# Bloat experience



## buffalo (Mar 6, 2010)

I have dealt with bloat long time ago when i had a colony of llangi tropheus , a bit of reading and i was able to identify the disease as bloat. It was treated with metronidazole successfully.
This is the second time in many years my community cichlid aquarium was stricken with bloat , Here is what i notice:
I seldom lose fish, i do mean seldom. Then one day i check aquarium in the morning 2 fish are dead, next morning 3 more fish are dead now i start looking for cause. Other fish look ok although i see one of my favorite not eating and heading for the corner. I suspect water issue but i do regular water changes, my aquarium 180 gallons is well stocked.
Went to the computer did my search and it look like bloat could be the cause.
I knew i needed Metro, called 3 LFS no metro most had no idea what metronidazole was so i had to go in. (no luck). I had a bottle of Jungle Parasite Guard (contain metro,,) not enough to treat aquarium . I found out Jungle is now Tetra Parasite Guard so had to find some of that. Found that at big Al. I was hoping to find Metro there but they were out; anyways i treated the aquarium with the product including soaking some food with it. I also treated with Epsom salts. Unfortunately i lost 3 more fish including my favorite. The diagnosis was a bit difficult this time cause the majority of fish ate greedily as usual and no bloated stomach or clear feces noticed. ( likely was there but i didn't notice).
What caused it: I had made my homemade cichlid food which contained spinach, peas, vitamins,carrots,raw clams, shrimp eggs(decapsulated), nori seaweed.flake food. I over fed ;should only feed this around twice per week,(fed about 4 days per week for 2 weeks) I fed it to them frozen i should of thawed it first. This would of prevented the more aggressive fish from taking large chunks of food at one time. It really came down to feeding the food too often. After the first couple of fish died i thought it was a bad batch of pellet food as i had just opened a container the day before. I found out the dry pellet expanding in their stomach was not at all helpful. I will soak first now. The Fish seem to be all doing well no more died that i know of , the fish were not fed for 2 days and i only fed a small amount after that. They greedily ate up the flake food .Water change and then all back to normal.
Cichlids have a long digestive track and too much protein should not be fed so the clams and the shrimp eggs might have been the problem because of the feeding intervals they were fed.


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## piranhaBill (Aug 8, 2014)

Have you tried NLS HEX-Shield? Medicated food which may have worked since it seemed like your fish still had a healthy appetite. Big Al's carries it. I keep a couple jars on hand just in case. sorry for your losses.


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## Y2KGT (Jul 20, 2009)

piranhaBill said:


> Have you tried NLS HEX-Shield? Medicated food which may have worked since it seemed like your fish still had a healthy appetite. Big Al's carries it. I keep a couple jars on hand just in case. sorry for your losses.


Do your fish actually eat these pellets? I've been thinking of buying them however read several reviews indicating the fish will eat them the first day or two but after that they spit them out.

And Angelfins sells them for about half the price of Big Al's.
http://angelfins.ca/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=21_28261&products_id=2257
--
Paul


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## piranhaBill (Aug 8, 2014)

Y2KGT said:


> Do your fish actually eat these pellets? I've been thinking of buying them however read several reviews indicating the fish will eat them the first day or two but after that they spit them out.
> 
> And Angelfins sells them for about half the price of Big Al's.
> http://angelfins.ca/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=21_28261&products_id=2257
> ...


Good to know it can be found cheaper! I decided one day to stock up a medicine cabinet for the fish, and picked up the hex-shield. I've been fortunate that I haven't had to use it yet. I do feed a staple diet of NLS Thera-A which also is supposed to help with keeping sickness at bay with the garlic additive.

My fish are pigs, and I haven't come across anything they won't eat yet. Wether, different nls formula, northfin food, veggie formula, frozen peas...

Just thought the hex-shield would be easier than mixing my own food.

Hope you never need to break into the medicine cabinet either!

Edit: Wow, big als is expensive! Thanks for the link!!!


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## buffalo (Mar 6, 2010)

Cichlids are pretty resilient from the many years of keeping cichlid diseases are not common. When it happens its usually something i did. The one disease that stumped me was over 10 yrs ago i had a colony of tretocephalus and they had a disease that cause them to spin while they swam and they did that for weeks before they died, Never did figure out what cause that. No treatment worked.
Back to bloat now; There was one fish (johanni) that had stop eating at the beginning of bloat treatment and he hung on for over a week before dying. I thought it was going to recover because usually they only last a few days . Once they stop eating I never had one that recovered thought the johanni might have been the first time for me. Nope.


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## buffalo (Mar 6, 2010)

More study on the subject on bloat food may not be the number one issue , From what i read its likely caused by stress, water parameters not good, aquarium too crowded. Upon checking my parameter found my nitrates to be very high, working on that now.


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## Sftl Aquatics (Sep 9, 2013)

I use clout works great for bloat.but i do have metro if anybody needs some i can sell it.416 587 4136


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## shotokan (Sep 21, 2013)

sftl aquatics said:


> i use clout works great for bloat.but i do have metro if anybody needs some i can sell it.416 587 4136


i little epsom salts, and metro, , fish won't eat if they have bloat, or consipated, feed peas after treatment, greens.....


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## shotokan (Sep 21, 2013)

shotokan said:


> i little epsom salts, and metro, , fish won't eat if they have bloat, or consipated, feed peas after treatment, greens.....


nls thera -a is a medicated food, really shouldn't be used everyday, but as for treatment, besides extra garlic, use regular nls, as there stapple food, and feed thera -a , twice a week, as treatment.

#1 cause of bloat .....stress


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