URGENT, dropsy molly.. ;(

[wira sucitra]

I have a white ballon molly which I have kept for several months.. Minutes ago, I watched my community fish swimming around. But suddenly I noticed that there's something wrong with my whitney balloon molly. Its belly is abnormally huge, it's different from that of any fat balloon molly fish I've kept so far. And I saw the scales protruding a little. It's not really like the pine cone shape, but the scales look bulging, which I'm sure will be like pine cone soon. The fish still looks normal, it swims out with others (even though it's not as active as usual and tends to stay in the top corner of tank), but it didn't eat when I fed my community fish just now.

Actually I'm going to euthanize her, knowing that (from some article) this disease will affect other same species till none of them left. I'm not so certain about this article, though I'm quite feared by it. It's a dilemma, I don't want to end my fish life so soon, but letting her in the main tank can probably mean that I let the disease affect others. And unfortunately, I have no quarantine tank..

Questions:
1. Is my molly really having dropsy now?
2. If yes, what must I do? medicating, or euthanizing?
3. If medicating, how to do so?

Please answer soon, for I must decide immediately.. Thanks in advance :)

[imma24]

Can you provide a pic?

It sounds like dropsy - from what I've read here your best bet is to euthanize unless someone else on the forum has had success treating it with something. Dropsy, from my understanding, is the end stage of something else making your fish ill.

[bignellm]

Dropsy is end stage of an infection that is shutting down internal organs of fish. I've come close to treating it successfully in a Guppy with strong doses of broad spectrum antibiotic, but in the end, while the Gup was shrinking it suddenly died.

If you want to treat, a really strong antibiotic, in a separate tank, with pristine water. You must change water each day and treat. But in the end, might still be fatal.

But, beforehand, get us a picture to be more sure.

[ScottishFish]

I had a molly with dropsy once, I had to put her out of her misery. Several ways to do that;

Water and Ice - get a bowl of water, fill it with cold water and add icecubes, drop in the fish then place in the freezer for half an hour, this will slow the fish down and it will just slip away.

Lavender oil - Get a bowl of water add quite a few drops of lavender oil then add your fish, this will knock it out and kill it.

But as the others said a picture would help before you make any rash decisions. Often when we think a fish is sick we over study it and look at all the details and make ourselves think it is sick.

[Lady Hobbs]

I just drop mine in a pail of ice water. They go into shock within moments. I think this fish is too ill to treat. He's already reached this final stage.

[wira sucitra]

Sorry folks.. This morning, I did see my fish having dropsy. If yesterday its scale looked bulging, today the fish looks even more similar to pine cone looking from above and side looking, clearly indicating that it does have dropsy. The scales protrude, forming the shape of pine cone tree from any angle side of view and her body bloated abnormally. I've just euthanize her, for I know that I have no useful medication for this disease. I don't even find medications for many types of disease as complete as yours in my LFS, which means that it's just the matter of time for my dropsy fish to die. So sad to euthanize her. I had no choice left but doing it soon for the benefit of community folks and my sick molly ;( Thanks for the help, my friends..

However, I've got new question about this disease. Does anyone of you know how to prevent this disease from infecting the fish since the first time? I don't want to see this disease infecting any of my fish anymore in the future. Thanks for everything... :)

[Cermet]

A full break down and cleaning with new substrate would help. However, there is little one can do about the filter, so bacteria levels, while lower, will still be there with those bad guys.

Not wanting to do a extreme make over, then a good vacuuming of the substrate, followed by a large water change can help. This will lower bacteria levels a good bit. Then do this a few times over the next week and much of the bacteria will be gone. Feed extra light for a few days, too.

Possible filter cleaning ideas. After rinsing the filter using old tank water, you could consider some salt in the main tank (1 tsp/10 gal) but I highly doubt such a fish safe level would do much to bacteria in the water. An other approach might be to run the filter in a separate small tank for a few hours with a 2 tsp/gal solution (not with fish!) and that could kill the bad bacteria in it to some extent and not harm the good bacteria. Others might think this too harsh ... .

[bignellm]

Good water, good food--to boost the immune systems.

A high tech way to kill the floating bacteria, to limit exposure--if your able to pay for it, would be to buy a UV power head system. I seen one at Pet Supplies Plus recently for $40.00. I thought seriously about picking one up to sterilize my tanks.