
This may sound a bit cruel, but I thought it was worth a shot as he was dying anyway and it could put him out of his misery, but I put a tiny drop of tea tree oil in the water of the hospital tank, along with the usual salt, dechlorinator and weekly cleaner and a couple of days later I noticed the swelling in his abdomen was reducing and his scales were no longer sticking out! I had treated my fish for dropsy! (That's very hard to do, by the way). I was over the moon, as expected - I mean come on, isn't he gorgeous?!