My last fish is all swollen!

[Donna]

Hi Guys,
I've been AWOL for a bit. to be honest, very depressed and somewhat lost faith in every hope and dream that i have. (I always wanted to be a zoo keeper and i've always been very close to my animals)
we lost 4 of our five fish. now we have only Schnitzel left and now he's all swollen up like the rest did before they died.
may have a little insight as to why they died, and i thiught we'd caught the problem in able to save Schnitzel....but....
basically, I used to have my water tests performed by the guys at Pets at Home. they told me not to bother buying a water test kit as they'd be happy to do it for me and i made donations in the charity box on my way out. every test showed Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate 0. well i did buy my own kit when our forth fish was ill and discovered that they'd been doing the tests wrong! i tested the theory, doing one Nitrate test the way they did - 0 and then one following the instructions....20!!!! had all my fish died from that? it seemed quite likely to me! Bolly was beyond hope and she died days later. (horribly i might add! all her fins disintergrated! that was horredous and i cried my heart out.) but the others had all swollen up a few days before dying and nothing i did seemed to save them. I managed to get the Nitrate down to 0, much easier with only 1 fish and it 's been fine in the three weeks since Bolly died but now Schnitzel is swollen and his scales look ready to pop out (dropsy) like a couple of the others did. i don't know what to do any more. has anyone got any ideas on how to save this poor lonely fish?
i'm doing PWC every 3 days at the mo. but will increase to daily. I've given him a dose of anti-internal bacteria medicine and i've just installed a thermostat as Jsoong once suggested raising the temp a bit might help. other than that, i have nothing.
he's been producing stringy poop, and we've been feeding him on Peas for a few days at a time ,then Bloodworms and a few flakes (not all at once!). nothing seems to help the little guy. anyone got any miracles?

 

[dkpate]

Well, I am not sure how to cure dropsy, but that sounds like what they have/had.
I just had to put a fish down for it, had had him for about 5 months, my water paramaters are perfect(0, 0, 5), so I have no idea why he developed dropsy.
Nitrates can get up to 40 ppm for fish, and not harm them, but the ammonia and nitrite are the ones you have to worry about. Those 2 should always be at zero.
Sorry about all the trouble you are having! There is nothing more disheartening than trying your best and losing your pets.
I would get a liquid test for nitrite and ammonia, and check those out.

 

[Donna]

thanks, I've been using liquid tests for it, they both come out a 0.
I just feel so crushed about it. they're such great fish! they all used to go for my fingers whenever I'd be maintaining the tank and one guy even used to rub his belly across my fingers, we figured out he liked to have his belly gently tickled. I miss them all, i know they're just fish, but I miss Stars mad dancing in the morning, getting attention to be fed! I had some lovely videos of my fishies on my laptop, but before i could back them up, the computer died!!! seriously gutted...I think moreso than my 8 year old!

 

[mellowyellow]

So sorry to hear of your loss. I just lost 4 fancy guppies and a gourami due to air conditioning failure and over heated tanks. I know how you feel. It breaks my heart. But, now we start over. Right? Don't be discouraged.

 

[Donna]

Well, it's been a while now and Schnitzel is still with us. we managed to get his swelling down a bit and then i went on holiday leaving the hubby in charge. when i got back, he looked like he had Dropsey again and some of his scales were up! well, today he's looking a lot better than he did, scales down, swelling almost gone and he doesn't seem to be producing thread poops now. keeping fingers crossed, he still has a white patch on his head where a swelling burst (possibly an absys?). we bought him some new plants today to cheer him up, he looks so bored at times! he was quite a happy little guy today, playing with us and his new plants. we want him to get better so that we can get him a friend (not until absolutely certain of him being better!) actually, now that he's tropical, would it be ok to get him a plecy or should i bring his temp back down once he's well again?

 

[mellowyellow]

I'm so glad Schnitzel is feeling better. I know how we get attached to our pets no matter dog, cat, fish. I can't answer your question regarding a plecy, I simply wanted to send you my best.