Dropsy is a dreaded word among goldfish keepers…
… And for good reason.
It’s one of the most dangerous killers of our fish that can come on suddenly without warning.
But what is goldfish dropsy?
And more importantly:
Is there a cure?
Keep reading to find out!
What are the Symptoms of Dropsy in Goldfish?
- Increased body swelling, particularly visible behind the head
- “Pineconing” scales appear
- Edges of the scales are lifted and prickle outwards off the fish’s body
- Eyes may bulge out due to the large amount of fluid pushing behind them.
- Septicemia (redness of the fins) due to the internal bacterial infection
Note: Pine coning can be hard to detect with the untrained eye from the side…
… But is VERY apparent from above.
A dropsied fish might not always have pineconed scales. Sometimes it just swells up, usually with bulging eyes.
Egg-binding (what makes the fish look pregnant) does not cause that fluid behind the eyes.
What Causes this Disease?
Let’s get something straight:
Dropsy is caused by the inability of the fish to rid itself of excess fluid (something called osmoregulation).
It is thought that for many cases, dropsy is bacterial in nature.
There are some exceptions, such as if the kidney has been directly injured.
Some conditions that lead to dropsy can include poor water quality or secondary infection after stress. This is because the bad bacteria that cause dropsy love dirty conditions and they can only attack the fish with the help of one or both of these factors.
The bacteria can invade the fish’s body while it is weakened and destroy an internal organ such as the kidney, which regulates the fluid balance in the body.
But why isn’t the fish releasing fluids how it should?
That has to do with the root cause of dropsy.
Sometimes the bacteria are the secondary cause of this disease, rather than the primary.
Is there a Cure?
Part of what makes dropsy so deadly is that by the time the pineconing is discovered, the damage has usually been done and the kidneys are shot.
Organ failure is NOT reversible.
That’s why many fish keepers opt to euthanize their fish once they are at this point, rather than prolong certain death. 🙁
But don’t despair:
There MAY BE HOPE.
If you catch it early enough, there might be hope to get the fish back on track before things get out of hand.
It doesn’t work ALL the time (dropsy is often fatal)…
But it has worked, and may help your fish.
I hope it does
The Treatment Plan to Follow if Your Fish Has Dropsy
Look:
Many times, I’m all for all-natural methods of treating fish diseases, and find that antibiotics are way too overused to treat problems that don’t need them.
But dropsy is one of those serious conditions that has such high fatality rates that I believe they are warranted.
Sometimes, if it’s caught soon enough… and if the cause is bacterial…
They CAN save the fish when nothing else will.
Note:
Your fish may never be totally the same if it recovers from dropsy, but many owners still want to do whatever it takes to bring back their fish.
- The combination of Kanaplex and Furan 2 has been able to reverse dropsy in goldfish. These should be added to the water together. This is a very strong treatment, but dropsy is aggressive.
- It is also a good idea to add Epsom salts to the water as well. (use 1/4 tsp per 10 gallons of water.) This can help to draw the fluid out of the bloated fish.
- Feeding Metroplex in food by mixing it with Focus is also advised to combat internal infection.
- Bringing up the heat fast (by 1-2 degree per hour) can harm the bacteria as well. Hold it there for 2 weeks, then bring it down very slowly (2 degrees per day). Be sure to use an air stone in a hospital tank without a filter for this to keep the water well oxygenated and the fish separate from the others. A sick fish can infect an entire tank as it spikes the bad bacteria count in the water.
- Lots of large water changes are important. At least 75% should be removed every 48 hours.
Finally, don’t stress the fish. Keep the lights low and the fish calm. Ensure the water temperature stays stable when doing water changes. Don’t make loud sounds, etc. Anything that causes the fish to act frightened or bothered, avoid. Stress will hinder the fish’s natural immune response which you will be using to your advantage with this treatment.
If all goes well and you have acted in time, you should start seeing major improvement.
Once the treatment is over and the swelling and pineconing symptoms are better and the fish is looking perkier, maintain the large frequent water changes. Continue treating with the Epsom salts. The primary focus should now be on letting the fish heal.
