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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Dropsy ?

  • Valerie (Valerie)
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20 Sep 2007 14:53 #1 by Valerie (Valerie)
Dropsy ? was created by Valerie (Valerie)
Hi all,

Another tank, another fish ...

A female guppy - I noticed the scales on her tummy are 'sticking out'. Upon closer examination, it looks like her fins are in a bad state too.
I have it since March this year.
In the tank, she kept to herself, quietly, swimming in the upper level of the tank, coming to the surface every so often but not all the time. She does not seem to be distressed either.
She is now in another tank and does not seem to be feeding either.




I thought it might be dropsy, but she is not really bloated. Could it be Fish TB ?

Any idea ?

Thanks :)

Valerie<br><br>Post edited by: Valerie, at: 2007/09/20 21:55

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20 Sep 2007 16:21 #2 by ricko10 (jamie)
Replied by ricko10 (jamie) on topic Re:Dropsy ?
Hi valerie,
I would guess that it is dropsy. I think it is fairly common in guppies.
The experiance that i had with TB the fish went very skinny with sunken stomachs and the fins were very badly damaged.
Have your other fish been taking advantage of her and taking nips out of her fins?
I personally think the over the counter medicines didnt work when my fish had dropsy, so i would raise the tank temp a few degrees and add epsom salts at a rate of 20mg per litre. Hopefully you have caught it early enough.
jamie

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20 Sep 2007 16:24 #3 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re:Dropsy ?
Jamie's right. Dropsy, not TB. TB is actually very rare in fish. Outside the lab I have only ever seen it maybe 5 times in 30 years of fishkeeping

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20 Sep 2007 16:35 #4 by ricko10 (jamie)
Replied by ricko10 (jamie) on topic Re:Dropsy ?
from what i understand, a lot of the time TB doesn't show any symptoms and your fish will just start dying off one by one. When my fish had it many moons ago within a day or so of them showing any symptoms the fish were dead.
I dont think dropsy is very contagious, but i found it difficult to cure if it isn't caught early enough.
Diagnosing the desease is easy enough, but diagosing the cause is sometimes impossible.

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20 Sep 2007 23:04 #5 by Carl (Carl M)
Replied by Carl (Carl M) on topic Re:Dropsy ?
Have you noticed what her faeces are like?

If stringy/clear it may be an internal parasite which could spread. If normal looking it may be just stress (hopefully… she does have a gravid spot after all) and if you do not notice any or little passing of ‘stools’ it is probably constipation (get out the Epsom salts!)

Hope all goes well, Carl

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20 Sep 2007 23:39 #6 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
personaly i would say it is neither dropsy or TB. guppys have been bread almost to death and some of the farms were they are grown leave a lot to be desired this female may have conceived a minum of six broods i noticed it spine is slightly curved this is not unusual in females when it starts to appear it is sad sign that this particular fish has almost reached its life span.

the problem is that fish like humans need exercise and this should happen at an early age i have extened my life expectancy of my fry by adding more water movement and better food, these days the fish i purchase are for breeding reasons only.

i recently had a similar female which i isolated so she could have peace she gave me some beautiful fryand a bit of peace in her old age was the least i could do.

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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21 Sep 2007 10:12 #7 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re:Dropsy ?
@mwdragondk

that spine look pretty ok to me but no expert on guppies. And yes I do agree that guppies are bred to death in South East Asia and a lot of breeding populations are stabilised by the use of antibiotics. That's why an awful lot of guppies don't last very long in our tanks. Their immune system can't cope with normal aquarium conditions
@jamie

TB in fish has several symptoms
-eyes fall out of their sockest
-eye swelling
-the fish's colours dull
-weight loss
-open and bloody section on the body
-inflammation of the skin
-degeneration of fins
-scales fall out or protrude from the body
-swelling of the abdomon
-curvature of the spine
-deformation of the jaw.

All of these symptoms could also be another disease. Valerie fish IMO only displays one of the above symptoms and that is that the fish's scales protruding from the body.<br><br>Post edited by: apistodiscus, at: 2007/09/21 17:13

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21 Sep 2007 11:04 #8 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
valerie could i ask how many guppies you have and your male to female ratio.

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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21 Sep 2007 12:35 #9 by Valerie (Valerie)
Replied by Valerie (Valerie) on topic Re:Dropsy ?
Thank you all for your input and help ! :)

In this 120l tank, there are 2 female guppies. I'd say there is no chance either of them are pregnant since the male died(beaten up by a Dwarf Gourami :( ) in May'07. Between one thing and another, I have not had a chance to replace him since. However, I now have a pair in my QT tank since Monday and am hoping to introduce them to the tank towards the end of next week.

The other tank inhabitants are as follows : 2 swordtails (M)(3 females in QT at the mo), 5 danios, 4 x-ray tetras, 2 yoyo loaches, 2 bristlenose (pair). There are all doing well and there doesn't seem to be any quarelling/harrassment or illness.

The sick female guppy is currently in another 'tank' with some aquarium salt and some JBL treatment for internal bacteria ... She still seems happy. If she survives another few days, she will be 'promoted' to my QT/hospital tank for further observation.

I'll update you on further developments.

Valerie

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21 Sep 2007 12:58 #10 by ricko10 (jamie)
Replied by ricko10 (jamie) on topic Re:Dropsy ?
Female guppies can hold sperm for up to 7 months, so in theory she could keep producing fry up until christmas:)

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23 Sep 2007 19:02 #11 by Valerie (Valerie)
Replied by Valerie (Valerie) on topic Re:Dropsy ?
This female Guppy died today :(
Ah well - Keeping the rest of them in observation.
Thanks all again for your help.:)

Valerie

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23 Sep 2007 20:02 #12 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
Sorry to hear that. Did the scales become anymore pronounced since the photo? Not sure that it was ever dropsy.

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23 Sep 2007 23:38 #13 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
sorry to hear that i still think genetic flaw. such a shame i have not seen such a nice pin tale for some time

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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23 Sep 2007 23:38 #14 by Valerie (Valerie)
Replied by Valerie (Valerie) on topic Re:Dropsy ?
@ Daragh,
No, if anything I think the scales were not so 'prominent' towards the end, but it probably was too late. Once she died, I spotted a very small bit of blood on her belly.
All the other inhabitants are doing well, so far ...

Thanks.
Valerie

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23 Sep 2007 23:39 #15 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
sorry to hear that i still think genetic flaw. such a shame i have not seen such a nice pin tale for some time.

a breach or miss carage would explain the blood the spine bending first shows after a birth then progress. as for the scales on a few occasions i have seen it where conditions suite quick births very close together i would only as a precaution place the other female in a bath of salt and met blue<br><br>Post edited by: mwdragondk, at: 2007/09/24 00:48

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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