I have a Shubunkin goldfish which i suspect have dropsy

My goldfish has recently been lying on the bottom of the tank and just breathing. It does not respond to food actively i have a 55 gallon with him and a Panda oranda.
I shifted him to his own 10 gallon tank for now

He is showing signs like puffed up belly and the scales of the region looking like a pinecone. I give him a Epsom salt bath daily . And put some aquarium salt in the tank with him. He still lies down on the tanks bottom and does not respond to food, but he his body does not seem as puffy now and his body shape looks normal. I gave him some peas to eat (Which he tried to eat but couldn't) and have put a heater in the tank to 27 -28 C (I heard it helps the fish to digest a bit easily). I am doing a 10% water change daily .Giving him a salt bath every day for 10 minutes
Do you guys have had any success with treating dropsy i really need help

Ps . I detected him having dropsy about 2 days ago He is about 2 inches in Length

i feed him some hikari goldfish gold and on occasion some chopped up hikari koi food for color.
Some spinach,peas , spirulina flakes and krill flakes.

I did check the water and everything was kinda fine. Did a water change after the readings were almost same.

The readings were
nitrates : 50ppm
Ammonia : .8
Temps : 78
pH : 6.3

 

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Tank
What is the water volume of the tank?
Ans: 55 gal

How long has the tank been running?
Ans: Including the cycling period 8 months

Does it have a filter?
Ans: Fluval 307 and water polisher/Skimmer

Does it have a heater?
Ans: Yes the temp is 78F

What is the water temperature?
Ans: 78F

What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)
Ans: Panda oranda goldfish about 3 inch

Maintenance
How often do you change the water?
Ans: Daily 10% Monthly 50%

How much of the water do you change?
Ans: Daily 10% Monthly 50%

What do you use to treat your water?
Ans: API Tap water conditioner the water from my tank i naturally has a ph of 6

Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water?
Ans: I have a bare bottom tank . Vacuum the tank every day.

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish?
I cycled the tank for about 2 months. It was originally for a cichlid tank but my LFS had two goldfish on clearance and i am in college so i went with the decision to get the goldfish.

What do you use to test the water?
Ans: I use the API kits I dont have the one for nitrites so i will get my LFS to check it for me
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0.0 It was .8 at the time i noticed the fish had dropsy
Nitrite: I need to get that checked by my LFS i will update tomorrow ( 1ppm)
Nitrate: 5ppm
pH: 6.3

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish?
Ans: 4 times very small amounts i feed like half a pellet every feeding. With a fast every sunday

How much do you feed your fish?
Ans: I feed them roughly the amount of their eyeball(I heard that the stomach of a goldfish is roughly the size of their eye).

What brand of food do you feed your fish?
Ans: Hikari , Xtreme

Do you feed frozen?
I fed them from brine and blood worms once. but no i dont feed them frozen often (As i live in a college dorm room Have a refrigerator is not a viable option for me).

Do you feed freeze-dried foods?
Ans. No

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish?
Ans: about 6 months

How long ago did you first notice these symptoms?
Ans: 2 days ago

In a few words, can you explain the symptoms?
Ans: Puffy body puffed scales, Lethargic , not responding to food, Breathing heavily

Have you started any treatment for the illness?
Ans: Yes Epsom salt baths everyday twice 10 minutes each time
Some deshelled boiled peas. Temp increase to 80F, Aquarium salt

Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase?
Ans: no

How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all?
Ans: Lethargy Lying on the bottom of the tank disinterested in eating food

Explain your emergency situation in detail.
(Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now)

The goldfish started to lie on the bottom of the tank 2 days ago. And hardly ever moved i pulled him a bit up with a net and noticed that the fish had a bit of a bloat and had puffy scales. The folks at my LFS said that it might be dropsy and gave me a 10 gal temporarily for use as a hospital
I set the tank up with the OG tanks water and a sponge filter. And some bio media in a mesh bag. I gave him a Epsom salt bath in a old bowl i had for 10 minutes i put some aquarium salt in the tank and raised the temp a bit. The fish look less puffy the next but still was not responding to his usual food and was lying on the bottom he occasionally moved when i passed by the tank He did try to eat some boiled deshelled peas i gave him but he couldn't .
This worried me so i registered into this forum to get some answers from some fellow
hobbyists.


I did a water change in the 55 gal and the oranda is doing fine he seems to be a bit sad about not being able to see his tank mate.

Welcome to Fishlore

We will be able to offer more help if you would fill out this template. Aquatic Emergency Template | Freshwater Fish Disease and Fish Health Forum | 376562

The more we know about this tank the better we will be able to help you. Please give us as much information as you can.

I filled the form out

The fish does not look stressed as its dorsal fin is high up it just has problem swimming

 

A quick google search gave me this information:

While Goldfish will adjust too many pH levels, they will do best at a pH of 7.5. If your pH is far off from this level, your Goldfish may show signs of a loss of appetite, sluggishness, and poor health.

