william Posted June 26, 2013 Report Share Posted June 26, 2013 Hi there, So basically I returned from my holiday (which was around 4 weeks long) around two weeks ago. About one week ago I discovered signs of weak 'pine-cone' scales on one of my goldfish, which I had known to be a big eater so he was pretty fat. After some research I found out this was dropsyThen I Googled some cures to dropsy in hope to find a cure (although chances of survival are pretty slim). I did some water changes and used Epsom salt. The scales were slowly rising day by day. Unfortunately when I returned home today, I discovered that my goldfish had died. I was planning to euthanize him today when I got home as he had not been eating and was lying at the bottom of the tank for the past day. Photo of Victor the day before he died: http://i.imgur.com/oVWQiCY.jpg So basically now I want to ask if I should do anything to treat the other fish in my tank (there are 2) as I am afraid they may have caught the 'disease' from Victor. Should I keep on using the Epsom Salts? Also after the death of Victor, should I perform a 50% water change or anything? Thanks, William Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted June 26, 2013 Report Share Posted June 26, 2013 I don't think dropsy is infectious, but you would do well to make sure the water quality is nice and clean since you've been away for a while. Am not sure that you need to go as far as a 50% water change - it's not as if you came back to a rotting fish - but you could do a 20-30% . Weaker fish can get sick if the water quality drops but the strong ones will just keep on pooping their contribution and will generally be OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted June 27, 2013 Report Share Posted June 27, 2013 It isn't contagious as it is caused by the body's internal organs failing but more than one might get it if caused by the water conditions (usually the culprit). I had a single danio get dropsy in my main tank. No other fish was affected and I did not do anything about the water either as it was a single fish so I wondered if it was old and that was the reason for the organ failure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 27, 2013 Report Share Posted June 27, 2013 It is a sign of liver malfunction which causes fluid retention and would infectious if that malfunction had been caused by an infectious agent. In my experience it usually is not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted June 27, 2013 Report Share Posted June 27, 2013 :gpo2: all of the above is good advice, ime rarely caused by infectious agent, adding medications will do more harm than good. do a water change asap and enjoy. I have had problems with goldfish, guppies and Danios especially , probably due to inbreeding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
william Posted June 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 Thanks for your help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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