My Sick Platy Fish

Question
My platy fish has recently become very fat and her lips are kind of puffed out and they move a lot. When we put food in the tank this morning she did not come out to eat. (She loves to eat!) We also have 4 other platy fish and two catfish.  Three of the platy fish are babies. All the other fish are fine. The sick platy is moving very slowly.  Also, her scales look like they are popping out. Please help. We love her so much!

Answer
Dear Amy,
I'm so sorry to tell you this, but your little Platy has Dropsy. Which is a very bad disease that's extremely difficult to cure and many people are never sucessful at it.

Dropsy is so hard to cure because it's not really a disease itself but it can be a symptom of a variety of causes. It can be Bacterial, Viral, parasites, or some other internal problem. And sadly, once the fish reaches the "pinecone" stage as they call it where the scales stick out, there is little that can be done.
The bloating typical with dropsy is caused by organ failure that permits fluids to build up in the body. Even such things as Kidney disease, Liver disease septicemia and cancer can all cause dropsy. There is little that can be done and the best thing to do is try to prevent diseases as much as possible by making sure all your fish have plenty of clean water and a proper diet so that your fish do not contract any serious infections.

Treatment now would be unsucessful for the little platy. It has been treated before, but only when the disease is caught very early. By the time the symptoms really show up, usually too much damage to the internal organs has been done... Sometimes it's recommended that the fish should be put out of its misery once it reaches the pinecone stage and the fish behaves sickly. Freezing the poor fish is common method of euthanizing, but putting the fish to sleep by using Clove Oil is much quicker and much more humane. You can read about that here: (highlight the link, then copy, and paste it into your search box)

http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profiles/misc/cloveoil.html

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-most-humane-way-to-euthanize-a-fish.htm

Unfortunately there is little that you could have done for the little platy. I'm really sorry.

But I hope this helps!
Best wishes,
Karen~