Dropsy Or Pine Cone Disease Causes Pond Fish To Appear Bloated And Swollen
Dropsy A Fatal Pond Fish Disease
Pond fish with advanced Dropsy will show the following signs or symptoms: swollen body, bulging eyes and or scales that stick out like a pinecone, hence the name. Dropsy is nearly always terminal. Dropsy is an internal infection that manifests itself in your pond fish's organs.
Dropsy is not a contagious fish disease, so there will be no need to isolate the infected pond fish from your other koi and goldfish. If you suspect dropsy but it's not in the advanced stages, you may be able to treat and prevent the dropsy from worsening. Feed triple antibiotic food and treat with a medicated water treatment.
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There are several reasons why your koi and goldfish appear bloated or swollen. Common causes of this are detailed below:
Symptoms Of A Tumor Causing The Bloating
Fish tumors manifest themselves generally as lumps on the koi or gold fish's body, and will cause less swelling than Dropsy (Pine Cone Disease). In addition there won't be any lifted scales. Tumors are not likely to infect other koi and goldfish but it is advisable to be cruel to be kind. Rather than letting the poor fish suffer, it is advisable to carry out an act of euthanasia.
2) Obese Koi And Goldfish
Koi are referred to as the "Pigs of the pond” as they can be extremely greedy and will readily over feed, given the chance. The best way to solve this is to put them on a "Weight Watchers” diet; only kidding ... the best solution is to feed less frequently and feed smaller amounts of fish food. Feeding a lower protein fish food such as a winter Koi food will do the trick. You may want to consider an automatic pond fish food feeder, which will feed a set amount of food at a set time.
3) Spawn bound or egg bound fish
During spring to early summer female koi "flesh out" in preparation for laying eggs within the pond. Mature koi might even be egg bound up to late summer.
4)Excessive levels of fluid
Usually as a result of koi or goldfish kidney malfunction.
5) Dropsy or Pine Cone Disease
A classic symptom of your koi or goldfish suffering from Dropsy is a bloated appearance and scales lifting from the fish's body. Dropsy is a term used to describe the swelling of a fish's body. It is sometimes known as Pine Cone Disease because the scales standing away from the fish's body have the appearance of a pine cone.
Dropsy can affect many species of pond fish but it commonly infects ornamental fancy carp species such as koi. It is also quite common in gold fish. Unfortunately if the infected individual develops full blown Dropsy then the likelihood of survival is extremely rare. The most humane thing to do for your infected fish is to humanely put it out of its misery.
Dropsy is caused by a mixed infection of two bacteria strains: Aeromonas hydrophila and Mycobacteriosis. Aeromonas can infect your ornamental fish by entering its body, through its intestines, through ulcers, or through the wounds left by bites from fish parasites such as Gyrodactyliid flukes. Mycobacteriosis bacteria are not treatable with any commercial pond medication.
How Do I Prevent All My Ornamental Fish From Becoming Infected By Dropsy?
Mycobacteriosis and Aeromonas are nearly always present in your garden pond water and under normal circumstances a healthy ornamental fish, not suffering from stress will not become infected. However when it becomes stressed then it will become susceptible. The secret is to attempt to remove the factors causing the fish to become stressed. Changes in pond water conditions such as increased ammonia concentrations, increased pH levels are often contributing factors.
Test your pond water regularly, particularly for Ammonia, Nitrite, pH, total alkalinity and water hardness ... For a review of pond test kits click here.
A simple and effective way to reduce the ammonia level is to carry out partial water changes ...replace between 20 to 40% of your pond water daily ... Adding a touch of pond salt; approx 0.1% level is a good idea.
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