Hatchet fish swell & die

[OldTownSta]

I've lost 2 of my 3 hatchets over the past 2 days, after about 6 months of no
troubles. The only symptoms I noticed were a swelling in the middle of the
body, (almost looked as if a female filling w/ eggs), a couple days before
death. Swelling seemed to be a bit more pronounced on one side than on the
other. Each fish became sluggish, swimming w/ one side fin lower than the
other, and died within 48 days.

The 120 gal tank has a fairly wide range of freshwater tropical species in it,
and has been pretty stable with no other losses over the past several months.
An outbreak of ich (darn clown loaches) was successfully treated w/ mal. green
/ formalin about a month ago without any losses from ich or treatment.

I'd like to know what this might have been, and especially whether it's
something contagious that might jump to other species and if I should make some
prophylactic treatment.

Any advice much appreciated! -- Jim

[Elisa A. Ferrante]

Dropsy, but i'm not sure whether it's contagious.

"OldTownSta" > wrote in message
...
> I've lost 2 of my 3 hatchets over the past 2 days, after about 6 months of
no
> troubles. The only symptoms I noticed were a swelling in the middle of
the
> body, (almost looked as if a female filling w/ eggs), a couple days before
> death. Swelling seemed to be a bit more pronounced on one side than on
the
> other. Each fish became sluggish, swimming w/ one side fin lower than the
> other, and died within 48 days.
>
> The 120 gal tank has a fairly wide range of freshwater tropical species in
it,
> and has been pretty stable with no other losses over the past several
months.
> An outbreak of ich (darn clown loaches) was successfully treated w/ mal.
green
> / formalin about a month ago without any losses from ich or treatment.
>
> I'd like to know what this might have been, and especially whether it's
> something contagious that might jump to other species and if I should make
some
> prophylactic treatment.
>
> Any advice much appreciated! -- Jim

[Danya]

(OldTownSta) wrote in message >...
> I've lost 2 of my 3 hatchets over the past 2 days, after about 6 months of no
> troubles. The only symptoms I noticed were a swelling in the middle of the
> body, (almost looked as if a female filling w/ eggs), a couple days before
> death. Swelling seemed to be a bit more pronounced on one side than on the
> other. Each fish became sluggish, swimming w/ one side fin lower than the
> other, and died within 48 days.
>
> The 120 gal tank has a fairly wide range of freshwater tropical species in it,
> and has been pretty stable with no other losses over the past several months.
> An outbreak of ich (darn clown loaches) was successfully treated w/ mal. green
> / formalin about a month ago without any losses from ich or treatment.
>
> I'd like to know what this might have been, and especially whether it's
> something contagious that might jump to other species and if I should make some
> prophylactic treatment.
>
> Any advice much appreciated! -- Jim

i'm no fish expert, so you might not want to even read my post. lol!
but could it have been constipation? or perhaps some sort of tumor..?
well i guess i don't really have an answer so my post is kind of
useless anyway :\ hope you figure it out!

[Toni]

"OldTownSta" > wrote in message
...
> I've lost 2 of my 3 hatchets over the past 2 days, after about 6 months of
no
> troubles. The only symptoms I noticed were a swelling in the middle of
the
> body, (almost looked as if a female filling w/ eggs), a couple days before
> death. Swelling seemed to be a bit more pronounced on one side than on
the
> other. Each fish became sluggish, swimming w/ one side fin lower than the
> other, and died within 48 days.



I had something fairly similar happen to a group of Harlequin Rasboras that
I knew were farm bred specimens. The symptoms on all of the fish were
identical and did not affect any other species in the aquarium.
As the Rasboras were all from the same batch of presumably identical (or
very close) breeding I chalked it up to something genetic and didn't worry
further.
Of course if you have the room to move them all to a hospital tank for
observation then by all means do so, but sometimes the tiny gene pools in
some of these fish will eventually bite you/us in the butt.


--
Toni
http://www.cearbhaill.com/discus.htm

[Peter Ashby]

Elisa A. Ferrante > wrote:

> Dropsy, but i'm not sure whether it's contagious.

I've not known it to be. Dropsy usually swells the whole fish and raises
the scales. But hatchets being so compressed you might only see it in
the abdomen.

If the tank has been stable then I would suspect genetics.

BTW your clowns don't get more ich than other fish, they just display it
better and mean it is harder to treat. That ich might indicate something
is not entirely right in there though.

