# think my fish has bloat



## marik (Sep 15, 2009)

well i lost my first fish yesterday and i suspected bloat even though everything was fine in the tank. today i get home from work and i see one of my other fish has white stringy poop so now i'm definitely thinking it's bloat so i'm trying to stop it from killing any other fish.

I'm going to stop feeding me fish for a couple of days to fast them. Yesterday i did a 1/3 water change and today i added some aquarium salt to help out. I called around all the fish stores and only one of them can get clout but it won't be in til friday.  Not even our local malawi cichlid specialty store has medicine for bloat! :-?

Anything i can do until i get clout on friday other than pray? I'm going to treat the whole tank instead of doing a hospital tank cuz it could have spread to other fish already.

I thought i've been careful with the feeding as i only feed them twice a day and what the demasoni don't eat, the acei usually finish. I also fast them once a week and that was just on sunday.


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## Chicklette (Mar 4, 2010)

If you can't find Clout send me a PM and I will get some for you. Im sure I can find clout around here. I would also treat the whole tank. Give them lots of peas, yes, seriously. It helps.


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## marik (Sep 15, 2009)

i've been keeping an eye on the one fish that had one stringy poop when i noticed one of my other demasoni had a swollen belly, labored breathing, and not swimming well when i got home from work today. It's probably to late for her but i put her in my fry tank seperated from the fry. I don't think she'll last more than a day. 

One of local dealers will have clout by friday, but i'm going to call them tomorrow and see if it came in early. None of the other fish have swollen bellies, yet, so i'm hoping that nothing ELSE happens between now and when i get the clout.

I'm just grateful i held out on putting my labs and female acei back in the 55 gallon. At least i know they're safe while this bloat runs through my other tank. 

It just sucks that i can't do anything about it other than water changes and putting salt in it right now.


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## Chicklette (Mar 4, 2010)

Well my fingers are crossed for you and they hold on until you get the meds.


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## marik (Sep 15, 2009)

woke up and the second fishy had died sometime when i was asleep.  Got home from work and none of the other fish are having any secondary systems this one had as far as labored breathing, bloated belly, and trouble swimming. The rest are still swimming around and being active so i hope when i get the clout tomorrow that i can clear up this blout.

As much as losing 2 female demasoni hurt, i'd be really upset if i lost my alpha male as he's just now really coloring up to a bright blue and deep black.

After this all goes away, i'm gonna stock up on females so the males don't end up killing each other.


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## Chicklette (Mar 4, 2010)

Aww, that is too bad you couldn't get the meds sooner, I would have sent you some clout.


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## marik (Sep 15, 2009)

picked up the clout today and i'm going to start treatment now and see how the fishies are doing.

On a side note, i thought the place i was going to pick the clout up from was going to be a small dinky shop not well ran because of their less than steller looking website, but i was pretty impressed. They had a lot of cichlids and the 2 biggest fronts i've ever seen  They had some f1 yellow labs that i'm going to have to go back and check out later.

edit: third dead demasoni.  It looks like another female as it's another smaller fish. It's weird as it's killed off 3 of my females (from what i can tell) but i have 2 or 3 smaller demasoni that it hasn't killed. (yet)

I hope this is the last of the deaths


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

In addition to the Clout try to fit in a few extra partial water changes and gravel siphoning. It is believed that Bloat is spread when healthy fish mouth infected feces and there may also be a free swimming stage to the flagellates responsible for Bloat--therefore the removal of water may decrease their overall numbers. Not a cure, just a help to the cure.

With Bloat typically only one or two fish will show symptoms at a time leading you to believe that they are the only ones at risk but all exposed fish need to be treated. It usually takes about a week for a fish to die after you notice the first symptoms which are typically spitting out food and long stringy white or clear feces. The bloated or emaciated appearance is usually the LAST symptom. If you have fish that suddenly *look bloated* and are *still eating* then this is NOT Bloat.

Sorry for the loss of your fish. When you go to restock you'll be wise to choose male/female ratios that will work for the species you are keeping and also make sure you're keeping species that are compatible with each other in a tank that is the appropriate size. The less stress your tank has, from aggression and anything else, the less likely your fish will be to develop Bloat or other illnesses.

Robin


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## marik (Sep 15, 2009)

i vacuum my sand every week when i do water changes to get rid of as much feces as possible. I'm following sdenovan's thread on how to treat bloat so i'll do a huge water change in a couple of days. yeah i'm treating the whole tank whether or not all the fish are showing symptoms.

i've got acei and demasoni and they just ignore each other in the tank.

i'm going to get all females to get a better ratio of m:f even though i didn't have any problems after they hit sexual maturity.


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## marik (Sep 15, 2009)

third day of the treatment and i haven't lost a fish since i started. Even though they have ate anything since tuesday morning, they seem very active. 3 of the males were wanting to spawn all at the same time with different females yesterday so i think they're all gonna be okay after the treatment is done.

the cloat DID stain my silicone but i really don't care as i resealed it myself and i want a different tank as a show tank.


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## marik (Sep 15, 2009)

well i haven't lost any fish since i started treatment and all the fish are acting and swimming fine.

I didn't a large 80% water change yesterday and added clout to it. They've been without food for a whole week now. I'm sure they're pretty hungry. :drooling:


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