I found her like this Wednesday and I thought it was bloat so I have been trying to do a few epsom salt baths every few hours. The swelling has stayed about the same as it was when I fist saw it. I’ve just been told by someone else that they think it’s a bacterial infection. I’ve just set her up in a quarantine tank to keep her away from the other fish and I was just wondering if it is bloat or the infection. If it is bloat should I add the salt to her quarantine tank? If so how much. I think I should also note that my nitrates are really bad because I had decomposing plants in the tank due to a bad light. I have since replaced the light and been doing small water changes daily to help reduce the levels. I know she probably won’t make it but I would like to try.
Help! Can’t tell if this is bloat or bacterial infection
- Thread starter Birb06
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Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
It looks more like constipation or over eating to me. ( Infections would usually be more whitish or bloody red in color. ) What I would do is in the quarantine tank, do not feed the fish. Plecos will eat the decaying plants so you had a perfect situation for the pleco to overeat. With most of what she ate being plant, constipation is unlikely but you can never rule it out totally. Sticks and stems may cause a blockage. I'd keep the quarantine tank with no substrate or live plants. Add Epsom Salt to the quarantine tank at a rate of 1 tablespoon per 3.78 liters of water and give it a couple of days to see if it poops. If/when it does poop, I would clean out as much of the dead plant life out of the main tank as you can then you can replace the fish back into it. If the color of the " bloat" changes to more whiteish or redish color, you would then need an antibiotic to treat the fish.
Hope this helps.
Hope this helps.
Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
In rereading your thread, I made a slight error in my conversion from gallons to liters.
It should be 1 TEASPOON per 3.78 liters or 1 TABLESPOON per 19 liters. If you added the full Tablespoon per 3.78 liters and the fish is acting abnormal, do a water change to dilute the Epsom Salt.I should add that you should have either a cycled filter in your quarantine tank or make sure you do water changes every 3-4 days with replacing the epsom salt for the amount of water you replace at the same rate of 1 teaspoon per 3.78 liters of water.
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That’s alright! I’ve done a few changes of the water today and I actually only put half the amount of salt you told me to as I did think it was quite a high dose. She seems to be looking a bit better now and moving around a bit easier but still a bit bloated as you can see in the picture. She seems a bit hungry so I am putting some pea in there as I know they work as a laxative. For my quarantine tank I’ve been just using the water out of my other tank and I also moved her favourite shark statue to help kick start the filter. Thank you so much for your help and advice it has been very helpful and I really really appreciate the time you put into replying.
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Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
Whew!!!!
If you notice, the color of that "bloat" has turned a lighter color which is an indicator of it just being poo that was in there. You should be seeing it in the tank which is why a bare tank is best for situations like this. I would definitely clean up any dead leaves in the main tank before putting her back in there. thumb: That said, make sure you have good clean water because I'm noticing some redness on the one pectoral fin. That's usually a sign of septicemia which is usually caused by poor water quality.
Could you please tell me a bit more about septicemia? That fish seems to be the only fish in her regular tank with that spot and she’s had it for a while. I thought it may have been because when I got her in January that fin was partially ripped off and had a bit of a red spot so she has been slowly growing it back. I’ve added a photo from when I first got her and you can kind of see it, I had to take a photo from a bit of a distance as she was skittish. If it’s not, is there anything else I can do to boost the quality? Can I see it in water tests at all? I’ve been trying to remove the leaves as I go but a lot of them go straight into my filter which I’ve been trying to clean out weekly at them moment. At least with my new light I’ve been starting to lose less and less leaves and my tank just overall looks healthier. I will ask though as you have an angel fish in your pfp, are they normally very stupid or have I got a defective one. He seems to still just be a baby but he tries to eat the leaves on the plants instead of the foods I give him. He also can’t stay completely upright he’s usually on some sort diagonal and his feelers don’t seem to work. He’ll also swim over to the over fish that dont like him, he’ll get chased off and just come right back like nothing happened.
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Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
There are 2 types of Septicemia. One is bacterial and the other is viral. Bacterial Septicemia usually occurs in poor water quality and/ or at an injury site. You said this fish had an injury where the redness is. Unfortunately, this new picture is of the wrong side. It's the other side's Pectoral fin that I see the red on. So you add the injury, the poor water quality and the redness and it points more to bacterial septicemia. I'll also add that it could also just be some coloration because the fish is an albino but I can't tell for sure because the pic is not as close up as it could be to see the difference. Either way, clean water is a big help in treating it but truly the best way is with an antibiotic which I'm sure you can't get easily where you are. If you have access to Metronidazole in any of your products, that is also an acceptable treatment while not the best. At least it treats anaerobic bacteria which is what most internal bacteria are.
As for the Angelfish, try posting a pic or video because it sounds like you got a clunker.
