Loaches Online Forum

introduced some clowns over the weekend into a tank with a shoal of congos. (friday afternoond). Tested my water this sunday morning, found ammonia present in tank, i did a 30% water change and checked the tank with a flashlight. (i havent turned on the lights since the loaches were introduced). Found a dead congo tetra stuck to the filter intake. (i used driftwood to hide the powerheads). Worse, found another 2 congos with evidence of dropsy.
1. can dropsy be dormant? coz dropsy is supposed to be a symptom of bad water quality but i got the congos 2 weeks before and since then the tank parameters were good. (tested for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate). The congos were probably stressed out when i had to catch their tankmates out prior to introducing the clowns, though. (i had to remove all the decor, lower the water and chase the fish around.)

2. i removed all the congos and transferred them to my quarantine tank for medication. Should i medicate the tank the loaches are in also? I see conflicting reports on whether dropsy is contagious or not, but i am worried coz im not sure how long the congo was dead before i managed to find it. I did another water change sunday night after removing all the congos. The congos were not in a critical stage by the way, since i saw improvement on their conditions this morning after medicating the tank with baktopur direct.

It sounds like you already know this, but most say dropsy is caused by organ failure due to poor water quality. I doubt anyone could say for sure if your clowns will get it or not but if I were you I wouldn't medicate the clowns. The medication would stress them and the likelyhood of them getting it is probably low. However, if you are having problems with ammonia in your tank you need to be doing daily water changes until it is back down to 0.