malawi bloat question. urgent!

[joel618]

Recently one of my yellow labs started showing the signs of bloat, this morning I found it dead and itwill had been chewed on after death by some other fish. I know that bloat is caused by a parasite. Are my other fish going to get bloat now? Should I treat the tank?

 

[dskidmore]

How do you know it was a parasite? What were you doing to treat the fish with the parasite?

 

[Mogurako]

Recently one of my yellow lava started showing the signs of bloat, this morning I found it dead and itwill had been chewed on after death by some other fish. I know that bloat is caused by a parasite. Are my other fish going to get bloat now? Should I treat the tank?

Malawi bloat is caused when Mbuna eat to much protein, not parasites. Just monitor the rest of the tank.

 

[joel618]

Malawi bloat is caused when Mbuna eat to much protein, not parasites. Just monitor the rest of the tank.

I feed nls thera A. Sorry I was of the understanding that overeating causes the parasite to flare up. I had a couple probs w some new fish and huckit recommended I treat w parasite clear.

Some fish seem to look underfed and then this one gets bloated and dies, am I doing something wrong?

 

[joel618]

Ps thank you for the quick response.

 

[dskidmore]

I had a couple probs w some new fish and huckit recommended I treat w parasite clear.

I frequently treat wild-caught fish for parasites while in new fish quarantine even if they have no symptoms. Once they go into the display tank this is much harder to manage without damaging my invertebrates.

How new are these fish? How long did you quarantine them?

 

[joel618]

I frequently treat wild-caught fish for parasites while in new fish quarantine even if they have no symptoms. Once they go into the display tank this is much harder to manage without damaging my invertebrates.

How new are these fish? How long did you quarantine them?

The sick fish were a group of rusty that came in bloated, 3 died and I took the last one back. I have had the labs for a close to 2 month. Didn't qt, don't have space for a qt but am not adding anymore fish without one. The other 3 that he came with are still fine. They were some of the first fish to be added to the tank. He was prolly 1.5 inches. The fish were from reputable people on aquabid. Except for the rusty, never buying fish at petco again...

 

[bcurlacher54]

yes bloat is caused by too much protein, try to find an algae based flake to alternate feedings with the pellets. dont feed with just animal based pellet food basically.

 

[joel618]

yes bloat is caused by too much protein, try to find an algae based flake to alternate feedings with the pellets. dont feed with just animal based pellet food basically.

Kk. Just blanched some zucchini, im going to start alternating pellets and veggies. Can they o.d. on veggies? Within reason of course

 

[HUKIT]

Stress and high levels if salt are just as prone to cause Bloat as improper diet. This is one of the reasons extreme care and planning must be given to stocking considerations with Malawi and similar lakes. Once your fish are purchased then a high qualiy of pellets will be used from New Life to Omega One, and last skip all that useless salt everyone is tossing in their tanks all of a sudden...likes it trendy since all the Kool kids are doing it. If a case of Bloat is found Jungles Parasite Clear using two treatments will eradicate this quickly and safely. And just a reminder Bloat has been a thing of the past with NLS fed exclusively for 8 years without a single case...that speaks for itself with the sheer numbers of fish running through here.

 

[WendiDell]

If you can isolate the fish with Bloat early on, you can treat the fish with Epsom salts. It isn't salt it's magnesium and it can help the fish to pass the blockage causing the Bloat.
In the past I've had a couple of fish come from a FS (not my usual FS), that already had a mild case of bloat and the Epsom Salt worked well and the fish are fine now.
I used 1 heaping tablespoon for every 5g, did a 50% PWC everyday and added new Epsom salt to the replaced water. It only took 3-4 days for their bloat to clear up.

This treatment also works really well for Popeye that's been caused by an injury.