Help! Sick fish!

[mdbaskett]

I came in to work this morning and one of my fish was dead and another was very sick. This is my first dead fish so I'm kind of freaking out.

There are 3 fish who seem fairly content. I am assuming those are the 3 that have been in the tank longer and the 2 that I have only had for 2 weeks are the sick (dead) ones. My values (before water change)were:NO3- 20, NO2 - 0, pH - 7.0, KH around 60 and GH around 100. The temperature got up to about 83 in the tank this weekend.

I did a 50% water change with cooler water and added it gradually. I've isolated the sick guy. He's very pale and a bit swollen. His fins are sticking out away from his body.

So, do you think he's sick or just extremely distressed from the heat? What can I do for him?

 

[jacqueline2215]

If his fins are sticking out and he's swollen it looks like he has dropsy. I had a fish just die from it. It is very hard to cure but you can use anit-bacteria medicated food (mine is from Jungle). I'm feeding it to everyone in the tank just in case even though I isolated my guy and he died too. Good luck but it might be best to put him out of his misery!

 

[mdbaskett]

Thanks jacqueline. I can't help wondering, if this is some internal problem - why did the other fish die? and if its the environment, why are the other 3 fish fine?

The book I have lists the following causes of dropsy: internal organ failure, excessive sodium chloride levels, high nitrate levels, bacteria, poor diet.

organ failure: not likely since 2 fish are affected.

excessive sodium chloride levels: I use deionized water and then adjust the mineral levels manually. they should be fine. I don't add extra NaCL.

high nitrate levels: nope.

poor diet: I feed nutrafin max flake food, perhaps not the most diverse and interesting diet but it shouldn't harm them or leave them malnourished.

I think this leaves bacteria. The aquariumpharm site says to dose with melafix or primafix. Anyone have any luck with these?

 

[jacqueline2215]

In my case I had the same thing....old fish and the new fish (2 weeks) were the ones who got it. Most likely they came with it. When symptoms of dropsy show up it is usually too late....I wouldn't treat your water if its ok...just as a precaution feed the medicated food to the other fish for 5-10 days and use no other food during that time.

 

[mdbaskett]

thanks for your help. Poor thing was starting to lose scales so I put him down (clove oil).