I thought she was bloated....now I'm not sure, you can see THROUGH her stomach, and she's just as fat as before, and looks like she's getting fatter...its making me worried that one of these mornings I'm gonna wake up to a exploded fish, she looks like I could poke her with a needle and POP she'll go....or I could just squeeze her and the stuff will ooze out >_< (I'm seriously tempted to just squeeze her, but I know that'd be bad! lol)
Here's some attached photos of her and her...stomach....hopefully you can see it well in the light. I can almost see through, and when she gets food, you can see the poop INSIDE her all coiled up.
I've had her on espom salt until now....I'm scared to give her anymore.
Her behavior is normal, its like she doesn't know (or care), she's sick.
I am not to good with diagnosing but there doesnt seem to be too many people on right now.
How much do you feed her, how often and how long has she been in epsom salt? is she pooping at all?
If it's not constipation, the only other things I can think of are Dropsy or a tumor, maybe? Does she have a grey belly or swollen eyes? I would think, with dropsy, her behavior would change - lethargy and clamped fins.
Are there any males around? Is it possible she could be really, really..eggy??
I am not to good with diagnosing but there doesnt seem to be too many people on right now.
How much do you feed her, how often and how long has she been in epsom salt? is she pooping at all?
If it's not constipation, the only other things I can think of are Dropsy or a tumor, maybe? Does she have a grey belly or swollen eyes? I would think, with dropsy, her behavior would change - lethargy and clamped fins.
Are there any males around? Is it possible she could be really, really..eggy??
At first I thought she was eggy too, but she's a sorority fish and hasn't been around any males (and the females egg up with or without males, kinda like a fish-period). I feed her 2 pellets a day right now, and she's been on espom for about a week and a half now....minus two days (cuz I got really sick and couldn't bother giving her espom salt after water changes). And she poops normally (course, with the espom she definitely does)
Edit: I looked up photos of dropsy, and it looks like that might be what it is....but she's not pine-coned, and acts like herself...
Whoooa, poor girl! I'm thinking she is either eggbound or more likely and sadly, a tumor. :(
LittleNibbles, put her on 3 tsps of epsom salt per gallon as soon as possible. It's okay to treat with epsom salt long term so don't worry about that part. If she'll eat, feed her frozen brine shrimp, just a bit at a time. Brine shrimp has lots of fiber and can act as a laxative. If she hasn't shrunken in the next few days, I would be worried that it is, indeed, a tumor. In which case, sadly, there's nothing that can be done short of an operation. :( I'm really sorry. I hope it's just severe constipation or eggbound.
I wish you lots of luck with the little girl! Keep us posted.
With a cellophane fish, it should be obvious she isn't egging.
I know you put a huge amount of epsom with her, sis, but pffft... I dunno what else to tell you.
Do you know any -real- people at the lps who know about fish surgery and such?
I'm not sure you'd be able to do it, and you don't live where I do so I can't help you by getting Kurt to do the surgery for you...
...but I seriously doubt it's anything common.
It's very likely a tumor... less so just a super bad infection of some kind
but I think ejecting the stuff via needle would help her more.
With a cellophane fish, it should be obvious she isn't egging.
I know you put a huge amount of epsom with her, sis, but pffft... I dunno what else to tell you.
Do you know any -real- people at the lps who know about fish surgery and such?
I'm not sure you'd be able to do it, and you don't live where I do so I can't help you by getting Kurt to do the surgery for you...
...but I seriously doubt it's anything common.
It's very likely a tumor... less so just a super bad infection of some kind
but I think ejecting the stuff via needle would help her more.
I thought people only did surgeries on large fish? And no one at Petco knows a whole lot on that stuff....if worse comes to worse, I'll just have to put her down.
If you're really, really lucky some veterinarians who specialize in fish will do surgeries on small fish, but overall it's not something I recommend. The risk of trauma to the fish is just to great, it outweighs any potential success of the surgery.
Kurt and his friend are pretty good with surgeries, but yes, it's extremely stressful. (Kinda like how injecting paint in fish is stressful, too, but without good intentions from the human.)
He and his friend did a surgery on a saltwater puffer fish (I forget what type he was now); he accidently inhaled air rather than water during the stress of shipping him to the store, and couldn't swim right for days... weeks, really. After trying to massage the bubble out of the poor fish, and it not working, they did the last resort. It wasn't successful, but the puffer lived for a few more days before he passed from the bubble being in him.
All in all, if you're at a last resort, I'm not going to vote against surgery if you can be lucky enough to find a veterinarian as Sakura said.
Last resort.
But if not that, I say let her live it out as long as she can. She's acting normal for now, right? Enjoy her while you can.
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