Understanding Dropsy...

[Jubs]

Exactly, Jubs!  But while trying to maintain osmotic balance, the bloating is caused by an imbalance.  By adding regular salt, this will pull more fluid from a lower to higher concentration.  That's why epsom salts work here.  MgSO4 actually helps return the fluids to the vessels rather than pulling them into the tissues causing even more of an osmotic imbalance.  This is called "third spacing" of fluids.

I see what you are saying and I understand the physiological term of third spacing but I am not sure I understand it when it comes to a fish I guess, I don't know. I am just going on what my reference material treatment method is offering.  I see that the common treatments according to mostly betta sites, after a quick google search, is MgSO4 as well...

Honestly the only way I can tell you for sure what works is if I was in a situation to compare them myself, you know me well enough to know I won't say one way or another if I haven't experienced it myself so with that said... I am basing that on my material I used for reference, if it is correct or not I can't honestly tell you as I haven't had the "opportunity" to try either way. I have a better idea instead feed your fish a good diet and keep the water quality up and you won't have to worry about diseases in your tanks!  I can tell you from actual experience this does work! I would be very interested in running an experiment to see which works better though, I don't why he would recommend the use of the wrong thing but to quote the author it says "pure salt or sea salt" so ... 

I am sorry if my info is incorrect I am just basing it on my reference as I stated before. I would be very interested to see or run a test ran side by side or however, to see what happens. The hardest thing about a test like this is the fact that you would have to know what exactly the cause of the dropsy was so you could treat the fish for the cause of the dropsy and not play the guessing game most people do that know that dropsy is not the cause of the problem but rather an underlying condition that is causing malfunctions in the osmosis within the fish. So that leaves a lot of variables to successfully do a test like this as well.

I am not arguing what method is right or wrong as I don't know since I haven't had problems with disease in years and I can't run my own test. Just not sure why a disease expert would over look such a thing but it happens so till I have the experience to run a test ,I am with you just as much as I am with the author of my reference material.
   

[wendyjo]

I will say that I've had problems with dropsy with my bettas - 4 out of 6 of them have died all bloated up despite feeding good foods and doing regular tank maintenance.  With my last guy he was visually fine one day, grossly swollen the next, and dead that night.  I have no idea what the underlying cause was and all my bettas that have died this way were exactly the same - looking and acting fine one day and BAM the next day they are a mess, with the exception of one girl who had a bit of finrot for a week or so prior to bloating.  Another girl was fine in the evening and the next morning she was very bloated and had popeye.  Proper fishkeeping procedures never seem to matter with bettas.  In the last case I mentioned she was in a community tank and no other fish succumbed to any disease, even after consuming her.  Are bettas more prone to disease?  Is there some reason that they develop "dropsy" when they do get ill?  Something in their physiology that causes them to bloat so quickly and horribly?

I've tried doing the epsoms salts baths with no luck at all.  I've never tried adding aquarium salt to the tank, but if I have this occur again I will surely give it a try as nothing else has ever worked.

[Jubs]

Are bettas more prone to disease?  Is there some reason that they develop "dropsy" when they do get ill?  Something in their physiology that causes them to bloat so quickly and horribly?

You know if you think about it, if you consider how tough of immune systems wild fish have compared to aquarium strands and think of how many generations go into developing finnage and coloration in especially bettas it kind of makes sense that they would be weaker. I notice the same thing in most fancy guppies compared to wild strands. 

[wendyjo]

I'm not such an experienced fishkeeper - i started with bettas a few years ago and just last year moved onto other fish, mostly danios.  Is dropsy, the bloating and all, very common in other fish?  In other words, I have lost well over half my bettas to dropsy (yes I know it's not the cause but a symptom) - would it be reasonable to say that I could expect over half of my other types of fish to display similiar symptoms when they get sick and/or die?

[Jubs]

You know I can't honestly answer that as I have not had much problem with it other than a blue gularis pair but I found of out that it was due to feeding live blackworms whole to them, I then asked the breeder and well known hobbyist why that would cause (he course asked what I was feeding and if blackworms was one of them) but I he told me that the intestinal tract of the species is to short and can't properly digest the blackworms whole. One thing to check is to make sure your hot water tank is drained at least yearly to make sure the metals aren't settling in the bottom and adding the metal to your tank. The metals can cause liver and kidney issues with your fish are some of the diseases that can cause dropsy.

[kittyfishes]

I realize I'm reading this a year or so after it was written but I've been trying to save Pink and nothing else has worked!  I've done the epsom salt, the peas and antibiotics.  He's as sick as he ever was.  He, too was fine one day and bloated the next.  The one weird thing with Pink (a Betta BTW) that makes me think he doesn't have Dropsy is there is no pineconing.  If anything, it's like they are inverted if that makes any sense.  But he does have some other lesions, I guess you could call them, that I can't quite ID.  I may try the salt as a last resort. 

I am beginning to think that Bettas may just be prone to illness.  I take good care of my boys and girls.  I lost one this week to fin rot that happened overnight and did not respond to treatment, and Pink has this bloated thing going on.

Thanks for the article!

[wendyjo]

Fish don't always immediately pinecone with dropsy.  They pinecone because of fluid build up in the body - once enough fluid has built up the pinecone appearance will show up.

[kittyfishes]

WJ, he's still with us this morning.  I took the plastic cap from a can of hairspray, poked holes in the bottom and filled it with marbles and placed it in his tank like a little bed so he is closer to the surface of the water.  This has been going on for a couple of weeks now.  I'm continuing with the antibiotic.  He doesn't look any better or actually, any worse at this point.  It's not fun.
Linda