The Evil Hand wrote:
I posted about a female Siamese fighting fish that appeared to have dropsy a
few weeks ago. I treated her twice with maracyn. after the swelling didn't
start to go down, but she is still as swollen as she was then, but has not
got to the point were her scales have started to protrude? Does anyone know
what else that it could be. She seems buoyant and the swollen cavity appears
to be filled by either air, of a clear liquid, when she swims in front of
the lights?

cheers
Evil

Have you tried Kanacyn? Maracyn (Erythromycin) is usually not effective
for most causes of Dropsy. And dropsy is generally a symptom of
something else, sometimes digestive, often kidney related. A proper
diet makes a large difference here. Do not feed your fish meat based
proteins, I recommend aquatic based proteins such as white fish meal,
shrimp or even the proteins found in spirulina algae.
What do you feed? As a basic diet I recommend Sanyu or Hikari Betta
Gold.
Poor quality proteins (or better; unusable amino acids for fish) can
lead to digestive problems or Renal failure, which CAN lead to the
symptoms of Dropsy.
All proteins are made up of amino acids, some are usable (by fish), and
some are not.
Those that are not are disposed of by kidneys in the fish. This can
lead to renal failure or infection.
Also sometimes (not often though) the aeromonas bacteria (that is often
present in healthy aquariums) can cause infections that will manifest
this way in poor water conditions.

Here is more info about aquarium medications:
http://aquarium-medictions.blogspot.com/

Carl