What's wrong with my baby?

If it isn't to late, and you're desperately looking for some advice, hopefully someone can help you out.

Adam
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Post by Adam »

How's the little fella McEve?

Leave him or her in the salt solution for as long as it takes. I really would try an anti bacterial treatmet aswell. All the salt solution will do is treat the symptoms and not the cause which may well be bacterial in origin.
The main thing at the moment is to alleviate the swelling which the salt solution should do through osmosis. The idea is to increase the osmotic value of the water surrouding the fish so that the excess of fluid within the fish is drawn out.
As Rob says if you notice a visible change in the fish then you can begin to gradually decrease the strength of the salt solution. If you notice that the fish swells up again then I'm afraid that it has sustained kidney damage and is unable to regulate the amount of water in it's body.

I wouldn't worry about the other fish as dropsy is generally not contagious.
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McEve
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Post by McEve »

I'm very relieved to hear it probably isn't enything contagious! I would be devasted should I loose them all, it's bad enough having one in the hospital!

I was recomended magnesium sulphate, should I use that? he's in ordinary sea salt now.

Thanks for all the info and for caring!
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Post by Des »

McEve,
I have had dropsy in my tank in the past and was cured using ESHA2000 which claims to treat more than 18 disease organisms.Dropsy is a bloating of the whole fish and where the scales are raised, not only the tummy.
Just yesterday was browsing the internet for various fish medications and found that Epsom salts at 2 teaspoons per 10 gallons of water will treat intestinal bloating.If you were to do this ,I would scale down the treatment and treat the baby seperately in a floating container with an airstone.
Regards,
Des.
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Post by Adam »

No problem McEve, I just hope that the little guy pulls through. I would stick to the sea salt for now as you have already started the treatment. You might shock him even more if you were to now switch the treatment to magnesium sulphate.

I honestly do not think that the other fry are in any immediate danger as you've already hospitalised the affected fish.

On the few occasions that I have lost fish to dropsy none of the other tank members were affected despite high stocking levels.

You may want to consider a broad spectrum bacteriacide such as Myxazin on your main tank just in case you have something in there. The Myxazin will lower the bacterial count within the aquarium. Another treatment is Octozin which will kill internal parasites, the dropsy may have been caused by a protozoan parasite. I would wait a while before treating the main tank but keep a close eye on the remaining fry, more than likely this will turn out to be an isolated incidet
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Post by McEve »

I will watch them with hawk eyes. I do hope I don't need to medicate the tank, I really dislike chemicals, and bacteria killers would also kill of any good bacteria in my filter wouldn't it... Mind you, I could let the filter run in a bucket of water for a few days while treating the tank, and save the bacteria in the canister filter that way?
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Post by McEve »

The baby didn't survive the night :cry:
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Post by Adam »

I'm very sorry to hear that.

How are the rest doing?
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Post by Rob »

Sorry we couldn't help more McEve.

:(
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Post by McEve »

The rest seem to be doing fine, so I'll focus on that and be happy for the those :)

Thanks guys, you're the best
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Post by Adam »

Hi McEve,

Like I said yesterday in all probability this is an isolated incident and as such the remainig fry should not be in any immediate danger. I'm having a guess here but perhaps the poor fella had some sort of congenital deffect.
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Post by DANthirty »

sorry to hear the bad news McEve, how many more babys have you got left?
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Post by McEve »

I'm really not sure Dan, I have put a total of 22 in the tank, but I can't count them now, as there's too many hiding places in the tank :D

Guess I'll find out as they get older :)
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Post by Adam »

Hey McEve,

I didn't realise that you had so many baby zebras :!: I know it's a bit of a morbid question but do you know how many have died so far? It would be interesting to see what the mortality rate is like in young zebras.
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Post by McEve »

I think the mortality rate would differ from breeder to breeder. I'm a newbee so I probably have a higher mortality rate than others more experienced.

I got 4 wrigglers from the first spawn, I have noe idea how many eggs there was originally. Out of these three one died (looked like his egg youlk melted..) and one escaped. Two of these are in the grow out tank, the other well and healthy in the parents tank.

The second spawn I stole the eggs. There was twenty eggs, but I only got 14 wrigglers. 11 survived and were put in the grow out tank.

The last spawn I left with the father, and swiped them when they were rid of the youlk sack. I caught 7 of them, 4 escaped, and 2 died. I later found another two which were transfered to the grow out tank, and have since seen one of them that is still in the parents tank. Haven't seen the fourth escapee yet...

I then lost the one I originally posted this thread about, which I believe was from spawn nr two. This is the only one I've actually seen die in the grow out tank.

I try to keep track of the numbers of my babies anyway :D Hope this wasn't too confusing...

I could have had many more had I been more experienced I'm sure :?
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Post by Adam »

Hi McEve,

Sounds to me like you're doing just fine even as a newbie to breeding zebras. By all accounts I have heard so far from other people who have bred them you do not appear to be doing any worse.

I'm starting to think that I have the first confirmed gay colony of zebras in the UK. All my lot seem to do is stuff their faces, play musical caves, play hide and seek, have the occassional punch up and laze around doing nothing. Hey that sounds just like me when I was a student, apart from the gay bit of course. :lol:
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