For the tank params see here: http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...showtopic=59313

It started with that bubble but now he definitely has some pineconing going on beyond his usual pearlscales. Also one eye is sticking out more now than the other.

Starting him today on a triple sulfa treatment and antibiotic foods. Its gonna have to be bucket to bucket and no heater . The only choices I have atm for the foods is Jungle antibiotic pellets and gel tek Ampicillin gel food. I can order either medigold or metromed foods if one of those would be better.

Just looked and there is also what looks like a red vein on one side of his tail, that was not there yesterday.

He is still swimming, eating, begging like normal.

its gonna be a long recovery...my fish has dropsy for almost a month and it doesnt seem to get any better. infact it got worse. im treating him with maracyn 1 and 2 + epsom salt and no affect.

That does sound alot like dropsy .

I have maracyn 2 to try if the triple sulfa does not work. However I have read that with the maracyn treatment you need to raise the water temp to treat successfully. I currently have no way to heat the buckets...or the tank he will go back into if he recovers.

its not a bad idea to get a heater for sick fish. i just went out to get one today,

its funny....you spend all these money to save the fish...then it cost less to get another one...not like i would want to, but it feels so good to see a fish you painstakingly try to rescue

Not getting a heater is more of a cost issue than a want issue. I would need to get 3 different ones, 2 for the buckets, and one for the tank he would go back into. If I need to treat with the maracyn 2 I will borrow some money off my grandma to get the heaters.

just get one for the bucket...after hes all healed and well, make sure hes used to the colder water before introducing him to the tank

I thought that most fish that survive dropsy can never be put back into colder temps without risking a reoccurance. Thats why I'm hoping to treat it without raising the temp.

Today is the third day of treatment with the triple sulfa. I will add the third dose tonight after I get home from work. He appears to be responding well to the treatment. His body near the tail where it was really starting to pinecone has become more normal looking, and the scales where he had lost some of his pearlscales before are starting to look flatter again, not completely normal, but I can tell the difference again from his other scales.

I have a question: I am treating bucket to bucket and one course of meds is 4 days. How high can I let the ammonia levels get if I am treating the water with prime to detox it? They are at 0.5 after 2 days with another 2 days to go, I have primed the water for the ammonia in there today. I just want to get him over the 4 days then I can put him in fresh water everyday with no problems. I am just bad at the whole math thing and how much I would need to dose the new bucket with.

Also will medicated foods like the jungle antibiotic, or metromeds affect the cycle on a filter? There is a good chance that Pig will move to the pond later this week and I could move Tweedle-Dum (finally got a name for him) into the tub with a cycled filter if the meds in the food won't crash the cycle on it.

The only thing that I want to mention here is that "Sulfa drugs" are bactteriostatic,which means the medication aims to inhibit the growth of bacteria,but allows the fish's immune system to actually kill it. itself. If your fish has a good immune system,then that is all good,but if he doesn't,I think a back up plan of feeding Medi-gold,or Metro-meds(which is known for helping Dropsy) ,would be a good idea.Jungle Antibacteria also contains Sulfa drugs ,so it's basically doing the same thing as the triple sulfa is.
The fact that you are seeing some improvements show that your fish is indeed fighting the bacteria,I am paranoid however,and I myself would feed the medicated food(Medi-gold/or Metro meds,just to make sure,but that is my opinion. I too am terrible with figuring out how and when the water should be changed when you're showing readings of ammonia/or Nitrites-even knowing that the Prime does indeed detoxify,so I would rather than take a chance,just do the water changes to be sure.
As for the medicated food affecting your cycle, it doesn't really matter what specific food you are feeding as any thing that they eat will affect it because they produce ammonia every time that they do eat.

What are your average tank temps? We know that raising the temps usually helps in the healing process,but that's not to say that it wouldn't happen at colder temps,it would just be a slower process.

Sorry,having computer issues.

The metro meds and medigold are on the way, estimated arrival: next monday. I ordered them as soon as I realized what was going on. I have been trying to coat the jungle pellets with the ampicillin gel food because he will not eat the gel alone but has no problems with the pellets.

The unheated tanks are sitting at the low 70's during the day, maybe a degree or two difference during the night. At least thats what the crummy strip thermometer stuck to the tank says. I'm asking for an electric one, like what you would use in chemistry class, for my birthday this summer.

edit: Higher temps = faster treatment because the bacteria have higher metabolism/shorter lifespans at higher temps?