Within another week, your fish should be much better if not healed.
Dropsy can return if the primary cause of dropsy was never addressed or if the fish gets stressed or weakened in any way. Fancy goldfish are very delicate.
What if This Treatment DOESN’T Work?
There are times when the fish can be treated with antibiotics for dropsy – and it doesn’t respond.
In this case this means the underlying cause of dropsy could be something such as organ failure, or even antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria can be mycobacteria (i.e. Fish TB), bacteria that are very difficult to kill with conventional treatments – and can spread to infect entire systems.
I recently had a fish have a case that failed to respond to the antibiotic treatment…
… So I will share what I did below:
- First I moved the fish to a 5 gallon bucket with an airstone to make changing the water easier.
- Then I dosed the water with 1/4 tsp of 10ppm colloidal silver each time I did a water change (which was 100% twice daily, once in the morning once at night). Colloidal silver has been shown in studies to be effective against mycobacteria. Use 1 tsp of 250ppm per 6 tsp distilled water to make a 10ppm solution.
- I gave the fish daily sun baths in the bucket with the airstone outside. I used a thermometer to ensure the temperature did not increase more than 2 degrees. UV light is deadly to this kind of bacteria. For the sun baths, I made sure the fish could go in a shady patch of algae if it wanted to but tried to make sure it stayed in the direct sun most of the time.
- I also fed live earthworms and sun dried krill for a nutrition boost.
I just continued this protocol as long as he was still sickly.
The fish has shown significant improvement and is back to looking and acting more like his old self.
I’m glad because I thought for sure I was going to lose this fish.
Finally I bought a UV sterilizer for his tank because I want to keep that bacteria out of the water and protect my other fish from infection.
Not saying this is the cure-all by any means.
But it might be worth a try for you.
Post-Treatment Care
You (and especiall your fish!) don’t want to go through all of this only to have the dropsy return, sometimes even more severe. 🙁
So you want to make sure that you keep the water quality absolutely perfect during that time – which includes remembering not to overfeed.
As much as you want to spoil your fish for being such a trooper…
…Overfeeding is very dangerous at this point, as your fish is very weakened and vulnerable at this point.
It is recommended to keep the fish in stable, warm water for the rest of its life (75-80 degrees F).
UV sterilization is also a very good idea.
Be sure to feed it a nutritious, non-inflammatory diet such as Azayaka sinking pellets. Low quality foods that irritate the fish’s digestive system should be avoided.
Tip: supplement with mild, easy to digest foods like frozen peas or soft spinach.
Preventing Goldfish Dropsy
As with most diseases, prevention is far better than trying to try to treat your fish.
Dropsy is usually a condition brought on by something that weakened the fish to begin with.
There are actually many different causes of dropsy, and eliminating these can go a long way in keeping your aquarium safe from this menace.
I also recommend always using a beneficial bacteria treatment in the water to keep bad bacteria, including those that cause dropsy, to a minimum.
I talk more in detail about the 6 causes of dropsy in my book, The Truth About Goldfish, and how you can protect your fish from them to start with.
What do You Think?
Have you ever had success dealing with dropsy in your goldfish?
Did you learn something new in this article?
I’d love to hear about your experiences when you fill out the comment box below.
One of my fish (011 a common goldfish) Had Dropsy. I knew about the garlic. I have a 50 Gallon tank for my three goldies and I had to quarentine him in a 5 gallon because thats all I had. I did practicaly everything you said to do here but she died. The next week Mike my comet goldie got it to so I did everything again. He died to. Now I’m left with Lucas my black moor goldie and he is in perfect health. So I wonder: why didn’t he get it? did I not catch it in time? how could I prevent this from happening again?
Thanks in advance.
Sorry to hear about your losses. Dropsy is usually terminal by the time it is detected. Did you recently get new fish?
I was just wondering, is irratic swimming, clumsy swimming and laying at the bottom of the tank symptoms of dropsy because I’m not sure if my fantail goldfish has swim bladder or dropsy.
Also, can the API aquatic salt help to treat it?
