Dropsy, possible flex and a lethargic fish too! HELP!

[Farrah]

I have a gourami with dropsy. We had 3 gouramis and 1 of the three died from dropsy a few days ago. We didn't know what it was but now we do and gourami #2 is sick with it and probably beyond help.

I had 3 angelfish- 1 male and 2 female. They lived happily for months until 2 of them mated and layed eggs. The eggs got eaten by someone in there and after that the male became aggressive and (we thought) attacked the female he mated with. It looked like he bit off her lower jaw. Needless to say, she died. After she died we started to see what looked like bites on the other female angel. Now the "bites" look like lesions and I think maybe it is flex?

The 3rd issue is my female albino sword... we have a male and a female and the last few weeks she has been hanging out more on the bottom. She has no marks on her or other signs of illness. She has turned more grey though. Could she be pregnant or something? :?

Any ideas why all of these weird behaviors and disease? We had the water tested and it is good. The tank has already cycled so it isn't that. All of the other fish look healthy and are acting normal. We change the water (about 30%) every Sunday. The tank is a 37 gallon planted tank with the following fish in it:

2 gourami
1 angel
6 cardinal tetras
2 cory
3 clown loach
2 farlowella
1 ocat
7 rummynose tetra
2 lemon sword (new today)
2 albino sword
1 bushynose pleco
4 amano shrimp
1 larger shrimp (forgot name)

oh, btw, we took the male angel to the fish store today and traded him b/c we thought he was biting the female and distressing the other fish but now maybe I was wrong and it was flex on the female angel?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Farrah, I may be able to help. Dropsy causes the organs of the fish to fail and causes it to cease expelling liquids, which is why they blow up like they do. If you have just noticed your second gourami with dropsy it may not be to late. I have had 2 of my fish have dropsy before, went to lfs and bought some fungus clear tablets( they are relatively cheap) and it worked well for me in my 55 gal tank. You can't lose anything to try to cure the dropsy, it is however curable if you catch it in a early enough stage. Thats about all I feel confident enough to help you with , good luck with everything!

 

[Allivymar]

Hiya Farrah and welcome to Aquariumadvice.

Ugh, what a mess. Lets see what we can do here.

Sounds like your water husbandry is good; just to double check, when you say water tests are good, what exactly are the numbers? I ask, because while it sounds like there is no ammonia or nitrites, high levels of nitrates can be a stressor, and it seems to be levels over 40ppm can have that effect.

Dropsy is not a disease in and of itself; its a sign of other problems. That combined with the unhealthy sword, the lesions on the angel, says to me there is some sort of infectious disease in the tank. I tend to agree with your diagnosis; my guess is also flex, although I think thats the cause of all the probs.

The issue here is treatment. If it was one fish, I'd suggest removing it to a QT tank to treat. But obviously this is beyond a single fish, and while I don't often suggest this, I would treat the entire tank. There's a great article on columnaris here: http://www.aquamaniacs.net/flex.html . My only addition to the article is: Kanacyn seems to be the most effective treatment if adding meds to the tank. Medicated food is a better choice, but has become very difficult to find; most companies are no longer making them as they were, but some are starting to make new blends with oxytetracycline; you can find some here: www.flguppiesplus.com

There are also suggestions to help remove the fluids from fish with dropsy by using epsom salts. I don't remember the exact dosages off the top of my head; if you need them let me know!