Dropsy??

Sadie

I have a Platy I am concerned about, 3 or 4 weeks ago she started to look pregnant so I assumed she was. I have 2 females and they probably have both given birth. I have 3 different age ranges of frye, the first dating back to 2/11/07. Well my concern is that the female in question has looked like she was going to pop for about 2 weeks now. Neither one of the females has look like they were going to give birth before, I never saw the 2nd or 3rd batch after birth, they just showed up when they were several days old - to about a week old.

Here some pictures, I'm afraid now that this may be dropsy.





My concern grew even more when I saw my Yo-yo last night he seemed to have a pot belly and didn't want to come out last night. He seemed to be laying on the curved pot belly instead of his entire underside like I am accustomed to seeing. He is going through a growth spurt and no way a lone loach can be prego. This morning he didn't seem to be as large as he was and he came out and was patrolling. This evening, behavior wise he seems normal, he's been out reeking havoc. He dislodged an Ambulia, has been watching me watching him and swimming up and down the tank front . Here's a couple pics of him from tonight.






Params last night were ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate 10. Should I be worried about either of them?

Falina

average length of pregnancy is 28 days so its its only been 3 weeks theres hope yet. ive never had dropsy thankfully but your Platy does look to be especially bloated.

here is a paragraph i found about dropsy:

The term "Dropsy" describes the symptoms of more than one kind of disease, but all of which share the same external symptoms of a bloated body with distended scales. The accumulations of fluid within the body causes bloating, that becomes more severe in a short time. The scales stand away from the body instead of laying flat in the normal way. As the disease progresses the eyes will be affected, causing them to extend out away from the sockets. The percentage cure-rate with these conditions is very low, and ultimate death is the most usual outcome for the affected fish. Although dropsy is widely regarded as a non-infectious condition, it is a wise policy to remove an affected fish away from the healthy stock. If the sick fish should die where other fish may peck at its corpse there is a chance the problems could be passed on, depending on what the causative agent was in the first place.

from the picture the scales and eyes look fine. it also says, as you will see, that its not contageous, so those both point in the direction of it not being dropsy.

i really hope its not. i will keep my fingers crossed for them

Sadie

Yeah, I had seen the bit about the porcupine look and we definitely don't have that going on (Yet??). I get frustrated with info out there. I was reading a lot last night and today and found places where it was stated as contagious and then somewhere else it wasn't. The same with it being curable vs not! I found a picture somewhere in a book of a Platy with Dropsy and it was smaller than mine by a good bit. The one thing I have found consistent is that it progresses in a short period of time so I figure I have that going for me yet. I guess we'll see Maybe a pregnancy issue? Still won't account for Himself though.

Lupin

Hi Sadie.

Have you tried green peas just in case it could be constipation?:)

Dropsy can be frustrating. I have no success rate curing any afflicted fish. I used Sera Baktopur in my case. I had to go straight to isolating the afflicted fish once it shows protrusion of scales and eventually euthanizing it if it shows signs of near death. Dropsy can actually be contagious if the corpse is not removed which is why it is best to remove a sick fish or you risk passing on the dropsy to those who have managed to cannibalize a dead fish before the dead fish is removed.

Don't count on protrusion of scales in loaches. They are scaleless so pop-eye is the only other sign to watch out for if associated with a swollen abdomen. There are some fish however that do not contract dropsy particularly the angelfish and kuhli loaches as I had observed.

Dropsy can be caused by presence of internal parasites, bad food quality, bad water quality and damage of internal organs.

Sadie

I am on my way to search for peas.. I don't think I have frozen but I'm going in..

Thanks Sadie

Sadie

Peas :D

Sadie

I tried peas 2 days in a row. There has been no change in the Platy but she is eating very well and is active, she can't possibly go on much longer at this size. This is I think week 3 of being this large, could she be have a pregnancy complication? If she had dropsy she wouldn't be eating like this or be very active, correct


The loach is a little smaller and is still very active so I think I will just watch him hopefully he's just growing like kids do, they tend to plump up just before a big growth spurt. He is currently uprooting my smaller Java ferns looking for left over blood worms. He has been eating everything that gets in his way over the past few days (not fish). I put in a shrimp pellet this morning and he immediately went to town.

Lupin

Quite correct unless I see my own fish afflicted with dropsy eating food until they explode which I never observed anyway. Anyone with dropsy in my case just sulk on the top corner or bottom when I had those cases before.

Doesn't sound like dropsy to me at all or you would have seen protrusion of scales and bulging eyes already after weeks of being bloated. You might need to be a little patient and observe further for any changes.
That's the problem with the stupid loaches I have. By the time I looked back after five minutes, half of my fish are starving while the loaches still foraged the bottom greedily with their stomachs looking like they just swallowed a golf ball. If he is fine, I don't see anything wrong with him. He may be just full enough. You mentioned how he ate everything else you give him.

Sadie

Well I guess the Platy was pregnant.. I came home yesterday from work and walked by and turned around and did a couple double takes. She is almost down to the size of the other female now. I haven't seen any frye but I have so many hiding places that if any survive I should see them in a couple of weeks. Since she had looked like she was going to pop for 3 weeks I figure she was at about 5 - 5 1/2 weeks. She actually has a scale or 2 that came off in the past 2 days towards her under side but it never looked like dropsy. It looked more like she had hit something.

I think the loach may have been just severely overeating or constitpated, after the 2 days of peas he is looking better but still has a bit of a pot belly. I think I am going to try to incorporate more fresh greenery for him, right now he only get freeze-dried and they may be part of the problem. He has had regular frozen blood worms and brine shimp 4 or 5 times and loves them so I may try to pick up some live worm tomorrow. We only have one place that sells live and they don't always have them in stock.

Sadie

I found a newbie this evening :D