Only if the fish has bloating and/or pineconing could that be assumed. Regular aquarium salt is useless in treating Dropsy.
My 13 year old Comet Goldfish has had this dropsy for 2 months now. He is so Resilient. Shouldn’t he be dead by now? I try to keep his water in pristine conditions. Since the dropsy, I have fed him frozen blood worms and Seachem Chlorella Flakes with he LOVES. He is showing no signs of giving up. He is about 13 inches long. He is also producing more slime than usual. Can I just give him a salt bath instead of directly added it to the hospital tank? Thank you and please help.
I would not do a salt bath on a fish that old myself. Check the pH. Old fish are prone to mycobacterial dropsy.
Thank U for yr advice . I have 3 ponds of 15000 litres each and no dropsy in 2 ponds but the top pond where the water pours into from the sand filter & uv light gets dropsy.. the same water flows though all the ponds..Quite confusing.
Will start wih dosing Epsom salts and Oxolinic acid. Hope this will help..
Hope it helps you Ed!
I treated my Panda Moore with dropsy lasy year and he survived
But i noticed yesterday he was sick again a year later
I am doing the same treatment of antibiotics
Green malachite and salt for a week and yes he has been moved to a hospital tank with lots of air i feed my gold fish fresh cooked peas daily i have had this tank fir seven years hes a fighter of a fish and i really hope he will come back to normal again he already is swimming better
I found your column and think its really informative
Thank you if you can add anything more than appreciated
Cheers
Hoping he pulls through, Nat!
Hi I’ve a 15 year old goldfish with dropsy and he’s pine coming. I’ve separated him from the others added 9gms of aqualibrium and he seemed to work up a little however he is still upside down. He’s totally bloated. I don’t want him to be in pain. Would be happy if he overcomes this dreadful disease. Any suggestions? Should I eithanise him?
Is he eating? Trying to swim?
We have a large Red Sea Max with Goldie’s and one of our youngest of the tribe Ash, only 4 years old, just started pineconing today. Luckily I have furan2 and epsom salt on hand so he’s already in a hospital tank, dosed with the temp raising to 80°, filters removed and a black shirt over the tank to lesson the light noise.
Over the past 8 years I’ve dealt with Ich, bacterial and fungal infections including one case of fin rot and prior to these guys a case of Culumnaris that destroyed my entire tank… but never Dropsy. Hoping for the best and will let you know how Ash progresses.
Keep up posted, Logan!
Day 3, no improvement. Going to do a 75% water change this evening then redose with furan and epsom. He “seems” active and content yet he is visibly engorged and scales are pineconing.
Active is a good sign, hopefully she’ll pull through!
Thank you so much for this article! Are injuries, or sores along the lateral line common when a fish has dropsy? My fish has been floating for about a week, and I thought it was just swim bladder, but then I noticed some small sores all along the lateral line. As of this morning I thought that a few of his scales looked just a bit pointy from above.
I have kanaplex and focus so I started treatment this morning, but I’m not totally sure that this is dropsy.
Yes, they show up if a fish is really stressed. It could be the start of the disease.
Thanks for the great information. I realise this is a goldfish forum but I had a guppy with bloated belly but couldn’t see any pineconing from top or sides. Fish stores said looks like constipation (I never saw him poop while he had it also). I gave epsom salt baths and fed peas and fasted for few days but nothing helped at all and he finally started to sit on bottom of tank before he died after 9 days. We had another guppy which was inseparable from him and the second one would sit near the sick one to keep it company. On the morning that the sick one died, the other healthy one immediately keeled over and died too. Our water parameters are always good. With weekly water changes. No changes to tank stocking and other species in tank are fine. I didn’t have a hospital tank but will have for future. Do you think it was constipation or infection? Also, do you think other fish died of shock since it had no symptoms at all and seemed healthy until morning of sick fishes death?
It does sound like some infectious bacterial issue.
Thanks for the info. In my past experience i have successfully dealt with fungal infections, ich and other problems, but i am not able to deal with dropsy even if i followed the medication. Previously i lost a guppy about 4months back. And now once again my another guppy is having dropsy. i am following the medication from past few days. But still he is not recovering.
