# Epsom Salt dosage for bloat



## Mudkicker1 (Aug 6, 2013)

Last week my Trematocranus Placodon suddenly stopped eating so I immediately transferred to hospital tank and treated with Epsom 1 tbsp / 5g as well as seachem metroplex twice a day. Roughly one week later and he's now starting to swell up. I know he's a gonner. I was wondering as a last ditch effort should I add more Espom salt? Once the bloat starts its game over anyway so why not try it, right?

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## naturlvr (May 16, 2019)

Mudkicker1 said:


> Last week my Trematocranus Placodon suddenly stopped eating so I immediately transferred to hospital tank and treated with Epsom 1 tbsp / 5g as well as seachem metroplex twice a day. Roughly one week later and he's now starting to swell up. I know he's a gonner. I was wondering as a last ditch effort should I add more Espom salt? Once the bloat starts its game over anyway so why not try it, right?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk


The library contains great info on treating fish.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

You can save a bloat victim with metronidazole, but Epsom salts are for more pre-bloat fish...really just constipation versus an organism that is multiplying out of control.

Adding extra can increase your GH too high and too quickly, but if you have a GH test handy, you can check.

Are you doing 2 measures 2X daily of the metroplex?


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## Mudkicker1 (Aug 6, 2013)

DJRansome said:


> You can save a bloat victim with metronidazole, but Epsom salts are for more pre-bloat fish...really just constipation versus an organism that is multiplying out of control.
> 
> Adding extra can increase your GH too high and too quickly, but if you have a GH test handy, you can check.
> 
> Are you doing 2 measures 2X daily of the metroplex?


Yes two measures twice a day it's been a week and he's now starting to swell. White stringy poop is stuck to his anus. He's breathing heavily constantly.

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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Can't hurt to increase Epsom salt but not more than 0.02 GH at a time.


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## Mudkicker1 (Aug 6, 2013)

DJRansome said:


> Can't hurt to increase Epsom salt but not more than 0.02 GH at a time.


Generally after how many days of treatment do you pull the plug? I've had two cases of bloat in two different tanks in the past few months both due to harassment. So far my success rate is very poor.

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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

If I start treatment soon enough, I've never had a fish not recover. Sorry you are struggling. Any way I can help?


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## Mudkicker1 (Aug 6, 2013)

DJRansome said:


> If I start treatment soon enough, I've never had a fish not recover. Sorry you are struggling. Any way I can help?


Thanks DJ. I've been keeping Africans for 20+ years and never really had bloat issues. Now I got two cases back to back from different tanks in different homes. It's so strange. I don't think that there is much more that can be done [DISAPPOINTED FACE]

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## james1983 (Dec 23, 2007)

It may cause more stress, but you could use a pipette and force feed Epsom salt or metro soak food. I've never had to go that far, but if the fish is on their last leg it cant hurt much.


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## Mudkicker1 (Aug 6, 2013)

james1983 said:


> It may cause more stress, but you could use a pipette and force feed Epsom salt or metro soak food. I've never had to go that far, but if the fish is on their last leg it cant hurt much.


I was thinking of trying something like that

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## Mudkicker1 (Aug 6, 2013)

Update :
My Placodon ended up dying. I did everything right. Isolated him to a hospital the first day that he stopped eating and started treatment with Metroplex. I also added Epsom Salt 1 tablespoon per 5g.
None of that worked he swelled up and died.
In the future I'm going to treat with Clout as I had better results in the past. Although I haven't dealt with bloat in what seems like forever! Don't know what happened this year...had a mini outbreak out of nowhere.

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