I guess it was inevitable that I will encounter some sort of ailment at some stage. Now that day has arrived ... this morning I saw this fish that did not look too happy.

I phoned a friend ... ChrisVis on the LinkAfrica Koipond forum and explained to him what I was seeing ...

1. Popped out eyes.
2. Raised scales.
3. Surface hemorrhages on the belly visible between scales.
4. Fish is very lethargic.

His immediate response was ... Dropsy ... to me an unknown thing till this morning and after some discussion with him the following was highlighted and I extract that for the purpose of helping other members that is unfamiliar with this disease.

a. Dropsy is not uncommon in new ponds.
b. It is possible to treat the fish but it is complex and expensive with a low chance of success.
c. It is contagious but if densities are low then it does not spread easily.
d. There is a bacteria that can trigger this. This bacteria is present in most water but if the fish are healthy and on a good diet it is not a "demon" disease.
e. Some fish is just more prone to getting it.

My fish is on Aquanutro Maintenance pellets exclusively for the past 5 weeks.

Here are two shots of the affected fish ...



In the shots the popped eyes and raised scales are clearly visible. I am quite upset that this specific fish got it ... but then again, isn't it always the favourite ones that pick up a disease.

Comments are more than welcome.

I had two kois that developed pop eye so far this year. The one i was able to save before it developed into dropsy the other i was not and i found it floating in my quarintine pond in the end. The one that died was a duitsu hariwake that had internal organ problems as its body showed the bumbs from outside while the other one was a torazo kohaku that got hurt when someone tried to catch it in my pond. So i guess the popeye was brought on due to stress and a low immune system.

Usually dropsy is caused by bacteria or internal organ failure and the first signs is the poped out eyes called popeye. Once the popeye turns to dropsy your chances of success drops severly.

Stress plays a major role in this treatment of this disease, so netting a fish for an injections might just be pushing the fish closer to the edge everytime. You can inject anti-biotics but it is difficult for the anti-biotics to target the affected area because the bacteria infection is behind the eyes. The best thing to do is to net the fish once and place it in quarintine area, from there salt is propably the best option but depending on the situation one would have to also consider putting the fish down.

My local dealer mentioned to me that a high dose of salt might help and its cheaper than biotics. Thats how i saved one of mine. It is important to note that you might be saving the fish now just to loose it later in a year or two because as i said the disease is associated with internal organ failure, especialy kindney failure.

Colyn, sorry to hear that.

Your fish is too small to inject with anti-biotics. I have cured dropsy on a few occasions with Acriflavine bath and a 0.5% salt solution(5kg/1000). The pop eyes will probably stay there.

You have Acriflavine in your medicine chest bought from me.

Thanks for the replies guys ... I have put the fish out of it's misery.