Malawi Bloat.... What do I do?

[solgood]

My 225 gal. Hap tank has one fish that i think has bloat. Hes got a very large belly, hiding allot and will not eat. How do i treat for bloat? I have no hospital tank. Should i treat the hole tank?
Is this a threat to the other fish in the tank?

Thanks

[Jeff W]

The best thing is to separate the fish into a small tank. Then make sure heat is up to about 84 degrees and add lots of salt. Use aquarium salt and double or triple the amount that is used normally.

It worked on my Moorii but there is no guarantee that it will work. It is pretty much up to the fish to survive. There is no real cure. This is what i was told to do by Rick Perez during a lecture he was giving and it worked. Like I said I cannot guarantee that it will work.

Jeff

[12345]

You could use a medicine called clout. i had a demasoni with it and it cured it. But I cant guarantee anything. males are usually easier to cure. It is possible that the rest of your tank could get infected.

[solgood]

Thanks for the help

I removed the bloat infected fish out of the tank and a short time after he passed. Wonder if Hazard still has any male Copadichromis borleyi Nkhata Bay for sale? After removing him I did a 40% water change on the 225 gal. tank and added a half dose of API fresh water salt. I will complete the rest of the dose on Sat. I did not want to shock the fish with a full dose. Now im just trying to prevent the rest of the fish from getting infected. Should I rase the temp. in the tank? Thanks again for the help Jeff and 12345.

[Jeff W]

I try to avoid chemicals to the water as much as possible. Don't worry about shocking the fish with salt. It would take a lot of it.
Good luck with the fish.

Jeff

I will be at Chris' house this morning i will see if he has any male Borleyi left.

[hazard]

Whenever I get this it is based on water quality and diet. I do not treat fish with symptoms. If anything I will flush the fish right away.

I do have more borleyi males

Chris

[MasterYoshi]

Whenever I get this it is based on water quality and diet. I do not treat fish with symptoms. If anything I will flush the fish right away.

I do have more borleyi males

Chris

Sometime, it is more cost effective to just do that but some other times, specially rare fish or adult fish are hard to replace.

[solgood]

Whenever I get this it is based on water quality and diet. I do not treat fish with symptoms. If anything I will flush the fish right away.

I do have more borleyi males

Chris

Not sure? The tanks water quality checked out good and i feed new life spectrum food. I was feeding them frozen krill 1 or 2 times a week. Not sure if that had anything to do with it. The tank is about half stocked so im doing a 30 to 40 % water change every other week. I test for nitrate before water changes and its around 20 ppm. I think i have enough filtration to stock the tank full but not sure= 40 gal. wet/dry sump with a mag drive 2400 gph pump and 1 FX5 canister. All the other fish seem to be doing fine, I hope it does not spread. I would be interested in replacing the Borleyi, he was starting to color up nice. Maybe i can talk Jeff in to picking 1 up for me the next time he is down by you.

[Jeff W]

I can pick one up for you. I will be down that way in a couple of weeks. Around the 29th.

Jeff

[solgood]

I can pick one up for you. I will be down that way in a couple of weeks. Around the 29th.

Jeff

That would be great Jeff. Let me know when you are sure of the date.

Thanks Again

[solgood]

Still no luck with removing bloat from my tank. Tried adding salt to the tank. Have been adding metronidazole powder to the tank for the last 5 days with water changes every day. Then I find out that my UV stirelizer might be neutralizing the metronidazole powder. So I shut it off. Wish me luck! 3 fish gone, for sure 1 more sick.

[MasterYoshi]

Are you sure it is bloat or is it some other bacterial infections? I usually associate bloat with bad nutrition and/or water quality but in your case, i am also puzzled. I feed my fish NLS and my water quality is far from perfect. I get lazy in doing water change but i do get to it once a month.
Must be something else that cause the ongoing disease. Sorry about the losses.


Kou

[solgood]

Are you sure it is bloat or is it some other bacterial infections? I usually associate bloat with bad nutrition and/or water quality but in your case, i am also puzzled. I feed my fish NLS and my water quality is far from perfect. I get lazy in doing water change but i do get to it once a month.
Must be something else that cause the ongoing disease. Sorry about the losses.


Kou

Its bloat. White stringy poo, fish will not eat, large belly. But I think I killed it after dosing the tank with Metro for the last 2 weeks. No sick fish for about 12 day. I also feed NLS, but was feeding them frozen krill 3 days out of the weak and think that might have brought on the bloat. Water was good, never get nitrate above 20 ppm. I will be stopping the Metro dosing on Thur. If bloat comes back Im thinking its time to tear the tank down and start over.