Fish health ... Dropsy or Pine Cone Disease
Dropsy is a term used to describe the swelling of a fish's body. This causes the scales to stand away from the body like a pine cone in the forest, ... this is why it is also called pine cone disease. It is normally fatal
Dropsy is perhaps most common in ornamental carps of the Goldfish and Koi classes. If the fish has a sore, and the scales around the sore, or even on the whole side of the fish, stand up, does not necessarily mean Dropsy. These fish may respond well to injections of antibiotics. However if a fish does have fully developed Dropsy then survival is unlikely.
Dr Johnson reports "the belly may become reddened shortly before death. Of the cases I have sent for necropsy, the diagnosis almost always comes back as a mixed infection by two bacteria: Aeromonas hydrophila and Mycobacteriosis.
The former bacteria (Aeromonas) enters the body through the intestine in the winter and springtimes, particularly; and also through ulcers, or the bite wounds of parasites like Gyrodactyliid flukes. The latter bacteria, (Mycobacteriosis) is not treatable with anything we can commercially utilize. The disease progresses despite your best efforts, and there is no known way to stop it in ornamental fish".
Dropsy is a serious, and usually lethal condition brought on by stress inducing factors like sudden water temperature changes and poor water quality.
Expert advice should be sought but recovery from true Dropsy is highly unlikely.