# Treat entire tank for bloat?



## mtayl675 (Jan 1, 2013)

I have reached a very difficult point with my 120 gallon tank. It seems like I constantly have a fish that is ill or needs attention. At this time out of 14 fish, I have one in a hospital tank for an unknown illness that left him without a large portion of scales and swimming upside down. (He seems to be recovering well with doses of melafix). I also have a lithobates swimming at the top of the tank with thin white feces. Finally I have a peacock that has been hiding at the bottom of the tank for the last week and not eating.

Am I looking at a tank-wide onset of bloat? Is there any downside to treating the entire tank at once? I don't have enough small tanks to separate them all.

Trying to decide if I am cut out for this....thanks for the advice...


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## sumthinfishy (Jan 26, 2013)

i always treat entire tank. even if its just one fish that is showing symptoms, i gotta believe that they have been sick for a bit before showing signs. imo u are always safer to treat main tank and erase any chance of recurrence


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## testeve (Sep 17, 2012)

It seems my tank has a knack for getting bloat. I've had it 3 times in about 14 months. Since the first time (I lost 4 fish) I have learned to spot the signs and now I usually catch it after the first fish shows a symptom. I noticed it tends it spread to the other fish even if they have no symptoms. I always treat my whole tank. I dissolve one spoonful in about a cup of tank water, then I add my NLS pellets and allow them to soak up the medicine. Then I feed it to the fish. I treat for 6 days every feeding. This has been very successful for me. I think it is much more effective to have them "eat" the medicine.


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## scully (Feb 6, 2013)

What do you treat your fish with, type of medication?



testeve said:


> It seems my tank has a knack for getting bloat. I've had it 3 times in about 14 months. Since the first time (I lost 4 fish) I have learned to spot the signs and now I usually catch it after the first fish shows a symptom. I noticed it tends it spread to the other fish even if they have no symptoms. I always treat my whole tank. I dissolve one spoonful in about a cup of tank water, then I add my NLS pellets and allow them to soak up the medicine. Then I feed it to the fish. I treat for 6 days every feeding. This has been very successful for me. I think it is much more effective to have them "eat" the medicine.


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## testeve (Sep 17, 2012)

I treat with Metro+

It's only like $8 a bottle. Pretty inexpensive compared to other meds.

If you can't get it at your lfs, it's available online.


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## wicked1 (Jun 4, 2006)

I've treated my entire tank w/ metro several times.. Never cured the disease, but never harmed the tank either.. Even w/ relatively huge doses. 5 grams 3x a day in 200 gallons. Heavily planted aquarium, and it never affected the plants either.


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## VT_Burton (Mar 3, 2012)

I know some people use metro to treat bloat, but I've always heard that Metro is better at preventing other fish from catching bloat than actually treating the disease.


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## testeve (Sep 17, 2012)

wicked1 said:


> I've treated my entire tank w/ metro several times.. Never cured the disease, but never harmed the tank either.. Even w/ relatively huge doses. 5 grams 3x a day in 200 gallons. Heavily planted aquarium, and it never affected the plants either.


This is why I soaked the food in it. I tried your method the first time, didn't work until I soaked the food, then it worked like a charm...



VT_Burton said:


> I know some people use metro to treat bloat, but I've always heard that Metro is better at preventing other fish from catching bloat than actually treating the disease.


This may be true as I have never been able to save a fish once it had symptoms aka stopped eating. So while i may lose one fish, it saves the dozens of other fish!!


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

A fish floating swimming upside down and missing a large portion of scales AND recovering well with Melafix does not sound like it has bloat. Sounds more like it either got into a fight with another fish, (and lost), or there's some sort of bacterial disease going on. 
The other fish you describe--not eating and hanging at the bottom, white feces and staying at the top--might be bloat.

My advice: first do a large partial water change using a good quality dechlorinator. If it's been more than a few weeks since your last water change then do two 30% water changes spaced several hours apart. Siphon the gravel thoroughly. 
Treat the entire tank with Parasite Guard or Clout. 
Continue to treat/monitor the fish in the hospital tank. If it continues to show signs of improvement--swimming normally, eating normally, then I would not treat for bloat--but keep a close eye on this fish because if the main tank does have bloat then any fish that's been exposed is at risk. You want to hold off bloat treatment on this fish to spare it the added stress of the medication as it recovers.