( There are a lot of those these days unfortunately. ) If you want to post a video, you will need to upload it to a site like Youtube or similar and then post the link to the video here. Whoops I sent the wrong picture. The one when I first got her she’s on the zucchini. I’ll also add another I took of her a few weeks ago. Would doing water changes with just filtered water help clean the water? And if her bloat keeps getting better I’ll make sure to find her something to help with the infection. If I get something should I dose both tanks? Or just her hospital tank?
I’ll take a photo/video of the angel fish later and post it on here.
I’ll take a photo/video of the angel fish later and post it on here.
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Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
Yeah, the fin showing in pic #3 is the one I'm talking about.
If you can get something, treat the hospital tank as directed and keep the fish in the hospital tank until the redness goes away.
As for clean water. The more frequently you change water, the cleaner it's going to be. I have a set up where I do 25% water changes on a bank of tanks but it's spread out over 24 hours and on an automatic system. So a lot of water isn't changed at one time but is over one day. When you are dealing with medications however, you can't do daily water changes unless the medication tells you to. You want the medication at full dosage to help it work. Septicemia is very difficult to cure with just clean water but it does help the fish fight the infection because clean water is needed to have a healthy fish. Here's the thing tho with antibiotics: they don't all work in all water parameters. So if you have more alkaline water, Kanamycin is the better antibiotic to use. If you have more acidic water, you want Minocycline ( maracyn 2) or Nitrofurazone Green. So before you get something, make sure you know your water's pH so that you get the something that will work the best in your water's parameters.
Sorry for not replying life has been a bit hectic. So I went to my local fish shop and showed the picture of her, they refused to sell me an antibiotic as “it’s too late and I may as well spend my money on a new fish” spoiler alert, she’s pretty much made a full recovery. Pretty sure all her bloat is gone, it’s a bit hard to tell because her stomach is saggy from the stretched skin. My only concerns are it seems there’s a rip in her belly skin, but I will monitor it to look out for infection and any signs of distress. It also seems that the red in her fins seemed to have started to disappear, I’m guessing the red may have been damage from taking her in and out of her tank because she was a pain to move, or I did read its common to be caused by them getting stuck in places because the can’t really retract their fins which would have made sense with her bloated belly. I will keep an eye on her and if she does get worse again or she starts showing signs of distress I’ll drive to the far away aquarium shop. I’ve added a picture of what she looks like at the moment (sorry about the poop, she hasn’t stopped). I’ve also added a video of my dumb angel fish, Damion, letting himself get sucked into the filter. I know he’s fine and not in any trouble because the filter isn’t that strong as it keeps getting clogged, he swims by it all the time without a fuss, I’ve seen him swim way stronger and faster dashing around the tank and he had no problems swimming away at the end. I’m mostly not concerned for him, except that he can be too stupid to eat, he’ll come up for feeding and just watch the food drift by.https://vimeo.com/1066557447/b06ff45824
I just really want to thank you for your help, I really appreciate you replying and helping me not to kill my fish. You were very helpful with giving me information and explaining things really well.
I just really want to thank you for your help, I really appreciate you replying and helping me not to kill my fish. You were very helpful with giving me information and explaining things really well.
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Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
Well the good news is that the poop is a clear sign that constipation is no longer a condition to be worried about and most likely, the issue was over eating. I'm guessing it's definitely time to find another pet store since the one you went to was more about selling you fish rather than saving this one.Sorry for not replying life has been a bit hectic. So I went to my local fish shop and showed the picture of her, they refused to sell me an antibiotic as “it’s too late and I may as well spend my money on a new fish” spoiler alert, she’s pretty much made a full recovery. Pretty sure all her bloat is gone, it’s a bit hard to tell because her stomach is saggy from the stretched skin. My only concerns are it seems there’s a rip in her belly skin, but I will monitor it to look out for infection and any signs of distress. It also seems that the red in her fins seemed to have started to disappear, I’m guessing the red may have been damage from taking her in and out of her tank because she was a pain to move, or I did read its common to be caused by them getting stuck in places because the can’t really retract their fins which would have made sense with her bloated belly. I will keep an eye on her and if she does get worse again or she starts showing signs of distress I’ll drive to the far away aquarium shop. I’ve added a picture of what she looks like at the moment (sorry about the poop, she hasn’t stopped). I’ve also added a video of my dumb angel fish, Damion, letting himself get sucked into the filter. I know he’s fine and not in any trouble because the filter isn’t that strong as it keeps getting clogged, he swims by it all the time without a fuss, I’ve seen him swim way stronger and faster dashing around the tank and he had no problems swimming away at the end. I’m mostly not concerned for him, except that he can be too stupid to eat, he’ll come up for feeding and just watch the food drift by.https://vimeo.com/1066557447/b06ff45824
I just really want to thank you for your help, I really appreciate you replying and helping me not to kill my fish. You were very helpful with giving me information and explaining things really well.
As for the pleco's fin, clean water does a lot for keeping fish healthy. They are ( and should be) pooping machines so this is why they need to have clean water. I watched the Angelfish video and all I see is that the fish needs more food because it's too skinny. When you have small fish like that, it should be fed multiple times per day to help them grow.
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