Bloat :(

[phin]

I came hoe yesterday and noticed one of my juvenile females at the top corner of the tank. She was quite rounder than the other fish and had a clear white poo half way out.

Later I noticed one of the juvenile males not coming out during feeding time. When he did come out he also had a white clear poo hanging out.

None of the other saulosis exhibited any signs at all.

I did a 50% water change, added 1tbs epsom salt/10 gal (total 6 Tbs of epsom salt) and dosed the tank with metro. I turned the lights off and plan on keeping them off for 3 days. I plan on re-dosing the metro on thursday night (48 hours).

This morning I was able to count 7 fish swimming apparently happily, but no sign of the sick female.

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i'm pretty sure the whole situation is my fault. I'm new to cichlids and that played a part. I received the fish last wednesday, so i had them for most of a week before any showd signs of illness, so I'm pretty sure its not a bacterial issue that arrived with the fish.

I added aquarium salt to the tank, thinking that it would be beneficial. That was mistake #1. Apparently the salt contributes to bloat. Now I know. I also think I over fed them, which, with pseudotropheus' long intestines is not a good thing. I thought since they were juveniles, that in order to get them to grow nice and quick I would just pump food in. I was feeding them enough to eat in 2 minutes, but 4 times a day. I know that with my kribenesis and other fish I've had they eat tons when they are small and grow fast.


Hopefully all the fish recover, or at least don't lose anymore than the 1 female that may already have died. Have to feed less and keep the salt out.

 

[phin]

Well, the female died. Down to 7, which is really too bad since I needed all the females I could get. But the male isn't looking any worse. He's still a bit reclusive, but does show himself and doesn't appear too bloated - looks like its going down. And no more clear white poo hanging out his vent. Hopefully he will survive and the others don't get it.

I ended up dosing again this afternoon. I read that metro is only active in the water for 8 hours and it isn't harsh to the fish, also that it is best to be aggressive with bloat, so I dosed again. Actually, I'm not using only metro, I'm dosing with API General Cure, which is 250mg metronidazole and 75 mg Praziquantel per packet. I plan on doing another 30% water change tomorrow and dosing again.

 

[kay-bee19]

Sorry for the loss.

...I added aquarium salt to the tank, thinking that it would be beneficial. That was mistake #1...

How much salt was used?

 

[phin]

Well I lost #2 the other day. But on the positive side the other six look happy and healthy. no bloat and normal looking poo. I've been treating the tank with melafix for five days since the metro treatments and doing 15% water changes every other day. One more melafix dose tonight and then big water change + carbon tomorrow.

I added 1Tbs salt per 5 gallons (6Tbs total). Since then with all my water changes I have added no salt but have been adding 1Tbs magneseum sulfate (epsom salt) with ever 5 gallons changed. I've also been adding 1 tsp of baking soda with each 5 gallons to help buffer the water.

Since this whole bloat incident I've been real skittish on feeding the 6 saulosi in the tank. I'm feeding new life spectrum 1mm cichlid pellets (34% protein). Typically the rule of thumb is as much as your fish can eat in 2 minutes. Well, these critters are vacuum machines and absolutely tear up any pellets I put in the water. I'm afraid to think of how much they could eat in 2 minutes. But if I don't put in enough the alpha male gets most of the food and the smaller ones might get one pellet.

Does anyone have any tips on feeding new life spectrum cichlid pellets to juvenile pseudotropheus or tropheus cichlids? How many pellets, how often, best time, strategy for getting the runts to get their fair share???

 

[Helena21]

Could it be the type of food responsible for the bloat? Im not familar with new life spectrum but when i kept saulosi i had no idea what to feed them, and went through a few different brands as people on here advised me not to feed them as it had too much protein in it i think
In the end i ended up with a food that was like 100% spirulina that was safe to feed them

 

[phin]

From what I can tell New Life Spectrum is supposed to be the best stuff to feed cichlids. My LFS has a huge cichlid show tank that has saulosi and other mbunas and feeds it only spectrum pellets. I looked up the protein content on all kinds of foods, and spirulina flake still has over 34% protein, some brands have more. Even algae wafers have 30-something % protein. red flakes are around 50% protein. So, to answer your question, I don't think its the quality of the food. Just the quantity. I want to feed them enought to be healthy, colorful, grow and breed, but definitely don't want to cause any more bloat.

 

[Helena21]

Yeah sorry you are right. I looked at my can of food and its 40% protein so it cant be that. Maybe just feed little and often?

 

[phin]

I think I fed them way too much. It was the largest fish and the smallest fish that got the bloat. My guess is that the largest one was the most aggressive and got the most food, while the smallest one was able to get as much food as she wanted, but was too small to handle it.