You didn't give a lot of history/details about your tank but it may be time to make some changes to the stocking. You may have some in-compatible species or the wrong male/female ratio for the species you do have. Often what happens is we buy cichlids as juveniles and for the first few months--maybe even a year or more--everyone gets along 'fine'. But then when one or more fish reach sexual maturity and want to breed or claim territory as they would do in the wild they just can't in the tank we've set up without aggression breaking out and unfortunately when you have ongoing aggression not only are fish hurt/killed from the aggression itself but they are also much more susceptible to illness--especially bloat. So you may have more than one issue going on in your tank.

The good news: you have a 120 gallon tank!!  You are definitely 'cut out' for this!! It's much easier to set up a successful cichlid tank with a larger tank. Please post back with more information: # of fish, species, male/female ratios, how long the tank has been set up, water parameters, maintenance schedule, etc.

Robin


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## mtayl675 (Jan 1, 2013)

Thanks for the detailed advice and encouragement! I am trying to put an all male tank together:

Hongi Lab
Yellow Lab
White tail Acei
Red shoulder peacock
Ruby red peacock
Lemon jake
OB peacock
Otopharynx lithobates
Rusty
Phenochillis
Red empress
Tawain reef
Albino Taiwan reef
Electric blue ahli
Nara flame tail peacock
Jaguar Synodontis

The red shoulder is getting MUCH better in the separate tank. It's pretty apparent based on the links you sent that the main tank has ick. Ruby red is totally lethargic, secluded, and has large white spots on his head. Other fish (two now) with thin, white feces. I am thinking about trying to eliminate the parasites by raising the temperature as suggested. Do you agree with this method?

The tank has been up for almost a year now, with most fish between 2 and 4 inches. I have been trying to handle aggression issues quickly and had to switch out a few mbunas to find a better balance. Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are all in appropriate ranges. I do water changes once every one to two weeks depending on schedule.

Thanks a million

Matt


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

*The red shoulder is getting MUCH better in the separate tank. It's pretty apparent based on the links you sent that the main tank has ick. Ruby red is totally lethargic, secluded, and has large white spots on his head.*

Ick looks like the fish has been sprinkled with salt granules. Occasionally a few of these 'salt granules' can bunch together and form a large spot but from your description ick is not the first thing that comes to my mind. Can you post a picture? Are these large white spots smooth? Fuzzy? Is there reddening around the edge of them? I would not turn the heat up until you are absolutely certain its ick. If it's a bacterial disease then higher heat will make it worse. 
Robin


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## mtayl675 (Jan 1, 2013)

****. You're right. The white spots were concentrated on the head. They were larger than grains of salt. I had already started to increase the temp. slowly and do not see the spots anymore. They did look a little fuzzy, but I cannot get a clear view of the fish. It has been isolated and hiding for at least a week now. Dark grey in color, where it used to be a lighter yellow green with a touch of red. It sits close to the bottom and no other fish seem to bother it. I think time is probably short...it completely ignores food. I did not see any reddening. On a side note, some of the injured red shoulder wounds were VERY fuzzy for a time. It has nearly all it's scales back now. Go for a switch? I am turning the heat back down. The tank has only moved about 5 degrees in 24 hours...from 78 to 83. Will drop back to 81 tonight.


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## mtayl675 (Jan 1, 2013)

New update...lithobates has died. White feces and seclusion for about a week. Then started rubbing and shaking a bit...came home one day to find an eye looking like it exploded. Died in hospital tank two days later. Blue ahli now has white feces and is secluding itself. Whatever is happening seems to be picking the fish off one at a time. Water is still reading normal, all other fish acting normally. Any ideas?


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## sumthinfishy (Jan 26, 2013)

Melafix along with primafix. follow directins on bottle. prima is for fungal while mela is for bacterial. the combo usually will wipe out most sickness. treat whole tank


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