Bloat

My fish are fine, but i have had the odd fish with bloat over time, one a few years ago which i lost, last year i had one fish from two different species with bloat, helped one recover, the other i lost.

What causes bloat, poor/wrong diet ?
The fish i helped could possibly just have been luck, who has cured bloat before ?

Im led to believe that bloat is cause by too much protein in the fishes diet, some species can digest these more easily than others for example a pseuda is a carnivore and eats protein rich food, dead fish, dead animals etc panaques on the other hand are supposed to be wood/veggie eaters but will eat meaty foods and as their digestive systems are not built for the break down of these proteins they get bloat. Having said that i have had bloat in a L91 Leporacanthicus Triactus which is a carnivore. I think i over fed it though, hand feeding it 1-2 fresh prawns a day for about 3 days. De-shelled peas seem to be very effective at curing bloat as they act as a laxative.

Bloat in plecs is usually associated with the diet and is very like Malawi bloat, if not the same imo. There is also a condition called dropsy which is caused by a bacteria infection either in the kidneys or liver thus producing a build up of fluid and very difficult to cure once the fish pine cones.

theres some info here about malawi bloat

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/malawi_bloat.php

Have seen accounts of bloat being treated successfully but it can be hit and miss.
I'm sure mrwickedweasel treated it with success

Forgot to add---from what ive read brine shrimp has the same laxative abilities as peas and may be a good alternative for meat eaters that won't touch peas.

This article has a few good pointers :

www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/malawi_bloat.php

I have found that Kusuri Wormer is quite effective in relieving symptoms and aiding recovery. It's main active ingredient is Flubendazole.

Iv found that bloat can be a mix of the two. Too much protein and a dirty tank.
Iv had fish fed only protein in a clean tank with no infection then fish in a dirty tank fed a mixture.
But when the two come together you can assume it will happen soon enough, although this could just be a secondary infection of the original bloat/ constipation causing stress.

Diet should always be considered, along with a clean aqaurium.

Rabbit said:

Too much protein and a dirty tank.

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Rabbit not sure what you mean by a dirty tank.
When you say a dirty tank, do you mean; an unclean substrate, tank sides not wiped, uneaten food, filters not cleaned often enough ?

As requested Andrew, here's how i have beaten bloat in the passed. Good luck mate:hi:

After losing one of my papa twins in December, for no real reason (just gave up, eating, swimming etc) I decided to keep an extra close eye on the other one, and read up a much as possible on bacteria infections and internal parasites.
The second Papa was one of those royals that would never put on any real weight, and his belly would always remain flat or slightly in. On Friday I noticed his belly looked nice and full. I was not really concerned, but I did make a mental note. The following morning he was hanging in the top corner with an even bigger belly There was no stringy pooh as of yet. Odd as I had feared his belly would sink in like the other one. But instead he went the other way! As luck would have it, after reading up bacteria and internal parasites I decided to stock up on every med I could lay my hands on. And for the first time every, I decided to de-worm my fish.
Treatment began on Saturday afternoon.
1, First a increased the temperature to a toasty 32oC. And turned off the uv.
2, I then did a full dose of flunenol 15. Enough to treat 110 gallons.
3, I dosed the tank with a 120% dose of Myxazin, once a day for 5 days. ( the reason for the high dosage is because I had 2 bottles, stating different dose's? )
4, I added 4 Tablespoons of aquarium salt.
5, Only feed blanched, shelled pea's.
6, On day 2 (Sunday) I also added a full dose of primafix and melafix.
7, Repeat point 3 each day for 5 days total. And only feed pea's.
On Sunday night I began to see the never ending stream of c-thru pooh. By now the belly a doubled in size. Queue the heavy fast breathing.
The long pooh continued into Monday and his energy became less and less. He spent 100% of his time hanging in the top left hand corner.
By late Monday night he looked really bad and I was ready to crack him on the head. His belly was 3-4 times its normal size, his scales were lifting but his eye remained normal. It was only the fact that his pooh had developed a much darker color, that I decided to give him another night.
Tuesday morning. Success! His belly actually went down 50% over night And was quite happy cursing around the bottom of the tank. That evening his belly was even better.
By this morning he was back to normal. Eating wood, poohing like a trooper and fighting with my smaller L25! Back to normal. Good times
The question remains why? Not too sure why really. Could bacteria or internal parasites. Or maybe it could have been a well documented problem of panaque's eating meat.( im going with bacteria problem) Not sure. But what I do know is that all my problems that have occurred since I switched back to hikari tablets from ocean nutrition. Not sure if this plays a bit part in a the problem, combined with, say a bacteria problem. But I will be switching back from hikari, for my own piece of mind. I have just began slowly reducing the temperature and feeding my 11 inch xingu, his long awaited cucumber.
I know the list of chemicals above looks potentially lethal. But all fish are doing fine and no side effects have been shown!
Sorry to rabbit on, but i thought this may help someone else. And this is thrid time lucky for me. Ive lost a 10 inch L96 and a L240 to bloat b4. But i got to save this one

Thanks for sharing that Darryl:thumbup:

Ive copied the post into the article forum so it can help other members:clap::clap:

Andrew said:

Rabbit not sure what you mean by a dirty tank.
When you say a dirty tank, do you mean; an unclean substrate, tank sides not wiped, uneaten food, filters not cleaned often enough ?

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unclean substrate, uneaten food, filters not cleaned enough:yes: Any of these could lead to problems either directly or by causing stress.

Thanks Daryl
Just checking, was it a 110G tank that you were treating ?