Goldfish with Dropsy

Pwee2029

Hi. I have a goldfish, Wiggles is his name. He's about 6 years old now. Here he is: http://imgur.com/lF8QpL6

He currently is suffering from dropsy. It started yesterday. I fed him and after a few seconds, his belly grew big.. My dad said he's just full and that I must fast him for 3 days.

This morning, I went to check on him but he was just laying down at the bottom of the tank. His eyes grew bigger and I knew something wasn't right. His left side is bigger than the other side..

I could also see that his scales are sticking out, and found out he has dropsy.
I'm going to the fish store tomorrow, and I want to make sure what medication he needs. Can you suggest some to me? I know I need to get epsom salt..

He is isolated from the other fish, should I still feed him?

I am very attached to this fish, any help will be appreciated. I hope he doesn't die

On a side note, dropsy is an internal disease where the kidney of the fish fails. Therefore the fluid can't pass out so the fish swells up. Causes are gases in the water (nitrogen),high ammonia level, poor water conditions etc

CruelCoin

Pwee2029 wrote: »

Hi. I have a goldfish, Wiggles is his name. He's about 6 years old now. Here he is: http://imgur.com/lF8QpL6

He currently is suffering from dropsy. It started yesterday. I fed him and after a few seconds, his belly grew big.. My dad said he's just full and that I must fast him for 3 days.

This morning, I went to check on him but he was just laying down at the bottom of the tank. His eyes grew bigger and I knew something wasn't right. His left side is bigger than the other side..

I could also see that his scales are sticking out, and found out he has dropsy.
I'm going to the fish store tomorrow, and I want to make sure what medication he needs. Can you suggest some to me? I know I need to get epsom salt..

He is isolated from the other fish, should I still feed him?

I am very attached to this fish, any help will be appreciated. I hope he doesn't die

On a side note, dropsy is an internal disease where the kidney of the fish fails. Therefore the fluid can't pass out so the fish swells up. Causes are gases in the water (nitrogen),high ammonia level, poor water conditions etc

Dropsy can be caused by high level of Nitrates/Nitrites and Ammonia.

Sorry but in the vast majority of all cases dropsy is fatal.
This disease causes huge damage to the internal organs, and it's very rare for fish to recover from it.
You would be doing the fish a service by putting it out of it's misery.

Tropheus

You could try something like eSHa Exit which is a broad spectrum treatment. It's a long shot, but could be worth a try. The best you can do is keep the water quality as good as possible.

What size tank is he in? Is there a filter? How often do you change the water?

Pwee2029

He died today even though I've given him medication. And had the medication shipped over here from London late last night. Thanks for the advice

Tropheus

Sorry to hear that. The problem is with Dropsy or Bloat as it's also known is that it's a generic term to describe the fish swelling. Unfortunately there is no way to know what's causing the swelling. It could be bacterial, but which type of bacteria? It's also very difficult to treat internal bacterial infections in fish as they don't ingest much of the medication that you add to the tank. The other possibility is a tumour which you have no chance of treating.

If it is bacterial, it was most likely caused by poor water conditions. It's something you need to read up on if you're to get another fish. Goldfish are also difficult to keep long term in aquariums as they grow so big. An adult goldfish has the potential to reach 12". If it doesn't have enough space to grow, it will be stunted which will also lead to health problems.

Don't mention goldfish bowls. They should be banned.

Pwee2029

I know I've got the right equipment and the right tank size. It must be the water, I use tap water and I do treat it before I put the fish in. I'm going to start using bottled water for the fish. I've read it's better than tap water somewhere on the internet

Tropheus

Pwee2029 wrote: »

I know I've got the right equipment and the right tank size. It must be the water, I use tap water and I do treat it before I put the fish in. I'm going to start using bottled water for the fish. I've read it's better than tap water somewhere on the internet

If you don't treat the water before a water change you may as well not have a filter. Chlorine in tap water will kill the beneficial bacteria in the filter.

It's also very important to let the water lie overnight to bring it up to the same temperature as the tank.

A bottle of good dechlorinator would be cheaper than buying bottled water.

Silverfish

Pwee2029 wrote: »

I know I've got the right equipment and the right tank size. It must be the water, I use tap water and I do treat it before I put the fish in. I'm going to start using bottled water for the fish. I've read it's better than tap water somewhere on the internet

Don't use bottled water, it's not good for goldfish.

What size is the tank? What's your water hardness and ph? A sudden change in either can lead to osmoregulation problems with goldfish.

CruelCoin

Pwee2029 wrote: »

He died today even though I've given him medication. And had the medication shipped over here from London late last night. Thanks for the advice

Medication might have cured the cause, but would not have caused the damage caused by all the swelling and distortion.

In future, if you see a fish with dropsy, you would be kinder to kill rather than leave it suffer.
95% chance the medication won't work.

Pwee2029

The fish tank holds 40 gallons. And the ph of the water isn't acidic nor basic.. so it's just about right. So I shouldn't use bottled water? Yeah I know it's quite expensive to buy around 40 gallons of bottled water but I think it'll be worth it?
I left him suffer.. I should have killed him yeah He was breathing while laying down on his side. My friend said there's a chance he could recover..
I do leave the water to settle but just for 3-5 hours

Silverfish

If you use a water conditioner such as prime, you can add the water straight away.

With the water, you'll need a test kit to get levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and PH, if you plan on getting another fish. 99.8% of problems with goldfish are water quality issues due to small tanks or infrequent water changes.

The water hardness would be a different test kit again, but quite important for goldfish, and if not goldfish. then it helps you figure out what fish are best for your water, rather than trying to change the water to suit the fish.

I've only ever seen one fish come back from dropsy, and that was because the problem causing the dropsy was figured out and fixed in time. Mostly by the time you've noticed dropsy, it's just too late. It's not the easiest thing to do.... one of mine had tumours on his kidney and nothing could be done for him, I delayed euthanising him in the hope he'd turn it around and a course of antibiotics would work, but in the end there was no coming back from it.