Symptoms of ascites
external symptoms
- Abdomen extremely swollen
- Scales stand off
- pop eyes
- skin peels off.
- Inflamed (red) spots on the body
- Pale spots on the body
- ulcers
- fungus
- Blisters on the lateral line
- Gills are pale
- anus inflamed
- Anus is protruded
Behave
- shortness of breath
- Fish sway on the surface of the water.
- Fish sway on the bottom.
- Fish don’t flee.
- Fish become apathetic.
- Fins are clamped.
- Fish are dark in color.
internal symptoms
- Abdominal cavity full of fluid
- kidney is inflamed.
- Liver is yellow to light brown.
- Gallbladder is swollen.
- Bile content dark green
- Transparent and glassy intestinal wall
Source: Aquarium-Welt.net Ascites
Photos of ascites
Clicking on a photo shows the whole picture, if available.
Photos: Christian Olsen
Apistogramma nijsseni with swollen abdomen
Photos: Jenni Daus
Female guppy with a bloated belly
Photo: Gerhard Fischer
Aphyosemion amieti, probably with ascites
Photos: Jörg / Shaky
Cockatoo dwarf cichlid with severe bacterial infection. The fins are badly attacked by fin rot. The simultaneously protruding scales and the somewhat distended abdomen indicate infectious ascites.
Photos: Oliver C Thornton
Goldfish died of ascites. The typical symptoms of pop eyes, scaly patches and a fat belly are easy to recognize. In addition, the fish has fin rot. Easily recognizable by the tail fin.
Photos: Desirée Bahr
Platy with ascites
Photos: Christian Drolshagen
Dwarf Gourami males with abdominal dropsy. The scales are starting to stick out.
Photos: Mairii01 (Forum)
Red neon presumably with ascites. Pregnant neon females don’t usually get that fat either. The scales appear to stick out slightly.
Photo: Viola (Forum)
Harlequin barb with dropsy.
Photo: Jutta (Forum)
Female Sumatran mullet with a big belly. Female Sumatran barbs that are ready to spawn can become quite fat. However, the belly of the female shown is a bit too big. Partially protruding scales indicate abdominal dropsy. The female had to be killed shortly after the picture was taken. It no longer swam away, grew thicker, breathing went very quickly and the lower abdomen turned yellowish. The abdomen was filled with a light yellow viscous secretion.
Photos: Sabine P.
Tropheus kiriza with presumably ascites. 7 days after adding 5 new Tropheus to an existing stock, the pictured Tropheus kiriza showed a bigger belly and popping eyes. The animal was caught out of the aquarium. Despite its condition, it was still fairly nimble. The remaining fish were treated with Aquamor 1 forte for 3 days. 2 days after the end of the treatment they were all eating greedily and showing no signs of illness.
Photos: Astrid Metzger
Catfish with abdominal dropsy
Photos: Helmut H.
Shubunkin with ascites
Photos: Bernd Bludau
Shortly after buying five new guppy females, the betta developed the swollen belly.
Gradually almost all the guppies, three zebras and one catfish died. A female guppy also had a swollen abdomen. The others had no signs of any disease, no spots, no odd behavior, nothing. 12 neon tetras, three catfish, three female bettas and three guppies that were born in the aquarium survived.
The pool has about 250 liters, floor heating, 28 degrees, Fluval 404 filter with different filter media (Zeo-Cab, carbon and solid filter), pH value 7.3.
The fighting fish shown was active until the end, in the meantime it lay down on the bottom, ate and didn’t seem particularly affected, although the severity of the disease was very clear.
Photos: Anna-Lena Horner
Fighting fish with dropsy
Fighting fish with dropsy. Possibly the feeding with red mosquito larvae was a (contributory) cause.
Betta female with ascites. With this betta the typical symptoms of ascites are clear, in contrast to the three bettas above. The whole body is thickly swollen and the scales stand out strongly.
Photos: Tamara
Goldfish with Ascites and Remedies. Broad-spectrum drugs usually only help in the very early stages of the disease.
Photos: Stefan Szabo
Guppy with dropsy.
Photo: Maggie Frahm
Platy with ascites.
Photos: Thomas Boening
Crossocheilus siamensis with typical signs of ascites. The belly is very swollen, the scales are sticking out. The animal is about 11 cm tall and has been living in the same tank for about 6 years. Feeding behavior and stocking have remained unchanged for years. Despite the big belly, his behavior was absolutely inconspicuous.
