I think my Oranda has Dropsy

Question
Hi.
I have a male and female red cap oranda in a 20" x 20" tank (sorry but I'm from the UK and your gallons are different)  My tank has been set up since the beginning of November 2006.  I have a large airstone, a fluval filter (sponge) and and undergravel filter.  I do a water change of 10% every Sunday and I feed them a small pinch of either flake, blood worms and occasionally brine shrimp.  My tank is fully cycled and all the ph, ammonia and nitrates are perfect.  
When I first got my orandas the female spawned but the eggs were not fertilised as my male is not mature enough yet (though he has a whale of a time chasing her sometimes!) Recently the male turned upside down, so I did a 25% water change and with by the morning he was swimming fine.  I had feed them brine shrimp but I think there was too much on the dried cube and he became constipated - but I witnessed him pooing and he's been fine since. Then two days ago the female turned upside down (I had with held feeding untill the male was fine) and she has swollen on her egg sac so I thought she was either constipated or going to release more eggs as the male was butting her.  But she has remained upside down and I've removed her from the tank (mixing old and new water that has been treated with aquasafe) and put her in a smaller tank, on her egg sack her scales are slightly protruding but it seem to be slightly on the otherside too - she isn't swimming and is just floating around with the occasional eye movement to see what's going on.  she tried to chase a flake of food and showed some interest but gave up as she couldn't seem to get moving.
Am I going to loose her as from research I've read that if the scales are sticking out it's certainly dropsy - though to be honest as she's an oranda I've not notice that mcuh difference and I wasn't too alarmed until I saw the sales when I moved her.
My male oranda is swimming around quite happily in the tank on his own but he looks lonely, please could you give me some advice and I don't know what to tell my son as it's his fish.
Thank you,
Lisa.  

Answer
Hi Lisa;

It sounds more like a digestion issue to me. Change at least 25% of the water in the isolation tank every day to keep wastes down so she doesn't develop other problems. Try fasting her again (no food at all for 3 days) and start on veggies such as cooked green beans, cooked squash chunks, cooked peeled peas, romaine lettuce and/or shredded cooked carrots. Feed no other foods (especially not dried) until she is feeling better. When you start feeding dried foods again, soak them in a little tank water first. Frozen brine shrimp is much better than the dried too. Thaw it before feeding. Brine shrimp is helpful for digestion but any food that's too dry can cause constipation and other serious digestive trouble.

Change water and vacuum the gravel every week too. All tanks need a 25% change weekly and at least a vacuuming every two weeks. Goldfish are especially messy guys that just need a lot of maintenance.

I hope she feels better soon...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins