# betta dropsy



## kaisa (Apr 21, 2010)

I woke up yesterday morning to find one of my bettas bloated and pineconing  Has anyone successfully treated dropsy before? I know your suppose to use epsom salts but usually they succumb anyways so Im torn on weather trying to treat him or putting him to sleep. He hasn't really moved in two days and he appears to be suffering at the surface..

Also does anyone know if its contagious? I have a betta in a 1g quarintine bowl that would much rather be in this 5g tank but I dont want him to get sick too


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

Epsom Salts will raise your GH and aid in Osmoregulation. A point I have been crusading about for many months. Try it although the Betta may be too far gone already. You may want to consider using Epsom salt or similar products in the future on going to improve your conditions overall.


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## kaisa (Apr 21, 2010)

thanks grant. I think I will send him off to the rainbow bridge... He seems pretty far gone and I think hes really suffering  He's recently become blind after his neighbour jumped the divider and focused on attacking his eyes so his quality of life has been very very poor for the past month. 

anyways I bought him 2 years ago from your store so he's had a nice life.


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## kaisa (Apr 21, 2010)

what about the contagious factor? anyone know? i want to put my male thats in a bowl in here but I don't want him to get dropsy  i could disinfect the tank with bleach but its filled with tons of java ferns... i dont think i can disinfect them?


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Fish with dropsy are typically doomed. I have never been able to salvage a dropsy infected fish in my 30+ years as an aquarist. Typically it is not contagious and the exact cause is very hard to identify as numerous culprits exhibit the same outward characteristics of "dropsy" (raised/pine-coned scales and overall bloat). I am sorry to hear about your betta's predicament.

Respectfully,

Stuart


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

Hi Kaisa, just so u know the betta i got from u not long ago didnt have Velvet, it was dropsy and i have been medicatiing him for it, so far no change


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## kaisa (Apr 21, 2010)

yikes! those two shared a tank so maybe it is contagious....what have you been treating him wiht?


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

At first i was treating him with salt thinking that had velvet but i never saw it on him at all, then i started to c the cony stuff so i started to treat him with maracyn one and maracyn two. He still looks like a little pine cone but he is alive


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## kaisa (Apr 21, 2010)

Claudia said:


> At first i was treating him with salt thinking that had velvet but i never saw it on him at all, then i started to c the cony stuff so i started to treat him with maracyn one and maracyn two. He still looks like a little pine cone but he is alive


very strange... is he swimming around and acting normally still? i hope he pulls through. I think my guy is too far gone


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## kaisa (Apr 21, 2010)

wow    I think I just watched him die  I looked over at his tank and he was twitching and pushing himself all around the tank and now i'm pretty sure he's gone  RIP lil guy


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

This one still swims around bu believe me is much worse then yours


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## kaisa (Apr 21, 2010)

your one is doing better than mine. he's still alive and may pull through if he's still swimming around and acting normal...fingers crossed.

it all happened so fast with mine. yesterday i noticed he was bloated and wasn't swimming then came the pinecone and 24hrs later I just watched him die


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## BettaGuy (Apr 22, 2010)

I'm sorry to hear about your loss Kaisa  For future reference, as you probably already know, epson salt is used to relieve the bloated effect of fluid retention causing the pineconing. This, however, does not affect the cause of the illness. The fluid retention is the result of kidney, liver, or heart failure, most commonly inflicted by bacterial infection. Therefore, it is usually recommended that you use a gram negative antibiotic such as maracyn 2 to treat the infection. Even if the infection is treated, death often occurs due to irreparable organ damage. 

The best treatment is to take preventative measures, which is to maintain pristine water conditions. If you're ever curious, bring a sample of water to a local pet store. Many offer free water testing. In my experience working at one, I frequently see copper levels off the chart, 0 mineral hardness, and toxic levels of nitrates. Any of these negelected factors can weaken fish and leave it susceptible to disease. In one rare situation, I've encountered a fellow whose tap water is naturally moderately hard ( I don't know how this is possible), pH under 6 (what the heck?), and copper so high that I'd cry. If you think you've done everything right and things still turn out fishy, it's definitely worth checking whats up with your water. 

take care !


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## O.C.D Fishies (Apr 21, 2010)

I am sorry to hear about your little guy Kaisa. He is not suffering anymore. Again sorry for your loss.


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

Yeah mine still alive  but he is so much bigger then yours. I assumed that the med is helping some how i just wish he was better but then i knew he was sick when i got him so i just keep my fingers cross. Sorry that yours die so fast


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## kaisa (Apr 21, 2010)

thanks everyone  i've never seen a fish die naturally before...it was very sad, especially since i've had him for so long.

claudia, do you have epsoms in the water to help with his bloating?

heres a few pics I have from when he was healthy.. he changed quite a lot in his two years


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

I had salt at first then change meds


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## kaisa (Apr 21, 2010)

maybe try putting some epsom salt in with him? i think what bettaguy was saying was epsom salt for the bloat to draw fluids out and the maracyn for the actual illness.


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

Yeah i have to do a water change and then treat again so i will add some salt and hope for the best


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## AvianAquatics (Apr 29, 2010)

Sorry your betta died 
Dropsy is probably my no1 most hated disease since it's almost a 100% guarantee that the fish will die... for me anyways since I had never have a fish survive from it...


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## Longimanus (Apr 21, 2010)

So sorry for your loss Kaisa.

I wish the forum hadn't crashed, as I did successfully treat a betta with dropsy and the thread has been lost. Let me see if I can find it on another forum, maybe you can help your betta by trying this Claudia.

Here is the thread on a betta forum about him.
Recovering from dropsy? - UltimateBettas

Please note, I really believe it was the heavy epsom salt baths as well as the Furan 2 that did it. I really don't think that a bit of salt in the bowl is enough to help when the dropsy gets that bad. After this happened someone else used this method and also cured their betta.


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## kaisa (Apr 21, 2010)

wow so there is hope for dropsy... how much longer did he live for??


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## Longimanus (Apr 21, 2010)

Quite a long time. He went back to his owner and lived a long time. Then the water conditions went south a bit and he passed on.


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