bloat story and question

[davesolo29]

Well... I lost my first troph ever to bloat today... looks like another one will soon be gone.
Came home from supper last night to find one of my new Kachese holding..YAY!!.. went to stay at the girlfriends last night. Came home today around lunch time and found the holding female dead on the bottom.. I figured at first that maybe the male harassed her to much during breeding. I pulled her out and she had almost a dozen eggs in her mouth and when i was looking i gave her belly a little squeeze 8 more eggs came out of her...so she was not done yet. (hence why i figured harrasment). Upon further investigation of the tank i noticed a few others that were looking quite fat. Having never seen bloat before i thought they were just really ripe females cause their vents were wide open also.. Then i noticed that they were not swimming well...hanging out in the corners (you know....classic im gonna die soon symptoms)
So i googled "bloat" and sure enough the pics matched what my fish look like..

I did a quick 30% water change... treated with metro and epsom salts... i have one that really does not look so good. Hopefully by morning she will be a bit better(im praying).. I will do another water change tomorrow and treat again... hopefully i dont lose anymore.. Unfortunately it looks like it is only the females who are afftected. Any particular reason why just the females and not the males? are they more susceptable to it?

[Gene D]

Sorry for your loss man, that is tough. I am a relative amatuer with Troph keeping so I will leave the treatment advice to the more experienced. Again sorry man any loss hurts

[davesolo29]

So the death count is now at 3... 2 more that are quite fat.. hopefully the metro and salt coax the poop out soon and they get better.

[fshfrk]

Do the full treatment. sometimes it take 2 treatments. Do not bother to feed them till you have completed the metro treatment. Watch them when you do feed and see if they are eating. I like to soak the food in metro also. It will be a few weeks before they get back to normal. What temperature is the tank? I think females are subject to more aggression so they are a little weaker & stressed. Try to figure out what caused it. Good Luck.

[davesolo29]

I stopped feeding right away... treated again today...from what i have heard metro is only active in the water for up to 12 hours....so i figure i will dose every twelve hours with a small water change before each treatment..

The fish are new to me... i picked them up on thursday,,, dripped them well to acclimate them to the new tank water... didnt feed til saturday... first one died saturday night or sunday morning. Have not fed since... started treatment Sunday evening once i figured it was bloat. Temp is 79-80.

[fshfrk]

What kind of food was the person you got them from using? Have you tested your water parameters? On the 5th day soak some food in metro and see if some will eat.

[myjohnson]

Well... I lost my first troph ever to bloat today...

No worries Dave. You aren't really into Tropheus until you lose some to blout...it happens to everyone.

[Darbex]

I dont know anything about bloat but sorry for your loss.

[davesolo29]

What kind of food was the person you got them from using? Have you tested your water parameters? On the 5th day soak some food in metro and see if some will eat.

the person previous was feeding a variety of foods... he was feeding dainichi, nls, nutrafin max spirulina and HBH veggie and Kelp.

[davesolo29]

No worries Dave. You aren't really into Tropheus until you lose some to blout...it happens to everyone.

Thanks Thai.... i would rather be "not into it" than lose fish. Id much rather be a long time beginner with live fish than an experienced fishkeeper with multiple losses.

[TROPHS4LIFE]

No worries Dave. You aren't really into Tropheus until you lose some to blout...it happens to everyone.

Amen to that,happens to the most experianced keepers....................i just had one with it from my group strip,cured in two days,really bloat dosent worry me to much anymore as long as you catch it right away....................

Dave what you doing to my old group lol.....................kidding no worrys bud,youll gettem whipped back into shape,it was the move that did it 100%.......................nothing on your part..............

[davesolo29]

So... heres my update

Lost 3 kachese so far... one left thats a wee bit chubby but i think she is looking a bit better.
Came home last night from our club meeting to find a jumper on the floor(of course it was a healthy one). I have never had a troph jump the tank before so i found this particularly odd.

I have been on top of the metro treatment and water changes. I feel bad for the fish for starving them for so long and want to feed them now. I plan on soaking some flake with metro and feed sparingly. Do you think its to soon?

[Gene D]

Dave how are the remaining colony members doing?

[myjohnson]

So... heres my update

Lost 3 kachese so far... one left thats a wee bit chubby but i think she is looking a bit better.
Came home last night from our club meeting to find a jumper on the floor(of course it was a healthy one). I have never had a troph jump the tank before so i found this particularly odd.

I have been on top of the metro treatment and water changes. I feel bad for the fish for starving them for so long and want to feed them now. I plan on soaking some flake with metro and feed sparingly. Do you think its to soon?

You 4 days in right?

I have fed and not fed 4 days in. I really don't think it makes any difference one way or the other.

Does help let you know who is eating and who is not.

[geoff_tropheus]

Can you post a picture of any of the sick fish?

It has been my opinion for many man years, that unless you catch it before any die, then Metro is fine to cure it.

BUT...once you loose a fish, or fish go a couple days and no eating, there is nothing that works better than CLOUT.

Use CLOUT in this method.

Start with a 50% waterchange. Then dose as prescribed on the bottle.
Then Second day dose as the bottle says
Third day dosem as the bottle says.
4th Day, 50% waterchange and dose per bottle...

Always treat for 5 days if even all fish are eating.

Treat until all fish are eating, and fully recovered.

Once your treatment is complete, 50% waterchange and add carbon.

Only deep gravel vaccum the first waterchange and the last one.

Then on your next couple waterchanges, do not deep gravel vaccum.

Best of Luck!!!