I have not had any luck with dropsy

Good luck to you

How's fishy doing today?Any more signs of improvement? Hopefully the fish med, food shows up before Monday,as that seems like for ever from now.
Finger's are crossed.

He is still eating like a goldfish. Inhaling any pellets I will give him. His poop still looks stringy in areas, and normal in others. A lot less stringy than before, maybe about 50% stringy now.

Monday seems like eons from now. I am tracking the package every day, but ups has never been wrong on a delivery day before for me.

His scales look more like normal than they did 2 days ago, but not quite all the way yet. He has about 7 more hours in his current bucket with the last dose of meds before being transferred to the other bucket.

Thanks for the support.

Tweedle-Dum inhaling pellets is always a great sign. The fact that you do see the scales going back closer to normal is also another,and hopefully with the sulfas/the bucket method and then the start of medicated food,we can get rid of this crap and get him back 100 %. Any time a fish experiences true Dropsy, chances are that the fish will always be somewhat more sensitive to any issues at all,but you had a few things going your way, which was the fact that your params were in a pretty good place and that you started some treatment immediately & hopefully this will give him a greater chance at kicking his illness completely.
C'mon Monday!

Good news! His eyes are completely back to normal. No more swelling or bulging.

Everything else is about the same. Watching him closely to see if he will need a second round of water meds.

Although slow,there is still continued progress showin,so we can only keep our fins crossed. Often times,Dropsy does end up being caused by a severe bacterial infection,and does need second round of meds,so continue to be alert.All we have to do now is get through the weekend,and then he can start that medicated food,which I hope will relieve him completely.

The food is sitting in a locked trailer in a city about an hours drive from here. Oh well, monday I will have it. The one eye looks like it might be starting to stick out again. It is hard to see in the bucket at night though so I will check on it in the morning and start another round of water meds if it actually is. He is still eating like normal, so that is good.

Hey kusackaid ,How are things going with Tweedle-Dum ? Hopefully the food shows up early today!

The food showed up after I left for work. I just gave the first feeding of metro med and I got a look like "wheres my junk food, mom". He went after the pellets and ate three of them. Then when he went to get the fourth one he spat out two of the ones he had just eaten instead.

I watched the eat it, spit it out again game for about 5 or so minutes. Then I tried dropping in a couple of the jungle pellets he has been on for the last week, to see if it was just a food dislike. He did more or less the same thing. That makes me wonder if he is having a harder time swallowing stuff now. I think he finally managed to get down about 3 pellets worth of food.

In the morning I will try to break up the metro meds into little pieces and see how that goes.

Even though the medicated food is packed with "nutritous goodie",I tend to think that there still has to be some sort of "medicine" taste to the food if you know what I mean.Just like kids meds0they taste good at first,but at some point the children realize that "Yuck",it is meds afterall.
Most of my fish do that on the first day or two,and then "get over it"I guess they soon realize that it may be the only meal that they're getting.
How's Tweedle-Dum looking overall? Still showing signs of improvement,the same,or slowly going back to where he was before? I hope a continued improvement.

His eyes are still normal but his scales are about where they were when the course of meds finished last week. Not any worse but not quite normal either. His poop has continued to improve and in the latest bucket is all normal brown looking, no long, white, or stringy poop in the bucket at all.

I have been trying to get closer looks at his body when I transfer him from one bucket to the other.

How about an update on Tweedle-Dum .Is he continuing with improvement?

Oscar went through the same phase. Soaking and breaking into bits helped coax him more in the beginning, but now he's eating it up like it's candy now. I'm sure your fish will figure this out sooner than later too. I hope he gets better soon.

He does eat the metro meds better now. He still chews for about 1 minute each bite but no more spitting them out and eating them again game.

His body still looks the same except some of the scales that were lost before (so they were not pearlscales) look like they are getting the whiter area like his pearlscales have under the raised scale. I am wondering at this point if they are going back to being pearlscales or is it something to do with the dropsy/other problem? The rest of his scales that should be "normal" and not pearlscales are still raised about the same as his remaining pearlscales are, and look like there is fluid under them.

I am debating at this point about doing another course of water meds to break what seems to be the current stalemate. One side says the fewer meds needed the better. The other says that it would be better to have him over the illness sooner rather than later.

Oh it has been warmer this week so the unheated buckets he has been in have been around 76 degrees during the day.

How is the fish doing?

This morning he was still looking about the same so I started him on another round of triple sulfa. Hopefully that with the medicated food will get him completely back to normal.