# Possible bloat



## nebratfe (Mar 10, 2008)

I am not sure what to do.... my fish I think have symptoms of bloat...heavy breathing and clear stringy poop. I already purchased clout as it seems a popular treatment for bloat! Although they are all eating and acting normally, I am not sure if I caught this right in time or what.

Tank size is 55 gallon with 8 fish...All my water quality levels check out okay Nitrite 0, amonia 0, PH of 7.6 to 8.0, temp of 78F and hardness about 8-10. I usually do a 10-15% water change once a week and try not to overfeed them as I have an auto feeder. I recently lost one fish (found it getting torn apart by the others) not sure if it died as a result of a sikness?? I do have several malawi cichlids from zebra to achi and a frontosa and couple of peacocks. Can any one help me or tell me what is happening to my fish before they start dying???

Thanks 
F


----------



## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

What are your nitrate readings? (That's a very minimal water change amount - I would increase it to 30% weekly...)

What is the full stock list on the tank? How big are the fish?

Your stock list sounds suspect as far as dietary and temperament needs go, so this may be the stressor in your tank, causing the problems. Most illnesses are brought on by stress, especially bloat. Frontosa are from Lake Tanganyika, not Lake Malawi, and have different needs and dispositions.

Do you have adequate filtration on the tank? How many gphs are you running through the filtration?

How long since the fish died?

Any reclusive behaviour?

How do they look? Good colour? Clamped fins?

Kim

Good surface movement?


----------



## nebratfe (Mar 10, 2008)

Hi Kim,

To answer your questions;
1) I have a canister Fluval 405 which is designed for a 100 gallon tank or up to 340 gph.

2) In respect to the actual fish type I have 
- one frontosa F-1, yellow lab, zebra, 2 peacocks, 2 achi and albino. Now they are all male as far as I can tell; however, I am no expert on sexing fish. PS - I know frontosa is not a Malawi fish, I meant majority of my fish are.

3) Fish size is approximately 3" for the most part, with one of my achi at about 3.5 or 4"

4) It has been about a week now since I noticed it was dead; I was away on a work trip and came back a week later found the fish half eaten with several picking it apart. By the looks of it, I dont think it was killed that long prior to my discovery.

5) In respect to Nitrate levels are 0 as I test the tank myself throughout the week and take a sample of water to the local fish store on the weekend and all seems to check out okay.

6) Fish seem to be acting normally, I have pleanty of hiding spots so they do hide at times however most of the time the are swiming through the rocks, when the sense food fly like crazy and are all eating. Colour is good on all of them, very vivid nothing out of the ordinary to be honest, no swimming on the side or sitting on the bottom or to the top. No clamped fins or cotton in the mouth or rectal areas.

The only thing as far as I have noticed is heavy breathing (mouth opening very quickly and some fast gill movement) and at times notice clear strigy poop. the reason I caught on to that was that I saw the fish at the store and they seemed so calm and not moving their mouth as much.

As I said the tank itself has crushed colar on the bottom and several real coral within the tank, in addition to rocks as plants to hide in. Front of the tank and top has pleanty of swimming room. I mean I tried to replicate original habitat as much as I could. Dont know what is happening right now, however I would be devestated if I lost more fish.

Thanks, 
any help or action suggestions would be awesome!

F


----------



## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Unless this is a heavily planted tank, it's impossible to have a zero nitrate reading, so the test results are suspect.

Are you using dip strips, or liquid reagent test kits? How long have they been open?

How about the ph test?

What is your ph straight from the tap?

The crushed coral and additional coral should be raising your ph. It may not be necessary, and the coral itself isn't really applicable to their natural habitat, if that is why you are using it.

How often do you clean your filter? That's a good filter, but with your minimal water changes, I would want to make sure it was running in tip top shape all the time, and be very very careful not to overfeed.

Right now, I'm not convinced they have bloat. I would try doing some frequent water changes over the next few days of about 30%, and check the filter out good.

Did you remove the dead fish?

Kim


----------

