Dropsy

What is dropsy?

The term “dropsy” describes the symptoms of more than one kind of disease, but all of which share the same external symptoms of a bloated body with distended scales. The accumulations of fluid within the body causes bloating, that becomes more severe in a short time. The scales stand away from the body instead of laying flat in the normal way. As the disease progresses the eyes will be affected, causing them to extend out away from the sockets. 

How do you treat dropsy?

Dropsy is possible to treat if it is caught earlier on. However, when it starts to affect the eyes, percentage cure-rate is very low, and ultimate death is the usual outcome for the affected fish.

Although dropsy is widely regarded as a non-infectious condition, it is a wise policy to remove an affected fish away from the healthy stock. If the sick fish should die where other fish may peck at its corpse, there is a chance the problems could be passed on, depending on what the causative agent was in the first place.

If you’ve identified this disease on your fish, please call us and we will be happy to talk through treatments with you.