How to prevent bloat?

[Localzoo]

What size is the tank? Filtration? Current inhabitants?

If they all have "bloat" or are otherwise sick, I'd stick them into a separate quarantine tank (with a sponge filter), bleach the sick tank and start over.

Hopefully the sick fish will recover but it sounds like they've got internal parasites, Hex or God knows what.

When you start the tank again, make sure you quarantine anything before you add it to your tank.

Mbuna, if healthy and given a modicum of proper care, can stay healthy for many years.

Matt

Well said...dep on filtration tank size and amount of fish bacteria could cause a significant amount of damage. Also improperly stored food getting the food wet and mold or any other weird thing starts to grow in it. Old food, bad batch the list of possible things is long...good luck


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[dogofwar]

I'd move the 2 sick ones to quarantine

Matt

 

[npbarca]

They are going to be moved to quarantine tonight. I will also run by congressional and pick up some medicine.

Would it be better to move the healthy ones to a spare 20 long and treat them with preventive medications?

 

[Avatar]

Less is more...

Strongly recommend a varied diet as opposed to a single food source and fasting fish for at least one and better yet two days a week. I stopped seeing any bloat in my tanks after beginning such a regimen even when feeding very fatty foods like bloodworms and blackworms (chopped/minced of course to aid digestion). Also a good idea to discontinue evening feedings or do the second feeding earlier in the day so your fish aren't faced with trying to digest food while they're essentially motionless. Urge you try this before attempting random medications...

Luck. .

 

[npbarca]

I feed a varied diet of 3 different types of spirulina and vegetable flakes, along with peas, zucchini, and other vegetables.

 

[Acpape0]

If a food is engineered to fit a specific fish species like xtreme cichlid or nls cichlid why would you feed anything else. If a food meets a fishes dietary needs by itself why would you add anything to it... I pay good money for good food , it seems absurd to pay the $ for species specific high quality food just to not trust it and supplement it with other food..... Just my two cents


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[JasonC]

Cause you'd eventually get bored with Soilent Green 3 times a day... though i hear it is tasty... and made of peopllllll... yeah... nevermind. ;P

Variety is the spice of life... even for fish.

 

[Acpape0]

Seems like a better idea to let the experts who design high end fish food to determine what is nessicary for a fishes health with species specific fish food.... I guess I am just humble


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[npbarca]

Saulosi need a herbivorous diet. I have my staple flake foods, and combine that with fresh vegetables such as zucchini and peas to give them the vegetable matter they need. Also, they like to graze on zucchini slices.

 

[cichlidaddicted]

Check your inbox

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[npbarca]

Update:

I moved the 5 healthy fish to a new 20 long. Nothing was carried over from the original tank. I fed metro-infused flakes and treated the water. The other 2 infected fish were moved to a quarantine and treated with metro.

 

[Avatar]

Variety is the spice of life

If a food is engineered to fit a specific fish species like xtreme cichlid or nls cichlid why would you feed anything else. If a food meets a fishes dietary needs by itself why would you add anything to it... I pay good money for good food , it seems absurd to pay the $ for species specific high quality food just to not trust it and supplement it with other food..... Just my two cents/QUOTE]

Numerous reasons,but I'll limit it to two, the first being that what "experts" don't know will fill volumes. Secondly, very few species within the kingdom subsist solely on one staple for their diets and variations in texture, ingredients, etc. generally make for a better mix of trace minerals and vitamins as well as serving to stimulate the gastro-intestinal tract - we are talking about bloat if memory serves. No one is urging you to buy species specific foods but rather spending less on one type and using the balance to diversify the diet you administer.

For years the "experts" sold ant eggs to turtle keepers as "complete nutrition" with the effect that lots of turtles starved to death. If you prefer to trust corporate advertising over the informed experience of your peers, by all means go chug down some energy drinks, drink three to four glasses of pasteurized hormone-laden milk every day and continue to believe everything you read, like the need to change your filter pads every two weeks, the necessity of buying lots of chemical treatments for your tanks and the efficacy of charcoal.

Cheers.

 

[Acpape0]

Here is how I see it...
Pros of using species specific quality food (nls xtreme) only ... Health fish , virtually no chance of Malawi bloat , if bloat does occur you can rule out dietary issues and narrow down cause faster hence saving fish

Cons:a unscientifically based presumption that fish get "bored"

Mixed diet: possibility of mastering ratio and then getting happy healthy fish , feeling superior to other keeps because you "know" your fish, possibility of a "balanced" but still not natural diet of fish ( who is to say what is "natural" when fish is tank born)
Cons: bloat , bloat, wondering if your ratios of foods were off causing bloat, precious time lost while you wonder if diet is your problem while parasites continue to kill fish.

