Hey everyone. Came accross the site this evening whilst researching online to try and found out what was wrong with one of my 3 male guppies. Sadly it looks like dropsy, and all the shops where I could have bought some medication are long shut with it being Sunday. I have isolated him in an old tank so as not to distress the other 2 and to give him a little peace if he is dying. Problem is, I didn't have a spare heater. Does anyone have any idea how long he will last without the heater? I was hoping if he makes it through until I finish work tomorrow I can treat him.....
Hi
- Thread starter Amanda Killops
- Start date
Hey Amanda. First of all I wanted to say "welcome to AC!"
I am sorry to hear about your guppy. I think I have a quote here that may help (although it is for betta fish, it may apply in this situation as well)
Good luck
Quote:
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Lorena Hazama reported that she had success with a rather unorthodox dropsy treatment. Here is what she said (borrowed from Wayne's This and That):
'I'm in no way any kind of expert, but I just wanted to share what I learned from a dropsy episode with my fish with the hopes of perhaps helping someone else someday. When my fish first got it, I didn't have any hope, because I had heard that it was difficult to cure.
'With a lot of help and suggestions from people in this forum, esp. Uptongirl and Violetedawn, as well as some other resources, my fish's case of dropsy has been diminished if not 'cured'.
'Have no idea what caused his kidney function to fail/decrease. I'm guessing it was bacterial or viral because Kanacyn seemed to do the trick.
'Treatment was in stages as I changed things as I found out about stuff. I have no clue what actually helped--or if it was something I should not have done--so I'm putting everything here:
1. Had him in Maracyn II for about a day.
2. When I got Kanacyn, I put that in the water instead (did not use the 2 together).
3. Tried to keep temp as warm as possible--was a bit difficult because we have air conditioning and he's at work. Some sites say they upped the water temp to 86C for gold fish. I think his water was probably around 70-72C. But if you're changing temp, please do it slowly as not to stress or harm your fish.
4. Shielded his tank from stressful light by making a black paper 'box' with some air and peep holes cut out. This really seemed to help.
5. Added some epsom salt to his Kanacyn water. (1 tsp for 5 gallons of water.)
6. I was changing his water every other day--100% change. I also kept the water for changes in the same room as the fish tank so it would be about the same temperature when I changed his water.
Notes: The epsom salt helped his swelling. I was so afraid that he'd burst or something he looked so swollen. I'm sure he probably felt more comfortable, too.
'Read medication instructions carefully and follow them to the T. It mentions not combining with other chemicals unless compatible with the medication.
'This is really important! I used only Kanacyn and epsom salt together in untreated tap water but I could get away with this because our tap water is drawn from artesian wells and is not treated with chlorine. So I didn't have to use water conditioners or anything to prep his water. I would not normally do this, but I wasn't sure if the chemicals would combine OK with the medication.
'If you have to treat your water, you might want to get help from someone who's a lot more knowledgable about water conditioning.
'If you're like me and don't have a 10-gallon tank or water vessel to put your medicine in, we came up with the following:
'1 capsule of Kanacyn and 2 tsp of epsom salt were mixed in 10 Tbs of water. We then used the ratio of 1 Tbs of concentrate to 1 gallon of water for water changes. We kept the concentrated Kanacyn/epsom mixture covered and in a dark place just in case. This may not be the best way to do this, but it seemed to work OK.
'My fish didn't show improvement until after the epsom salt, so it was about a week from when I noticed the dropsy and started treating it to see results. His recovery sped up more after that. So, even if you don't see results right away, just hang in there and give your fishy time to try and kick whatevers ailing him.
'Like I said before, not an expert, not a breeder. Not even an experienced fish owner--I've taken care of a grand total of 4 betta! But for whatever reason, my fish and I were lucky enough to, with lotsa guidance, to be able to kick this.'
I can't personally vouch for this treatment, as I have never tried it, but I plan to, as soon as another dropsy pops up in my fishroom! I will post my own results here on this site, and I really hope Lorena is on to something here. Personally, I have never been able to cure a betta of dropsy. I have read accounts of others who have cured them, but usually they die a month or so later.
It's not really certain if the disease is contagious or not. By observing the disease in my own fishroom, I can only conclude that there are a lot of contributing factors. Dropsy seems to be in some part genetic; or, rather, the inclination to contract dropsy is genetic. I often combine unrelated spawns of the same age in growout tanks, and I have had incidences of dropsy outbreaks in these tanks that only affect members of one spawn. I think that if one fish gets it, it can be passed to other fish who are predisposed to catching it. [/FONT]" (Victoria Stark)
Source: http://bettysplendens.com/articles/page.imp?articleid=719
I am sorry to hear about your guppy. I think I have a quote here that may help (although it is for betta fish, it may apply in this situation as well)
Good luck
Quote:
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Lorena Hazama reported that she had success with a rather unorthodox dropsy treatment. Here is what she said (borrowed from Wayne's This and That):
'I'm in no way any kind of expert, but I just wanted to share what I learned from a dropsy episode with my fish with the hopes of perhaps helping someone else someday. When my fish first got it, I didn't have any hope, because I had heard that it was difficult to cure.