Peter

> "OldTownSta" > wrote in message
> ...
> > I've lost 2 of my 3 hatchets over the past 2 days, after about 6 months of
> no
> > troubles. The only symptoms I noticed were a swelling in the middle of
> the
> > body, (almost looked as if a female filling w/ eggs), a couple days before
> > death. Swelling seemed to be a bit more pronounced on one side than on
> the
> > other. Each fish became sluggish, swimming w/ one side fin lower than the
> > other, and died within 48 days.
> >
> > The 120 gal tank has a fairly wide range of freshwater tropical species in
> it,
> > and has been pretty stable with no other losses over the past several
> months.
> > An outbreak of ich (darn clown loaches) was successfully treated w/ mal.
> green
> > / formalin about a month ago without any losses from ich or treatment.
> >
> > I'd like to know what this might have been, and especially whether it's
> > something contagious that might jump to other species and if I should make
> some
> > prophylactic treatment.
> >
> > Any advice much appreciated! -- Jim


--
Add my middle initial to email me. It has become attached to a country

[Geezer From The Freezer]

OldTownSta wrote:
>
> I've lost 2 of my 3 hatchets over the past 2 days, after about 6 months of no
> troubles. The only symptoms I noticed were a swelling in the middle of the
> body, (almost looked as if a female filling w/ eggs), a couple days before
> death. Swelling seemed to be a bit more pronounced on one side than on the
> other. Each fish became sluggish, swimming w/ one side fin lower than the
> other, and died within 48 days.
>
> The 120 gal tank has a fairly wide range of freshwater tropical species in it,
> and has been pretty stable with no other losses over the past several months.
> An outbreak of ich (darn clown loaches) was successfully treated w/ mal. green
> / formalin about a month ago without any losses from ich or treatment.
>
> I'd like to know what this might have been, and especially whether it's
> something contagious that might jump to other species and if I should make some
> prophylactic treatment.
>
> Any advice much appreciated! -- Jim

Jim,

Have you checked your water params (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) as a first
measure?

[Mean_Chlorine]

Thusly (Peter Ashby) Spake Unto All:

>Elisa A. Ferrante > wrote:
>
>> Dropsy, but i'm not sure whether it's contagious.
>
>I've not known it to be. Dropsy usually swells the whole fish and raises
>the scales. But hatchets being so compressed you might only see it in
>the abdomen.
>
>If the tank has been stable then I would suspect genetics.

Not a popular view, but... with one exception all cases of dropsy I've
had in my aquaria has occurred within days of feeding with bloodworms
(red mosquito larvae, not tubifex, and I feed that rarely enough that
it's unlikely to be a coincidence). I think that if the bloodworms
haven't been handled properly during re-packaging and re-freezing,
they are prone to go bad, and bloodworms which have started to rot
seem quite likely to kill fish by dropsy.

The exception was a celebes rainbow with fish tuberculosis. Fish TB
may give dropsy if the fish is strong and manages to survive the
disease for a while.

[OldTownSta]

Thanks to all for the responses!

DROPSY - No porcupine scales, but researching it, it appears that doesn't
always happen w/ dropsy. Swelling appeared to be localized, but again that may
be consistant with some types of dropsy.

>Have you checked your water params (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) as a first
>measure?

Seem to be ok - 0 ammonia & nitrate; 80 nitrite a bit high.

[Peter Ashby]

Mean_Chlorine > wrote:

> Thusly (Peter Ashby) Spake Unto All:
>
> >Elisa A. Ferrante > wrote:
> >
> >> Dropsy, but i'm not sure whether it's contagious.
> >
> >I've not known it to be. Dropsy usually swells the whole fish and raises
> >the scales. But hatchets being so compressed you might only see it in
> >the abdomen.
> >
> >If the tank has been stable then I would suspect genetics.
>
> Not a popular view, but... with one exception all cases of dropsy I've
> had in my aquaria has occurred within days of feeding with bloodworms
> (red mosquito larvae, not tubifex, and I feed that rarely enough that
> it's unlikely to be a coincidence). I think that if the bloodworms
> haven't been handled properly during re-packaging and re-freezing,
> they are prone to go bad, and bloodworms which have started to rot
> seem quite likely to kill fish by dropsy.

If the bloodworms have been irradiated like all the ones I buy that
shouldn't be a problem.

> The exception was a celebes rainbow with fish tuberculosis. Fish TB
> may give dropsy if the fish is strong and manages to survive the
> disease for a while.

Yes, on the occasions I have seen it dropsy has occurred in animals
stressed by breeding (female gourami) and an old (and much bred, much
loved) male Betta. I tried feeding flakes dosed with antibiotic to the
latter but, too little, too late. I sometimes wonder if his bloodline is
still going.....

Peter
--
Add my middle initial to email me. It has become attached to a country