# Bloat or overeating



## iandtm (Nov 30, 2008)

I have 4 rustys with 4 yellow tail acei and 3 yellow labs - and I am new to cichlids. The rustys are about 2 inches, as are the labs and 3 of the acei - the 4th is about 3 inches.

One of my rusties is very fat in the belly. It is not lethargic - in fact seems to be getting agressive towards a yellow lab. The poop from this fish is long - but all my fish seem to be like that. I am not sure what people mean by "stringy".

I am feeding Hikari gold sinking mini pellets and just added some spirulina flakes to the diet - which the fish go crazy for. The Rusty in question is eating in fact in the past I am convinced I have seen it put 4-5 pellets in it's mouth at the same time.

My Ph is 8.1, Temp is 79, Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 10 (Kh 7, GH11 - they maybe reversed)

The tank is 2 weeks old - and I was using the fish to start the cycle. (could not find pure ammonia) I have monitored the Ammonia, Nitrite levels twice to 3 times daily and neither levels have gone above 0.25. The filter was started with sponge mud from my 10 gallon community and 40 lbs of ecco complete.

Is this just an overeating fish or is this bloat?

What to do?


----------



## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

Hi,

With Bloat one of the first symptoms is that the fish stops eating. The bloated belly usually comes last. 
Sounds more like this fish is eating too much. One small feeding a day should be enough. Give them only as much food as can be consumed in less than one minute. Fish who routinely over eat are much more likely to GET bloat or some other disease.

Long stringy colored feces indicates a fish is eating WAY too much
Long stringy white or clear feces indicates some kind of intestinal stress and is often one of the first symptoms of bloat.

It's questionable as to whether the 'sponge mud' cycled the tank. Continue to monitor the water parameters closely for the next 3-4 weeks. There are certain fish that you use to cycle a fish, fish that are referred to as hardy. Cichlids are NOT one of them. Just to be on the safe-er side I'd do several partial water changes a week using a declorinator that removes ammonia and detoxifies ammonia, (Prime and Amquel Plus both do), and I would add aquarium salt at the rate of 1-2 teaspoons per 10 gallons to help detoxify nitrite.

good luck with your tank 

Robin


----------



## kilroy111 (Sep 25, 2006)

Great advice. I agree, please don't use cichlids to cycle your tank.


----------



## iandtm (Nov 30, 2008)

So this morning he is much reduced.

So if it is indeed over feeding - how often and how much food should I give them - the other fish do not have the bloated look.

My water chemistry I monitor daily and is 0 for both Ammonia and Nitrite - I also added Stress Zyme+ I think it was when I filled the tank to start the bascteria. So far in the 2+ weeks the tank has been up the Ammonia and Nitrite have never gone above 0.25 ppm. I have done several 50% water chnages.

One of my Rusties was holding - but I don't think they were fertilized - she seems to no longer be holding.


----------



## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

> So if it is indeed over feeding - how often and how much food should I give them - the other fish do not have the bloated look.


Sounds like he IS overeating if he's ballooning up and then back down again. Opinions differ but IMO fish should be fed only once a day and given only as much food as they can eat in less than one minute. 
_If your Rusty is getting more than his share of the food _so that even when YOU don't overfeed he still overeats then you'll have to find ways to trick him. 8) Try dropping the food from opposite sides of the tank simoultaneously. Or drop the food into a strong surface current so that the food disperses in unpredictable patterns making it hard for him to scoop it up. A little more trouble would be to have a large fake plant floating along the surface: that way when you drop the food in all the fish have to hunt and swim around the plant to find the food.

I feed my fish every night between 8-10pm. One advantage of doing it this way is that they are trained to that time. They don't beg for food when I walk by the tank unless it's that time or _approaching_ that time. I love this because at other times of the day I can walk by the tank or sit next to the tank and just watch them. The sight of me doesn't trigger the frenzied FEED ME response unless it's getting close to 8pm. They just swim around and interact with each other.

Robin


----------