Photos: Thomas Boening
Approximately 4 weeks after the first recordings, the animal had gotten fatter again (left photo). When the fish was supposed to be released the day after this picture was taken, it had suddenly shrunk back to its normal size (photo on the right).
The water values were always perfect. The fish had become very shy, but you can even see in the picture that it has become emaciated.
The appearance of the fish and the course indicate that the regulation of osmosis was disturbed due to a mechanical problem. After solving this problem, the osmosis regulation worked and the liquid stored in the body cells could be released. A possible cause for such problems is malfunctioning of the kidneys, for example due to kidney stones.
Photos: Jens Grueneberg
Scalar with ascites.
Photo: Tanja Pirenz
Butterfly cichlid female with ascites.
causes
The most obvious feature of ascites is an extremely swollen abdomen. Although a swollen abdomen can have a variety of causes, aquarists typically refer to ascites when a fish has an abnormally large abdomen.
The belly of a fish can B. swell if its osmotic regulation is disturbed due to damage to the skin, gills, heart, liver or kidneys. Impaired osmosis regulation can lead to moisture accumulating in the abdomen. Likewise, a bloated abdomen can be caused by intestinal flagellates or other diseases that cause fluid to leak into the abdomen.
Dropsy is probably often suspected in aquaristics and usually treated unsuccessfully, although the cause of the symptoms found is not dropsy but another disease.
The «actual» ascites is the so-called infectious ascites.
Whether infectious ascites in aquarium fish is caused exclusively by bacteria or whether viruses (Thabdovirus carpio) are involved has not been definitively clarified. The bacteria of the genera Aeromonas and Pseudomonas that are definitely involved are present in practically every aquarium because they can survive in the water and soil for months and multiply there. The immune system of healthy fish prevents the bacteria from multiplying to such an extent that an acute illness breaks out. Only when the fish is weakened is the immune system no longer able to fight the bacteria.
The bacteria Aeromonas hydrophila, which are often involved in ascites, are found in many aquarium fish, especially after they have been previously weakened by an infection with parasites or mycobacteria.
Once infested fish excrete large amounts of the bacteria out of. The risk of other fish becoming infected is therefore very high. For this reason, fish suspected of having ascites must be immediately isolated in a quarantine tank.
The immediate cause of the swollen abdomen in infectious ascites is the decay eone or more internal organs (liver, kidney, etc.) due to the infection. The decay causes fluid to be secreted into the abdominal cavity and the abdomen to bloat. Since the scales spread out from the body due to the bloating and the increased fluid intake of the body cells, one also speaks of dandruff bunches.
If the intestines are affected, the fish secretes slimy faeces and the fish no longer eats. Later, the intestinal mucosa is shed and excreted. White slimy bits can get stuck in the anus. The intestinal wall is transparent in a dissection and looks glassy.
In the final stage, the kidneys no longer function properly or infections of the urinary tract occur. The kidneys no longer excrete enough water and the excess water collects in the abdominal cavity, in the scales and at the back of the eye. If the kidneys are damaged, bacteria killed by a drug are no longer removed from the fish body and put additional strain on the fish, as well as the drug itself.
Infectious ascites can only be reliably diagnosed by the veterinarian with the help of a bacterial culture. However, fish whose abdomen is already bloated can only very rarely be successfully treated, regardless of whether there is infectious ascites or whether there is another cause. In most cases, the respective disease has progressed so far and the fish has become so weak that successful treatment is no longer possible.
As with almost all diseases of ornamental fish, prevention and the creation of optimal environmental conditions for the fish are of the utmost importance. Like all bacterial infections, ascites can be reliably prevented by good keeping conditions.
treatment suggestions
Infectious ascites can usually only be cured in the early stages. For this reason, the actual cause of the disease must be determined. The treatment can only be successful if remedies are used quickly and in a targeted manner. There are some commercially available remedies that can help if used in a timely manner. Without eliminating the causes, ie generally improving the housing conditions, no treatment will help.
The treatment can be supported by a salt treatment with 2 to 5 grams per liter of water. The exact dose of salt depends on how much salt the fish species can tolerate. The salt treatment supports the regulation of osmosis, especially via the skin, so that a part…