Bloat

[michelleraia]

I have two fish (tropheus) in my 215 gallon that have signs of bloat (e.g not eating
and hiding). My other 6 (yes I only have 8) long story seem fine. I have a 10 gallon setup and ready to transfer to medicate or whatever. My questions are: 1) Do I transfer all of them and medicate? 2) what meds are good 3) how can I be sure my 215 is clear from bloat (I am planning my next stocking and I don't want to add fish only to loose them; and 4) how do I protect my 215 with no fish in it from good bacteria dying off? This tank is only about 8 weeks old. Once I add the fish back, is there a time period to watch to make sure no one else will come down with it? Thanks in advance.

[mnemenoi]

Clout is the best medicine for bloat I know of. Usually it can be caused by digestional impaction from eating a diet too high in protein. They are naturally vegetarians (mostly) and possess very elongated intestinal tracts that become inflamed by eating too much protein. That of course is my guess, there are far more knowledgeable folks on here with trophs that can offer better ideas. I myself would treat the entire tank, leaving them in it as a 10 gallon might cause some friction between just 2 trophs. Epsom salt can bu used as a laxative in the main tank as well to assist in moving whatever is in their digestive tract along.

[michelleraia]

Will Clout mess up the tank or the bacteria in my 215? I am feeding feed new life spectrum thera+A reg formula pellet. It is supposed to be good for trophs and I have always erred on the side of underfeeding if anything because I have been afraid to over feed.

[mnemenoi]

Hmm, what are your water parameters? Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Temp? They'll help in possibly finding the culprit. I assume these are TR (Tank Raised) Trophs? WC (Wild Caught) can come with a host of possible issues, but TR are usually free from real oddball parasites and what not. Thera A should be fine, so mitigating food I would guess its some water quality issue or possibly a temp related one. Not sure about Clout's effect on bacteria, I'm sure Sunny or one of the troph folks will know. Good Luck

[mistahoo]

Bloat and not eating/hiding are two different things. Sounds like aggression issue. You can disperse aggression easily by adding more or adding dithers. More info is needed to determine exactly what it is.

[michelleraia]

Nothing has changed in the tank and this just suddenly started about a week ago. They were totally fine eating, coming to the glass, never hiding. Now I rarely see them and they are never moving about or eating.

[michelleraia]

Water quality is totally fine. Everything tests perfectly. The larger one is WC. The small one is TR. The temperature stays at 79.

[SunnyHouTX]

What other fish do you have in the tank?

Usually the symptoms you describe are from aggression related issues and are not truly contagious, only seems that way because each targeted fish develops symptoms as the aggression plays out. In this case, it's very possibly due to severe under-population in your 215.

To answer your question, clout does not mess with filtration much at all in my experience.

[michelleraia]

Thanks, Sunny!

The others are:
2) pundamilia blue bars
1) yellow labid
1) frontosa
2) red jewels

It is definitely underpopulated. I just started the tank and have had horrible luck. I had 35 fish and am down to 8. I am trying to get everything back in order before adding more fish. I found a very nice guy that has been getting me on the right track before restocking.

[michelleraia]

Read post above first........Something else to add is that these fish have been exhibiting the hiding and not eating for about a week and a half.

[SunnyHouTX]

A mix of Victorian, Malawi and Tanganyikan Cichlids... personally, I'm not a proponent of mixing like that. Jewels and labs are very aggressive, and I'm fairly positive that's what cause the trophs to shy away. To really enjoy trophs and fronts, it's best to have them in single species tanks. I hope this really nice guy that's helping you with all this takes into account these inherent nuances in keeping these species.

[Geral]

A mix of Victorian, Malawi and Tanganyikan Cichlids... personally, I'm not a proponent of mixing like that. Jewels and labs are very aggressive, and I'm fairly positive that's what cause the trophs to shy away. To really enjoy trophs and fronts, it's best to have them in single species tanks. I hope this really nice guy that's helping you with all this takes into account these inherent nuances in keeping these species.

no more to be said

[mistahoo]

A mix of Victorian, Malawi and Tanganyikan Cichlids... personally, I'm not a proponent of mixing like that. Jewels and labs are very aggressive, and I'm fairly positive that's what cause the trophs to shy away. To really enjoy trophs and fronts, it's best to have them in single species tanks. I hope this really nice guy that's helping you with all this takes into account these inherent nuances in keeping these species.

This.

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[BeefyG]

It doesn't sound like bloat necessarily but here is some good reading to have handy if you are keeping trophs:

Bloat Article

http://www.houstonfishbox.com/vforums/content.php?255-Malawi-bloat

Clout Treatment - Will stain your silicone blue

http://www.houstonfishbox.com/vforums/content.php?193-How-to-treat-malawi-bloat-with-clout

Metro Treatment - Won't stain your silicone

http://www.houstonfishbox.com/vforums/showthread.php?43943-JHenry-is-the-man!!!&highlight=bloat+treatment

[fshfrk]

Typical colony collapse. Treat the fish with clout and soak their food in metro. Get more fish soon after these are healed up. You do need a troph only tank or no trophs. We all went thru it. Good Luck.