| Hot: |  |  | | | |
Dropsy-
Dropsy is a bacterial infection that damages the kidneys causing fluid accumulation and renal failure. The kidney function in fish is the same as in humans and kidney failure can kill a fish if left untreated. When fluids build up inside the body they will cause the fish to swell and resemble a pinecone with all of its scales standing out. Once the fish reaches this stage it is difficult for the fish to pull through since the swelling is a late stage sign and the fish is already full of fluids and the damage is already done.
One effective treatment is to add an antibiotic to the food. With flake food, use about 1% of antibiotic and carefully mix it in. If you keep the fish hungry they should eagerly eat the mixture before the antibiotic dissipates. Antibiotics usually come in 250 mg capsules. If added to 25 grams of flake food, one capsule should be enough to treat dozens of fish. A good antibiotic is chloromycetin (chloramphenicol).Tetracycline in the samd dosage will work as well. If you feed your fish frozen foods or chopped foods, try to use the same ratio with mixing. As a last resort add at most 10 mg per liter of water.