If the medications aren’t working, it could be due to resistant bacteria.
I have an 8 year old ranchu goldfish that’s showing signs of dropsy… he’s been swimming with his tail to the side an looks skittle bloated but he’s kinda fat looking naturally. His one eye is extending, the clear part onto not the actual eye. He’s acting normal but is swimming slightly crooked. I’m worried I’ve never had this problem…
You can try this treatment and see if it helps him. 8 years old, he’s had a good run until now. 🙂
Yes… hes important to me I hit him few months b4 my mom passed away.
Hes not even that big either hes in a 50g tank with 2 other 2 year old fancies an hes about 4-5 inches.
I did about an 80% water change last night and am going to buy new filter inserts, Epsom salts and medication today. Do you think API melafix is going to be enough?
Got** not hit*
No melafix is probably not going to cut it for dropsy. You need an antibiotic.
So I found out that the Gov has banned a lot of fish medications and are discontinued. Kanaplex is one of them. I managed to get the last box of Seachem Polyguard treats bacterial, fungal, and parasitic diseases. Ingredients are sulfathiozole 36%, malachite green 1.9%, nitrofurantoin .14%, nittofural .14%, quinacrine dihydrochloride .27%, inactive: excipients 61%
Can I use this as well as the API Melafix? She said the melafix is like a bandaid…
I’m using Epsom salt as well.
You can try Polyguard, though I’m not sure if sulfa based drugs will be as effective for the dropsy. The nitrofurantoin it contains is good though. If that’s all you can get it is certainly worth a shot!
Yeah no one knows fully why they’re banned in canada… thank u for your advice it’s very helpful!
Woke up today an my little ranchu died, an a little black more I think is on his way out.. they got bad in only a day they were perfectly fine. my 8year old seems to b looking better tho. Idk what happened.
Still unsure of my fish friend’s future.
I am not able to put 5 star
It is stuck at 4.5
Please fix it.
My 14 year old goldfish( home bred naturally) I felt looked a little misshaped, have put him in a hospital tank. Concerned it may be dropsy, have had him in 3 days now and he hasn’t expanded anymore and with my glasses I think I can see the mildest pine coning at the front of the torso, I’m treating with eSHa 2000 and Epsom salts in the tank. He is still eating(I’m only putting in small amounts of good quality food soaked in garlic and the occasional pea) hoping for a good result… he also seems quite lively. Is it worth me taking him out and doing an Epsom salt bath and can he then go back into his tank with the dose for the tank?
I probably wouldn’t if it was me. If he’s lively you’re doing probably something right though 🙂
How much Epsom salt
You can use 1/4 tsp per 10 gallons of water as stated in the article 🙂
Sunny’s sister Rosy now has the same thing he had, dropsy, extreme lethargy, barely breathing ect. (Also this is SUPER weird an odd purple/pink glimmer on the top side of the body. Its weird but it came right around the time Sunny started spiraling and now it’s on Rosy too. ) Water parameters are perfect. Feeding lots of lettuce and a few small, occasional meals of high quality pellets.I am super worried I am treating with Epsom salts but nothing else. I have ruled out pretty much everthing except Fish TB. I dont know what to do. The closest fish vet is 45 minutes away and I doubt Rosy would survive the trip. I doubt she will make it to Thursday. The remainder of my fish are likley infected if Rosy caught it even after Sunny’s demise. If there is anything you could think of to save the remainder of my fish it would be greatly appreciated. I tried to send an igmur link but the photo wouldnt upload onto it and it just wouldn’t cooperate. ?
Did you try any antibiotics?
