Bad Luck continues...Dropsy??!!

[Headrush]

Well, I went away for a long weekend bowhunting and camping in the Fingerlakes. Enjoyed myself, and had a great time with my hunting buddies. When I got home though... My Big male FM was trashed.

He had been getting his *** whipped by my GT all weekend apparently. When I looked closer he had hemorraging around his left pectoral fin all around its base. it looked like he only had 1/2 the use of it by then too. He also had grown 2 tumors (thats what they looked like to me) along each side of his dorsal fin on his back (4 total). I would've posted pics but It bothers me to look at it. anyway over the next 2 days they burst, and he has been fading fast. I scooped him out last night and ended his suffering

WTF?!

In the last 2 months I lost my Salvini to "bloat" and last week my bushynose plumped up and bought the farm too. A couple guys I work with have been in the hobby 30 yrs or so and mentioned "Dropsy." They said its a bacterial infection of sorts, and mentioned another type starting with an "A" but I can't remember it sorry. I also noticed a minimal amount of the "Pinecone" effect where the scales start to stick out a little.

So I read Oddball's sticky note but he states its not for "Sweetwater" fish. What do I do now?

My friend at work has quite an elaborate Koi operation going, and is really into the chemistry side of things. He said I can treat wih salt and elevated temp. For 100 gallons use 3 lbs of salt (3%mixture). I didn't add any salt yet because oddballs thread confused me whe it stated salt may make it more difficult for them to recover. But I did raise the temp to 85-86 F last night. water was changed 2 days ago.

I have a suspicion that this bacteria traveled to my tank from the bushynose, and gold nugget pleco purchases, as I've been feeding the same food, same w/c schedule and maintenance. Could it have been introduced by the earthworms I feed from the store?

Anyway.... what do I do? My GT and JD are very strong, healthy and showing excellent color. I don't think this means they are not fighting it off tho. If I need to I can grab a 20-30 gallon used and set it up for quarantine with a heater, as my small FM is looking fat now too. Also found white poo in the tank but don't know which fish its from.

How do I kill this stuff? HELP!!

 

[ElJefe]

sorry for your loss, a few months ago this happened to me some kind of bacteria not sure who it came off of bought two new fish one a week and the third week i came home to 5 floaters. temp water quality everything was fine...my only guess was bacteria.

 

[Headrush]

This is the advice I got from My friend at work who breeds koi:

Bill,
This site is definetly worth checking out for info even if you don't own Koi or Goldfish. Doc Johnson is world reknowned expert in Koi / Goldfish healt (an actual fish veterinarian) but also lists out (see below) dealings with diseases of fish. If you have a costial infection, the salt remedy I mentioned is over 90% effective at a 3% dosage rate. Start with a teaspon per gallon . Do this for first day, then add second teaspon per gallon second day and finally the third teaspon per gallon on third day. This allows fish to acclimate to the solution without adding further stress (to an already stressed fish).
I copied and pasted the article from his website which is koivet.com. Hope this helps out. Be sure to quarentine the other fish that is tore up - even a five gallon pail like a joint compount bucket will work in a pinch. Anything so long as the fish is isolated and can be administered a regimen of treatment. Hope this helps - keep me posted.


Dropsy - by Doc Johnson "Dropsy" is the condition in which the body is diffusely infected with bacteria and the scales generally stand out from the body. In some cases, this is also caused by Costial infection (see parasites) but usually it's a terminal result of the bacteria attacking the KIDNEY of the fish. Many treatments have been tried with only a one-to-five percent favorable outcome.
Dropsy, also known as Bloater or Pinecone disease, is usually caused by bacterial invasion of the fishes' kidney. There IS a sporozooan parasite that can damage the Kidney this way, called Mitraspora cyprini, but I have yet to see this on a necropsy. Dropsy is, for all intents and purposes, untreatable, based on 7 years experience, using the following drugs: Azactam, Baytril, Chloramphenicol, Gentamicin, and Amikacin. I have tried a Sulfa drug, brand name Albon, and that did not resolve the problem either.
Bacterial dropsy is usually caused by Aeromonas or Pseudomonas bacteria. By the time the fish "blows up" and the scales protrude form the body, the damage to the kidney is so profound that recovery is impossible. If you must try to save the fish, Isolate the specimen, elevate temps while elevating oxygenation, and begin injecting antibiotics intraperitoneally. You could also feed the antibiotics in a medicated feed, see additional data, later.