Fish don't get bored with food , you do. Even the omnivorous mbuna , (not a true vegetarian even in nature) does require some protien in diet..
Last time I checked there are no peas or zucchini floating around in any of the rift lakes. So you "natural" diet is invalid

My apologies to the OP I did not mean to hijack thread but the worst thing you can do when your tank is crashing is nothing because it may be caused by a fishes diet. Eliminate that possibility from the very beginning.

I am no expert by any means but I am s firm believer in KISS
(Keep It Simple Stupid)



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[npbarca]

Here is how I see it...
Pros of using species specific quality food (nls xtreme) only ... Health fish , virtually no chance of Malawi bloat , if bloat does occur you can rule out dietary issues and narrow down cause faster hence saving fish

Cons:a unscientifically based presumption that fish get "bored"

Mixed diet: possibility of mastering ratio and then getting happy healthy fish , feeling superior to other keeps because you "know" your fish, possibility of a "balanced" but still not natural diet of fish ( who is to say what is "natural" when fish is tank born)
Cons: bloat , bloat, wondering if your ratios of foods were off causing bloat, precious time lost while you wonder if diet is your problem while parasites continue to kill fish.

Fish don't get bored with food , you do. Even the omnivorous mbuna , (not a true vegetarian even in nature) does require some protien in diet..
Last time I checked there are no peas or zucchini floating around in any of the rift lakes. So you "natural" diet is invalid

My apologies to the OP I did not mean to hijack thread but the worst thing you can do when your tank is crashing is nothing because it may be caused by a fishes diet. Eliminate that possibility from the very beginning.

I am no expert by any means but I am s firm believer in KISS
(Keep It Simple Stupid)



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We are talking about Saulosi here. They are a herbivorous mbuna and require an extremely low protein diet. If you fed these fish just nls pellets, then they would die and you didn't do your research. Not all mbuna are the same, and these require a different diet than most. I sense a little bit of anger, so I'm just going to say we are talking about Saulosi, not general mbuna, so please read some articles on them if you had any questions, or pm me.

 

[Avatar]

Now I remember...

Here is how I see it...
Pros of using species specific quality food (nls xtreme) only ... Health fish , virtually no chance of Malawi bloat , if bloat does occur you can rule out dietary issues and narrow down cause faster hence saving fish

This is what is known as a non-sequitur, i.e., your conclusion is a product of belief as opposed to reason or proof.

Since the rest of your reply heads precipitously downhill from there, I'll decline to continue except to say that the KISS maxim seems to suit you, consistent as may be with your self-professed, and antithetical as it is to, notions of "expertise" or the lack thereof.

Rave on.

PS - Feel free to post a link attesting to the abundance of naturally occurring flake food in Malawi or any of the other Rift Lakes

 

[Acpape0]

Actually read around and it is "recommended to feed live foods occasionally " but mine is flourishing in my 125 on xtreme ( lone male) and holds his own against fish 2x size...

What do you think these fish are being fed at the farms where they are coming from.

On a side note you attempt to belittle or insult speaks bucts upon your confidence upon issue. Sit at your desk for 8 hrs and at your computers screen for 4 more after that , some live in the real world and not this imaginary forum and Internet expert world.
Sorry for hijacking this will be my last post on topic
FYI look up origins of the acronym before you insult it


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[Acpape0]

Save some time


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[dogofwar]

I'll decline to continue except to say that the KISS maxim seems to suit you...

Actually, I believe that the KISS maxim is that ugly guys in bands get more chicks when they wear make-up.

There is nothing wrong (and lots right) with mixing in some zuchini or other veggies for mbuna. Romaine lettuce and other greens are good as well. Just don't let uneaten food rot in the tank.

Now all we need is for Sam to drop by our forum (or DC) more often. We miss you, Sam

Matt

 

[neut]

The "informed experience of your peers" varies wildly, both in degree of experience and degree of being informed. If "peers" refers to the general population of hobbyists or the general population of fish forum denizens... well, they're not unknown to be highly suspect at times.

As far as the topic of fish food and feeding, the subject is fraught with personal opinions and prejudices. The only thing consistent about it is that people will always argue the subject and the only axiom I'd consistently agree to is that there is more than one way to successfully feed 99% of the fish commonly kept in the hobby.

As far as randomly feeding variety-- whether to compensate for the theoretical inadequacies of a particular product or products, or for whatever other reasons make us feel warm and fuzzy-- it's not without it's pitfalls if we rely solely on the 'informed experience of our peers' on some fish forum. Example: are you feeding peas to your fish if your flake or pellet has soy products in it? Link

 

[neut]

lol... "not without it's pitfalls" saw that too late to fix, guess I took some stupid pills today... :wacko: