Missing a water change seems to have led to dropsy

[FishyMamma]

I was several days late on a water change in my fully stocked planted 55 gal. It seems to have led to a case of dropsy in one of my neon tetras and its subsequent euthanasia due to the progressive and fatal nature of dropsy. Here are a couple of pics of dropsy from a Google Image search, note the swelling of fluids in the fish and the "pine-coning" of their scales:



I promptly did a 50% PWC and will do one again tomorrow and the next two days, the last of which is their next scheduled change. I do a 50% water change twice a week. Sadly, I did not think to check the water parameters before changing the water. I will do so several times a week for the next few weeks to determine if my current maintenance schedule is adequate.

I also moved an extra sponge filter in from another tank which I had turned to power off on last week anyway (it created too much flow in my DP tank.). I'll be checking that tank extra, also, to make sure I didn't mess up its set-up by taking out the extra sponge filter. It has an extra large HOB filter so it should be fine.

Any other suggestions anyone?

Hopefully newbies learn from my delay.



Sent via an unladen European Swallow

 

[Clayman]

I'm not sure that missing the water change caused dropsy. Dropsy is more of the result of a different infection. Dropsy is not a disease but a symptom that something else was wrong with the fish. At least that's my grasp of it.

 

[coralbandit]

^+1^
Dropsy is more a symptom of a bacterial issue.
Missing the water change may have made the issue more noticeable?
50% x2 a week should be more then enough for most?
What size tank do you have and who is in it?