Goldfish Care Tips

A Free Monthly Resource For Goldfish Enthusiasts
August 2024
Issue #128

In This Issue
Treating Dropsy

Dropsy is not a disease but a symptom of organ failure, primarily the kidneys.
The cause of the failure can be numerous, and unless a necropsy is done after death, the cause may never be known, so treatment is difficult and seldom successful.

Treating Dropsy - an Overview

Water Bubble Eye With Advanced Dropsy

The trick to a successful treatment of dropsy is early diagnosis.

The earliest signs of dropsy are if a fish starts to look fuller in the body, and it isn’t the breeding season. This fullness could also be caused by an internal tumor such as a Gonadal Sarcoma or polycystic kidney disease. Apart from an Xray or ultrasound scan, there is no way to tell the difference.

Generally, the first signs of dropsy are the scales behind the gills starting to lift.

If scales are lifting in a different part of the body, usually accompanied by underlying redness, this is not dropsy but an isolated bacterial infection, easily cured with a salt bath.

Causes of Dropsy

The reason for listing the causes of dropsy is to highlight the problem of treatment when you don’t know the underlying cause of the symptoms. The causes can be:
1. Bacterial
2. Parasitical
3. Chemical poisoning
4. Polycystic kidney disease.

The most treatable cause is a bacterial attack of the kidneys, which can be brought on by a general drop in overall health of the fish. Just by giving a boost to the immune system using salt and pristine water can be enough to reverse the condition.

Little is known about parasitical attacks of the kidneys, but using a medication that contains Praziquantel is known to kill some types of internal parasites.

Chemical poisoning is a difficult cause to diagnose because it may take months for the effect of the poison to damage the kidneys.

In my own experience, I was fortunate that I had two groups of young fish from the same spawning. One group all developed dropsy over several months and the other group didn’t.

It didn’t take much research to work out what chemical was responsible, an algae prevention product. None of the group was saveable.

Polycystic kidney disease is when fluid filled cysts develop on the kidneys. When there are enough or they are large enough, the kidneys are damaged beyond repair and dropsy develops. There is no treatment available.

Treatment Process

Because you don’t know what is causing the dropsy, the idea is to cover all the possible treatable causes at once.

The steps are:

1. Move the fish to a hospital tank/container and maintain pristine water conditions. (Clean fresh water is essential when treating any Goldfish ailment as poor water quality is the most likely cause of many).
2. Add salt at the appropriate level depending on any underlying conditions. (Salt boosts the immune system and helps treat any external conditions that may have lowered the overall health of the fish).
3. Raise the water temperature to around 27-29^oC. (Bacteria stop multiplying at higher temperatures).
4. Add a Praziquantel based medication to eliminate any protozoan, internal or trematode parasites. (Little research has been done regarding the treatment of internal parasites in Goldfish, but we do know Praziquantel kills tapeworms so it is worth administering).
5. Add a general bacterial medication to kill internal bacteria.
6. Try to Identify any chemicals you may have accidentally introduced into the aquarium.

Untreatable Dropsy

What I mean by untreatable dropsy is dropsy that develops in the late stages of an untreatable disease such as an internal tumor. Over several months the fish will swell up but otherwise continue to feed and generally act normally.

As the disease progresses, buoyancy problems may start, and around the same time dropsy may appear.

At this stage euthanasia is the kindest option.

For more detailed treatment information, click here to go to the treating dropsy page.

Comments? Ideas? Feedback? I'd love to hear from you. Just reply to this e-zine and tell me what you think, or what topics you want to be covered.

Next Month's Topic

Pond Overpopulation

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