]

Yes. And we're not just talking about ammonia. A fish that has died of a bacterial disease will release tons of the very same bacteria that killed it into the aquarium water. These bacteria can infect all the other fish in the tank.

A UV sterilizer (like frequent water changes) removes pathogens from the water.

If you aren't willing to get a UV sterilizer, I recommend that you reduce disease transmission by removing all dead and dying fish. Then do massive water changes and tank cleaning. This will reduce the numbers of potential pathogens to levels that other fish may be able to handle. If you are lucky, some of your fish may survive.

Fish diseases take a lot of the fun out of fish keeping. Sorry to hear about your troubles.