This leads me to think we may need to do something about the pH level in this tank. Normally I recommend we not try to adjust it and just work with what we have but I fear yours being so low is not the best situation for your goldfish. Since the pH in the tank is so low I fear the lack of minerals in the tank may be causing some of what you are seeing. Just like us our fish need minerals to thrive. If this fish has been living in these conditions for some time it may have finally reached the breaking point. What is the pH level of the water you are using to do your water changes? If it is much higher, water changes alone may help you get it up in the tank. Let me know the tap waters pH number and we can go from there.

I also recommend doing much bigger water changes when our fish are having issues. Just changing 10% of the water really isn't accomplishing much. I highly recommend you change no less than 50% now and once we get this fish healthy again no less than 50% each week.

Goldfish are heavy waste producers so need heavy filtration and big water changes. With just the 2 fish still on the smaller side you may be able to get away with 50% every other week but I would not go any longer than that and would be sure to change out no less than 50% each time. Changing even more each time or more often wouldn't be a problem.

What kind of filtration do you have running on/in this tank?

 

A quick google search gave me this information:

While Goldfish will adjust too many pH levels, they will do best at a pH of 7.5. If your pH is far off from this level, your Goldfish may show signs of a loss of appetite, sluggishness, and poor health.

This leads me to think we may need to do something about the pH level in this tank. Normally I recommend we not try to adjust it and just work with what we have but I fear yours being so low is not the best situation for your goldfish. Since the pH in the tank is so low I fear the lack of minerals in the tank may be causing some of what you are seeing. Just like us our fish need minerals to thrive. If this fish has been living in these conditions for some time it may have finally reached the breaking point. What is the pH level of the water you are using to do your water changes? If it is much higher, water changes alone may help you get it up in the tank. Let me know the tap waters pH number and we can go from there.

I also recommend doing much bigger water changes when our fish are having issues. Just changing 10% of the water really isn't accomplishing much. I highly recommend you change no less than 50% now and once we get this fish healthy again no less than 50% each week.

Goldfish are heavy waste producers so need heavy filtration and big water changes. With just the 2 fish still on the smaller side you may be able to get away with 50% every other week but I would not go any longer than that and would be sure to change out no less than 50% each time. Changing even more each time or more often wouldn't be a problem.

What kind of filtration do you have running on/in this tank?

I run a fluval 307 and skimmer / Water polisher I will take care of the pH problem
I think the goldfish have been internally damaged from the dropsy he isn't bloated but hes kind of snaking around the 10 gallon and now has been responding to food should i try antibiotics the LFS said i should wait a bit Before trying antibiotics

 

I run a fluval 307 and skimmer / Water polisher I will take care of the pH problem
I think the goldfish have been internally damaged from the dropsy he isn't bloated but hes kind of snaking around the 10 gallon and now has been responding to food should i try antibiotics the LFS said i should wait a bit Before trying antibiotics

Filtration sounds good. It is good that the little guy is getting more interested in food. I think if we can get that pH up it will help your little guys out. I know my tap water is very low in minerals. In my case I have to run crushed coral in my filters and also add Equilibrium to add the missing minerals.

I agree with the advice you got from the shop. If we can get the water more to their comfort zone medication may not be needed.

 

in your 1st post you said nitrate was 50ppm. then in the next post you said nitrate was 5ppm?

if nitrate is 50ppm, its too high, you need to be doing 50% weekly water changes. nitrate is less toxic than nitrite or ammonia. but it is toxic none the less. the EPA max nitrate in drinking water is 40ppm. for fish that have to live in that water they get long term nitrate poisoning which can cause dropsy.

i would stop feeding him for 2-3 days.

continue with the aquarium salt treatments.

 

in your 1st post you said nitrate was 50ppm. then in the next post you said nitrate was 5ppm?

if nitrate is 50ppm, its too high, you need to be doing 50% weekly water changes. nitrate is less toxic than nitrite or ammonia. but it is toxic none the less. the EPA max nitrate in drinking water is 40ppm. for fish that have to live in that water they get long term nitrate poisoning which can cause dropsy.

i would stop feeding him for 2-3 days.

continue with the aquarium salt treatments.

Thanks the first one was a typo
I have given him some aquarium salt treatments. The LFS suggested some API general cure, Kanaplex/ Metroplex and epsom salt baths that i already started. The Shubunkin(Big chungus as i call him) has started to eat the boiled deshelled peas provided and has been showing interested and coloring up . He also has stopped snaking around the bottom and slowly started to swim normally.Should i give him some antibiotics (Kanaplex/ Metroplex) right now or should i wait for a while.

 

its hard to say why he developed dropsy. it could have been b/c of water parameters or it could have been an internal infection.

its going to be your personal judgment. if you feel he's going to recover, you can watch and wait. but if don't feel like he's doing better then you can give him the antibiotics.