No, I didn’t have any on hand and I knew she wouldn’t even last long enough for an online order to be delivered. I found her dead yesterday evening when I got home. Sunny lasted longer than her by a day and so I was surprised she was gone so quickly. Her other siblings aren’t showing symptoms yet, but I am still considering a vet appointment, to see if they will run some tests if they do that for fish. I just don’t want the rest to get it, they are my strongest. Should I even take them? I was also considering getting a UV sterilizer, my two best guesses are that its either something to do with bacteria, or something possibly in the lettuce I’m feeding them, which is homegrown, and organic. I ruled out parasites, most anyway, because I just finished treating my fish with Minn Finn. ( I suspected they may have had gill flukes. ) I trust your opinion. I just don’t understand why my fish got dropsy. ( Or why it came so suddenly and killed so quickly. ) :'(
No, I didn’t have any on hand and I knew she wouldn’t even last long enough for an online order to be delivered. I found her dead yesterday evening when I got home. Sunny lasted longer than her by a day and so I was surprised she was gone so quickly. Her other siblings aren’t showing symptoms yet, but I am still considering a vet appointment, to see if they will run some tests if they do that for fish. I just don’t want the rest to get it, they are my strongest. Should I even take them? I was also considering getting a UV sterilizer, my two best guesses are that its either something to do with bacteria, or something possibly in the lettuce I’m feeding them, which is homegrown, and organic. I ruled out parasites, most anyway, because I just finished treating my fish with Minn Finn. ( I suspected they may have had gill flukes. ) I trust your opinion.
If possible bring the dead fish to the vet in a plastic bag put it in the fridge and they can necropsy to confirm TB or not. This is nothing you’re doing wrong.
Thank you. I already buried her, but I put her in an origami box, but I think I should be able to…
I have another dropsied fish. She’s my strongest, but she is very bloated on one side and floating on one side, and barely breathing. I bought clove oil, but I just don’t want to put her down. I know she will last longer than the others, as they had been weak and pretty much runts, (I loved them though…) I want to try to revive her if AT ALL possible, but what if it’s too late? I just don’t know…it’s my favorite one of all time, and I just want to give her the best life possible. Should I try to give her one last chance and treat her? Or should I make sure she doesn’t suffer any longer? I don’t feel ready to let her go…But I trust your opinion either way.
You can try the treatment, but if it was me, I would go by the prior history of what’s been happening so she doesn’t suffer more than need be. Since the others haven’t responded to treatment it’s not likely she will either. It’s ultimately your call.
Thanks, for your opinion! Unfortunately that is what I ended up needing to do. You are so kind to answer all these questions. Merry Christmas!
Aww so sorry you ended up losing her. <3 Have a wonderful season ahead!
My goldfish (3 years old, about five inches long, fantail) has severe dropsy. Looks v like pine cone but still eating and swimming well. I will try Epsom salts but how do I euthanise if I have to?
Clove oil can be used to euthanize goldfish, followed by Vodka. There are instructions online for this method.
Thank you
Pls help my fish has dropsy and has lived for less than a year she has had it for 10 days and a fish expert at a fish store said use general cure and erythromycin it worked but only up until day 8 she is on her side with pineconing and shes still alive the fish expert says he’s treated dropsy before on cichlids and goldfish but I don’t know why my fish isn’t cured yet
When the antibiotics don’t work its probably time to euthanize, likely something more sinister. 🙁
Hi, my fish has dropsy. I think I caught it pretty early. He still has interest in food and still swims, but he\\\’s swollen and pineconed a bit. I\\\’m planning to purchase the above medications to give him my best but do I need to replace the medications after the water changes. I also don\\\’t have a hospital tank so he\\\’s still in with my other fish. The water is pristine. I\\\’m not quite sure how he got this other than that he was struggling with his swim bladder last week. Any advice?
Yes after water changes the meds should be replaced. I would quarantine.
I just wanted to let you know that I followed your instructions! Everything besides the quarantine part. I didn’t haven’t another tank. I got Kanaplex, Furan, Metroplex, and Focus. I even gave Epsom salt baths.
It worked! Lazlo is no longer pineconed or poppy eyed! He’s happily eating and swimming around!
Thank you so much!! I’m including my Instagram handle so you can see how happy he is.
instagram.com/literary_nanday
Wonderful to hear, Cassie! So glad Lazlo is doing better thanks to the treatment.
Can you use epsom salt with colloidal silver?? I am treating my fancy goldfish for dropsy..
Yes you can.