Is this dropsy and pop-eye on my bristlenose? (PICS)

[Helena21]

I was looking in my saulosi tank today and saw one of my bristlenose babies didnt look very healthy, so i netted him and put him in my breeder.
It looks like he has pop-eye and dropsy but he doesnt really have the pinecone affect.
His tummy is bloated and it looks like a blister, his eyes are really bulgy, definatly not normal.
All other bristlenoses and saulosi look fine. I added some melafix , but i doubt that will help at all.
here are the pics of him:

here you can see his really bulgy eyes:

.
so is there anything i can do for him, or is it too late?
Also are dropsy and pop-eye contagious? i would hate it to spread to my saulosi .

 

[Smalltank3]

No, it's not contageous. It does look like he has popeye. You would have to get a top-view picture of him, because I can't really see any scales poking out to determine it is dropsy.

Smalltank

 

[Fuzz16]

popeye is caused by a bruise or air pocket behind the eye normally, or sometimes bacteria buildup from bad water conditions...personally i think its the first that he has...do daily wc's for him and that should help, if it doesnt look for a medicine for him and up the temp a few degrees.
very very clean water will help the most though

and i dont know what to say about his belly...i dont know anything much about dropsy

 

[Helena21]

My nitrAtes are quite high but im not sure that is why he got it in the first place.
I will do a big water change either today or tommorrow morning

 

[FishGeek]

Becareful doing a big water change with him. It could shock him.

 

[Helena21]

OK
Anyone else got any other ideas?

 

[big54bob]

my guess after comparing it with bruce and other pics on google that he might have dropsy

 

[Helena21]

bob...your saying that bruce has dropsy?

 

[big54bob]

no he looks a little fat though

 

[Helena21]

oh, feed him a pea.

Anyone else?

i realllly hope its not dropsy, looks more like a blister

 

[Helena21]

im not sure if i should feed him or not..any ideas?

 

[Bandito_41]

I think the best thing for him would be a water change, a little bit of Melafix to prevent infection, and hold off on feeding him and see if his stomach gets bigger or smaller. It doesn't look like dropsy to me, but watch him to see if his scales start to "pinecone" out. It could just be that he is fatter than the rest of them

 

[Helena21]

Well, he died he wasnt moving much the day before and he developed little blister typed things everywhere. R.I.P

 

[Big Vine]

That stinks. I doubt there was much, if anything, you could have done for him.

BV

 

[Helena21]

thanks BV. Sad that he died, but i have tons of bn's, they keep breeding!

 

[Big Vine]

Yeah, that's good. Seems like the one that died was just bad luck...it happens.

BV

 

[Helena21]

must have been my lack of water changes and poor filteration that got him sick. Im doing my waterchanges now and i have a fluval 205 , wouldnt want to lose any of my saulosi!

 

[Dan Steveo]

im sorry to hear he died. =[ but good luck with the rest of your fish =] and keep breeding them.
to be honest i personally think that it was dropsy. dropsy can be contageous. i had a glowlight (variation of tetra) that got dropsy and after a few weeks he got very skinny and then some of my other fish got dropsy too. im pretty sure that it was the glowlight being in there that did it =[. i have also read somewhere that fish give off/out a fluid that gives other fish dropsy. im guessing the fluid is dropsy.

p.s. seeing that picture made me feel really bad =[ really really bad =[

 

[Helena21]

thanks.
Breeding has stopped atm, probably because he hasnt got a proper cave, but im gonna get him one soon.

 

[Helena21]

well i found another infected bristlenose , hes not as bad as the last one but he has popeye, i have but him in the breeder and dosed some melafix as it says it treats popeye
heres a quick shot of him: