Bloat

[h0nkzz]

Just got home from out of town, noticed one bloater in my colony   ... i'm new to trophs, can anyone tell me what the best treatment for bloat i can find in town ? i hope its not too late ...  any help is much appreciated !!!

h0nkzz

[PhishPhreek]

Re: Bloat

Aquarim Fish Diseases & Treatments

 Symptoms: Bloating of the body, protruding scales.

    Dropsy is caused from a bacterial infection of the kidneys, causing fluid accumulation or renal failure. The fluids in the body build up and cause the fish to bloat up and the scales to protrude. It appears to only cause trouble in weakened fish and possibly from unkempt aquarium conditions.
    An effective treatment is to add an antibiotic to the food. With flake food, use about 1% of antibiotic and carefully mix it in. If you keep the fish hungry they should eagerly eat the mixture before the antibiotic dissipates. Antibiotics usually come in 250 mg capsules. If added to 25 grams of flake food, one capsule should be enough to treat dozens of fish. A good antibiotic is chloromycetin (chloramphenicol). Or use tetracycline. If you feed your fish frozen foods or chopped foods, try to use the same ratio with mixing. As a last resort add at most 10 mg per liter of water. Also, if unkempt conditions are the suspected cause, correct it.

Constipation

    Some fish are more susceptible to constipation than others. Usually fish with more compressed bodies like angelfish and silver dollars. Symptoms are loss of appetite and swelling of the body. The cause is almost always diet.
    Usually, with a change of diet, the condition rights itself. But in stubborn cases try dried food that has been soaked in medicinal paraffin oil. Glycerol or castor oil may also be used. If the diet is changed on a regular basis and live foods offered occasionally this condition may never occur.

[Zulaab]

Re: Bloat

Isnt Tropheus veggie eaters ?  Is it possible something besides greenery got into the tank ?  I am just wondering.. not saying this is the problem

[rrocket2002]

Re: Bloat

I second the tetracycline.  Isolate and treat.  Frequent water changes.

Raul

[geoff_tropheus]

Re: Bloat

The two most widely used Bloat treatments are with Metrodiazonal or with "CLOUT" tablets by Aquarium Products.

I have found that the best method for treatment of Bloat is to use CLOUT in this manner.

Day 1- Remove any Carbon or other Absorbtion type resins or Media + 50% Waterchange + Dose 1 tablet per 10 gallons

Day 2- Dose 1 tablet per 10 gallons
Day 3- Dose 1 tablet per 10 gallons
Day 4- 50% Waterchange + Dose 1 tablet per 10 gallons
Day 5- Dose 1 tablet per 10 gallons
Day 6- Dose 1 tablet per 10 gallons
Day 7- Add Carbon + 50% Waterchange (usually cured by Day 7)

After 2 or 3 days remove the carbon

Always treat minimally for 5 days even if cured.

On very rare or tough cases, treatment is needed past Day 7, so if needed on Day 7 do not add Carbon, but instead dose 1 tablet per 10 gallons as directed on the bottle. Always treat until all fish are eating, in the same manner as before.  Use the routine of Dose, Dose, Dose and Waterchange.

If your fish has bulging eyes or protruding scales it is a pretty bad case.  

The most important thing you need to do is also find what caused the case of bloat.  Tropheus get bloat from Stress.  This stress is either caused by Diet, Water Quality, or physical stress from agression or enviroment.

If you use the Metro treatment, use the metro tablets to treat your aquarium as directed on the bottle.  Then get Metro powder if possible, if not then crush you metro tablets up, and soak your flake food in the dissolve metro and feed in that manner.

When using the Metro treatment, this is what I prefer.

Using Jungle Labs "Parasite Clear" Tablets 1 per 10 gallons.  These tablets contain both Metrodiazonal and Praziquental, two of the most powerful meds for internal parasites.  Use the directions on the packaging.

I hope this helps...

I have been keeping nothing but Tropheus for over 10 years, if you have any further questions PM me or post here.

Take care,

Geoff

[h0nkzz]

Re: Bloat

Thanks all, gonna try do it today !

Geoff, do i isolate the fish by itself or the treatment go into the colony tank ?

[h0nkzz]

Re: Bloat

And where can i find Metrodiazonal or CLOUT ?

[wvgdiscus]

Re: Bloat

Ephson salt is what I use for discus bloat.

[geoff_tropheus]

Re: Bloat

Bloat is transfered from fish to fish thru the mouthing of an infected fish feces.

It is important to treat the entire colony.

You can get CLOUT in 10 packs from just about any Pet Store Comercial or Local anywhere in the Houston Area.  You can get it in 100 count bottles from Online stores such as Dr. Foster and Smith.

Metrodizaonal is also pretty availible in tablet form at most local pet stores.  In order to get it in the powder form, you need to order it online also.

Epson Salt is also a good help for treatment, but it only treats symptons and not really getting the infection.  Adding epson salt will help with digestive system, and Aquarium Salt will help with overall stress reduction.  Only replace the Aquarium Salt or Epson Salt after a waterchange in the treatment  cycle, if you choose to add one of these salts.

Hope this helps..

Geoff

[h0nkzz]

Re: Bloat

okay ... so i just dose some CLOUT into my main tank ... most of my troph were jerking weirdly and some tried scratching their body onto the substrate ... Is that normal ??? I'm really worried cause they seemed stressed ...

[geoff_tropheus]

Re: Bloat

I have never had that happen.  You did only dose 1 tablet per 10 gallons as directed on the bottle?

You needed to also make sure the tablets were dissovled.

Is there still a problem?

Sorry, I have been away, and will not be back online till Monday.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Bloat

Are they scratching because of the dosage or were they like that already?

I dose with metro and had to so when I first got my colony and right before I left for vacation last week due to one female being the attention of aggression. Here is how I treat mine.


Day1....50% water change and I don't use carbon in my tanks but I remove the purigen. Turn fan over sump off which gets the tank up to about 80f,Treat 1 metro tablet per 10g for the total of tank and sump....put all tablets in water bottle and shake till dissolved and pour into sump. Also cut back on the feedings to about half.

Day1-8hrs later.....dose again with Metro for the total amount of combined sump and tank.

Day2.....do about 30-50% water change and hit with Metro again...if fish are eating I feed those that are eating 1tablet of metro that was dissolved with food soaking in it.  

Day2-8hrs later I hit with Metro full dosage again.

Day 3 .....Metro again

Day3 -8hrs later....Metro again


By this time my fish were fine but they were caught in the early stages....no eating stage really.


I have lots of circulation in the tank and the water params are always where I want them to be...water changes are on time everytime and keep the nitrates low.

Honkzz, how did you acclimate them? where did you get them? what did you feed them compared to what were they fed previously? share some more info about them so we can better evaluate the cause so that it doesn't happen again.

[geoff_tropheus]

Re: Bloat

Clout is a powerful med, and if overdosed can cause problems.

Ek's Metro treatment is a good one to use also.

Where are you in your treatment now?

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Bloat

With Clout, Dimetro, Flagyl treatments you want to also keep an eye on ammonia/NitrIte spikes cause they might effect the beneficial bacteria colony.


Funny thing is when I was in Cancun this past week we went to the drug store and they had all sorts of prescription meds that would work wonders for fish disease for a fraction of what over the counter stuff cost here.