'With a lot of help and suggestions from people in this forum, esp. Uptongirl and Violetedawn, as well as some other resources, my fish's case of dropsy has been diminished if not 'cured'.
'Have no idea what caused his kidney function to fail/decrease. I'm guessing it was bacterial or viral because Kanacyn seemed to do the trick.
'Treatment was in stages as I changed things as I found out about stuff. I have no clue what actually helped--or if it was something I should not have done--so I'm putting everything here:
1. Had him in Maracyn II for about a day.
2. When I got Kanacyn, I put that in the water instead (did not use the 2 together).
3. Tried to keep temp as warm as possible--was a bit difficult because we have air conditioning and he's at work. Some sites say they upped the water temp to 86C for gold fish. I think his water was probably around 70-72C. But if you're changing temp, please do it slowly as not to stress or harm your fish.
4. Shielded his tank from stressful light by making a black paper 'box' with some air and peep holes cut out. This really seemed to help.
5. Added some epsom salt to his Kanacyn water. (1 tsp for 5 gallons of water.)
6. I was changing his water every other day--100% change. I also kept the water for changes in the same room as the fish tank so it would be about the same temperature when I changed his water.
Notes: The epsom salt helped his swelling. I was so afraid that he'd burst or something he looked so swollen. I'm sure he probably felt more comfortable, too.
'Read medication instructions carefully and follow them to the T. It mentions not combining with other chemicals unless compatible with the medication.
'This is really important! I used only Kanacyn and epsom salt together in untreated tap water but I could get away with this because our tap water is drawn from artesian wells and is not treated with chlorine. So I didn't have to use water conditioners or anything to prep his water. I would not normally do this, but I wasn't sure if the chemicals would combine OK with the medication.
'If you have to treat your water, you might want to get help from someone who's a lot more knowledgable about water conditioning.
'If you're like me and don't have a 10-gallon tank or water vessel to put your medicine in, we came up with the following:
'1 capsule of Kanacyn and 2 tsp of epsom salt were mixed in 10 Tbs of water. We then used the ratio of 1 Tbs of concentrate to 1 gallon of water for water changes. We kept the concentrated Kanacyn/epsom mixture covered and in a dark place just in case. This may not be the best way to do this, but it seemed to work OK.
'My fish didn't show improvement until after the epsom salt, so it was about a week from when I noticed the dropsy and started treating it to see results. His recovery sped up more after that. So, even if you don't see results right away, just hang in there and give your fishy time to try and kick whatevers ailing him.
'Like I said before, not an expert, not a breeder. Not even an experienced fish owner--I've taken care of a grand total of 4 betta! But for whatever reason, my fish and I were lucky enough to, with lotsa guidance, to be able to kick this.'
I can't personally vouch for this treatment, as I have never tried it, but I plan to, as soon as another dropsy pops up in my fishroom! I will post my own results here on this site, and I really hope Lorena is on to something here. Personally, I have never been able to cure a betta of dropsy. I have read accounts of others who have cured them, but usually they die a month or so later.
It's not really certain if the disease is contagious or not. By observing the disease in my own fishroom, I can only conclude that there are a lot of contributing factors. Dropsy seems to be in some part genetic; or, rather, the inclination to contract dropsy is genetic. I often combine unrelated spawns of the same age in growout tanks, and I have had incidences of dropsy outbreaks in these tanks that only affect members of one spawn. I think that if one fish gets it, it can be passed to other fish who are predisposed to catching it. [/FONT]" (Victoria Stark)
Source: http://bettysplendens.com/articles/page.imp?articleid=719
thanks very much, was nice to get a reply so fast (you're never really sure when you join a new forum!). I am really worried he won't survive the night without a heater though. Still, can't do anything about it at almost 10pm on a Sunday so will just keep my fingers crossed.
Welcome to AC. i hope everything goes ok for your guppy. let us know how you make out tomorrow. Good Luck.
Aww, thanks all! What a lovely bunch of people!
Was totally amazed to find him still alive when I got in from work, as he was all night and all day in the isolation tank without a heater. He now has his own heater and I have put in some salts the shop recommended so I will see how it goes. However, he doesn't look any better. Still very bloated with sticky up scales like a pinecone (apparently typical "Dropsy" symptoms). Does anyone know of anything else which may cause these symptoms, or is it possible it takes them a long time to die from Dropsy as I really expected him to be dead by now..... (Although am glad he isn't, he's a little fighter!)
Was totally amazed to find him still alive when I got in from work, as he was all night and all day in the isolation tank without a heater. He now has his own heater and I have put in some salts the shop recommended so I will see how it goes. However, he doesn't look any better. Still very bloated with sticky up scales like a pinecone (apparently typical "Dropsy" symptoms). Does anyone know of anything else which may cause these symptoms, or is it possible it takes them a long time to die from Dropsy as I really expected him to be dead by now..... (Although am glad he isn't, he's a little fighter!)