scales standing out on glowfish

[Flamfish]

I have a ten gal tank. held 3 corys, 3 neons, 2 glowlites, 3 glowfish.
I had to emergency babysit for someone for a few weeks and left my fish in the care of someone else. long story short, I came home to nitrates off the scale and 2 dead glowfish.(other fish seem alright)
many water changes over 3 days and my parameters are back to normal (0 ammonia, 0 trItes, .20 trAtes)
parameters have been holding steady but the last glowfish danio is acting strange picking on neons and his scales are now standing straight out making him look puffed up. is this illness or stress from not having other glowlites around? I wish I could get pics but the cell phone don't cut it. greatfull for any advice! thanx.

[7itanium]

Sounds like dropsy to me... id Quarentine him immediately.

high nitrate levels can lead to nitrate and/or ammonia poisoning as well, so it could just be stress.

but pine-cone scales is a tell tale sign of dropsy which is deadly... so you dont wanna take any chances of spreading that to tank mates.

[Flamfish]

"pine cone" scales is exactly how I would describe it. I'll quarantine, are there meds for this? should I treat the other fish as well? thanks for the quick response!

[7itanium]

Here is some information about dropsy (IF thats what it is).. I hate to say it. but dropsy is fatal about 85% of the time, so if you see him suffering too much it might be time to euthanize. good thing about it is its not highly contagious, but its still best not to risk it.

Dropsy is not very contagious; however, Fish usually die from this, but in some cases where the problem is due to bacteria, if detected early enough, it can be treated.


It's possibly the hardest internal bacterial infection to cure. There are a number of medications available such as penicillin, tetracycline and naladixic acid. The fish usually doesn't make it. By the time the scales begin to raise, however, it is very fatal to the fish. Salt baths can help to draw the fluid out of the fish. A variety of medications can be purchased that treat dropsy, which sometimes occurs due to an internal bacterial problem. Medications for external bacterial problems only will not be effective for this problem.






ALSO.. keep in mind like I said it may just be stress... so only time will tell

[Flamfish]

I was googling dropsy while waiting for your response. sounds to me like you hit it right on the nose. I'm going to try to treat but I'm apt hunting and have to move within 2 weeks so things re hectic and I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to dedicate to keeping the water pristine.
Just in case there seems no other choice. I've read on here that ppl use a mineral oil to euthanize. was it clove? I had hoped to never need it.

[Amanda Killops]

You have my symathy, I lost a guppy to dropsy not that long ago and it was horrific to watch him go through it. I couldn't bring myself to euthanise him (although I know I should have done), but I did isolate him in a small tank with a hefty dose of aquarium sale in the hope he would pull through. He lasted 3 days, eating well, so I thought maybe he would be ok but day 4 he died. I hope your glowfish makes it. Best of luck.

ps. I asked my LFS what they think brought it on, and they said some fish are just so easily stressed a sudden loud noise can bring on dropsy, so don't blame yourself x

[7itanium]

if you need to euthanize here is the 2 best ways that I have used.

1- clove oil- put the fish in a bowl of water and keep adding clove oil a small amount at a time... the fish will go to sleep and eventually die with no pain.

2- flash freeze- put a bowl of water in the freezer and wait for it to get so cold that a small amount of ice is forming on the top. Remove the ice layer off the top and drop the fish in.. this should kill it within 10 seconds and the fish will feel nothing.


hope that helps, and im sorry if it has to come to this, but dropsy can be nasty

[Flamfish]

Thank you very much for all your help!