Diagnose Fish Disease

Ok, I can't find anything concerning this exactly on the net so I thought I would ask here. Symptoms was the scales turned kind of white and raised up off the body. Fish acted normal until the final day when it would hover in one place. I lost 2 fish like this after coming back from the convention. It appears to be bacteria infection, possible due to the induction of nearly double the amount of fish in one weekend. At first I thought it was like fin/body rot, but I'm not sure. The body seemed a bit swollen as the scales raised up. These fish were lost a couple weeks ago, and I haven't had much problems since. The pics aren't the greatest, but I tried.

One reason why scales raise is due to fluid buildup in the tissue underneath the scales. That fluid buildup can be caused by the shut down of the internal organs, like the kidneys. Whatever was making the scales white (you mentioned a bacteria) might have also done internal damage that shut down the kidneys, causing pressure buildup and the scales to raise. That's just a guess, though. I'm no vet. And those scales don't look nearly as raised as they do in dropsy.

Here is a close up picture of the 'pinecone'-like raised scales of a fish with dropsy:
http://t2.gstatic.co...Ggf0hwuoVSA&t=1

Edited by EricaWieser, 30 June 2011 - 12:47 AM.