# Advice for treating what I now suspect to be bloat?



## CraGunner (Feb 12, 2016)

So last week I had a Saulosi die on me. Symptoms she exhibited in order 1- Became reclusive, hiding back by the heater. 2- Stopped eating. 3- Started breathing hard. 4- Became listless, spent most of her day sitting on the sand. 5- Death.

As I'm still an ignorant noob, I didn't have any meds on hand, and I figured this was a parasite. None of the local LFS's had any parasite medication except for Herbtana, so I bought that and began dosing while I waited for Amazon to ship me some Tetra Parasite Guard tablets. The Herbtana didn't seem to do anything but make my tank smell like a dirty old hippie. UPS delivered the parasite guard about 15 minutes after the Saulosi died. Obviously she was too far gone for it to save her anyway, but I didn't get to treat her with anything other than that worthless Herbtana. And the weird thing is she didn't appear to be bloated to me at all, even after I examined her after she died.

So now a second Saulosi has become a bit more reclusive, hanging out by herself in the back of the tank. She is still eating, near as I can tell, and I ordered some Metro, that is supposed to arrive today. I also now have on hand: Seachem para guard and a bottle of Prazipro. I don't want to lose another fish.

Another thing of note: many of my fish in the tank have been pooping white from day 1 when I got them. Actually I think all of them were pooping white that first week. But now only about 1/2 of the poop in the tank is white. That's not good...

So my question: should I dose the Prazi or seachem para guard? Should I just soak my NLS pellets in metro and try to feed that? To what ratio and what length of time should I feed them metro soaked food? Would you guys do anything different?

Water parameters have been good throughout. Near as I can tell the Saulosi are not being harrassed at all. The Rusties in my tank are all douchebags and are constantly chasing, but the Saulosi are incredibly peaceful, and they don't do any chasing, nor do they appear to be getting chased at all.

Any guidance would be much appreciated.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Here is the latest Bloat article which should give you the info you need for identifying and treating Bloat.


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## DrgRcr (Jun 23, 2009)

If they are eating, you can try Metro flake, but I prefer using just the Metro powder. I'd do a big water change and use a heavy dose of the powder, with no feeding at all. Repeat the process every other day for a week or so. It's a pretty mild med, so you can go heavy on it. It actually says it right on the can that a 1/4 tsp will treat something like 40 gallons, but for ease of dosing, you can do it by the tsp. I've used a full tsp for one of my 40g with no problems.


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## CraGunner (Feb 12, 2016)

Read through the bloat article. What are the chances that this is NOT bloat? Because the symptoms my fish have don't quite match up. Maybe this is just an internal parasite?

And thanks for the replies.


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## CraGunner (Feb 12, 2016)

Man it sucks being ignorant... After many more hours of research, it seems maybe my fish don't have bloat at all, but actually have Hexamita. ??? Maybe? I think? Hadn't even heard of this disease before, but luckily I stumbled across it tonight. The symptoms being exhibited by my fish seem to coincide far more with Hex than Bloat. Figured I would just post this in case anyone reads this thread in the future and might find it helpful. Incidentally the treatment for the two diseases seems to be the same, Metronidazole.

Just to post the relevant information for any future aquarists stumbling across this thread: white stringy poop, hiding, not eating or spitting the food back out, and getting tired and listless, in that order, is what my fish have done, and that seems to be the consensus for signs of Hex, in addition to possible lesions, or spots. Many of the symptoms are similiar to symptoms of bloat, but not really in the same order, it seems. So I'm treating for Hex now. Hopefully this works. And hopefully someone that has run into this before can verify what I said.


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## wortel87 (Apr 15, 2014)

Ignorant? No way.

You did your research pretty well. Actually bloat with malawi is the same thing as hexamita or flagellats. Bloat is just the common name. Hexamita is the specific parasite, flagellats is the name of the group it belongs to.

With malawi hex infests the intestines. Leading to death.
In discus allot of the time it presents itself as "hole in the head disease" its all the same thing.

You did well young padawan


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## euphr (Aug 9, 2015)

I agree with Wortel; great work. I just recently treated my GT for hex and he is back in the main tank and seems to be eating very well again.

I used the bloat article to treat and I followed the process to treat him with clout and metroplex. Took a couple cycles in the QT but he is fine. The hardest thing for me was being patient and trying to not get frustrated when he didn't eat and to not rush the treatment. I think end to end it was about 4 to 6 weeks. I did learn that my QT needs to be updated as 10 gallons is too small for my bigger fish.


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## wortel87 (Apr 15, 2014)

If a fish is sick and they stay there just a few days... aslong as the fish fits its ok hehe.


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## CraGunner (Feb 12, 2016)

Sheesh. I tried to look up if bloat and hex were the same thing and couldn't find anything on it last night. But my fish have never "bloated", which has really been confusing me, as most articles that list the symptoms list that as the first thing that happens. Being a fish doctor is really friggin' confusing. But thanks for the feedback fellas. Hopefully I'm on the right track now.


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## wortel87 (Apr 15, 2014)

Fish with bloat often dont bloat. Hehe


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

I agree that bloat is a confusing name because we often don't see a bloated fish!!! Check out This article which may or may not confuse you a bit more, especially #1 which describes some symptoms and also gives you the various names attributed to the organism that causes the problem in the first place. The article is found both at the bottom footnote of the Bloat article and in the Library.

There is also an extensive topic on another forum Here that provides additional links to articles on the treatment though you may have to wade through some argumentative posts!


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