Dealing with bloat…

[DCcrest]

Any suggestions or helpful tips for dealing with bloat? I have 3 Nandopsis haitiensis “black nasty” cichlids, all about 3”. Two of them have developed bloat. I treated with general cure & epson salt (I was told it works as a laxative for fish) …They don’t seem to be “checking out”…But they don’t seem to be getting better either. #Suggestions?

 

[DMD123]

Ive never kept this species but have always wanted to. My understanding is that bloat is quite common in them. Ive read that sometimes its the stress of trying to grow them out together can cause issues. Heard some have better success by using dividers. I guess temps need to be kept high too, up over 80. Then there is the food itself with some saying they need more “greens” in the diet and less protein. I guess this is why many will feed NLS foods, less likely to bloat on them.

 

[Madness]

Clean water, clean water, clean water. Like mentioned above hopefully when they recover you may need to change the diet.

These fish need low protein diet, very little feedings, like only once per day and skipping days in between, and pristine water with lots of flow.

Now in regards to the issue, Epsom salt, meds (im a fan of parasite guard by tetra). Stop feeding for a bit while you treat. Depending on how bad it gets you may need to soak food in Epsom salt solution, feed Epsom salt solution directly down their throat with a pipette, or an Epsom salt bath.
Haiti's are very difficult fish to raise.

 

[sir_keith]

Bloat is all about prevention, as mentioned above, less about cure. That said, if you catch it early, bloat can be treated with metronidazole, but the success rate is probably around 50% at best. Advanced cases are untreatable. There is an abundance of information online about this issue, much of it misleading. Here is one general article-

https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/11-3-bloat/

And one treatment protocol-

https://www.cichlid-forum.com/threads/a-bloat-treatment-that-actually-works-step-by-step.46140/

Good luck.

 

[DCcrest]

Appreciate all the info. I’ll be placing them in a divided tank and starting them on a 7 day treatment tomorrow …, I’ll keep yal updated. Thx again.

 

[DMD123]

Keep us updated. Would love to see progress pics of them.

Where did you get these from? Asking because there seem to be two variants sold, the one is the normal one thats been around for years and then the other seems more recently introduced, is a huge nuchal hump variant. I really question if the giant nuchal hump variant is pure but who knows maybe line bred in.

 

[DMD123]

@DCcrest, Been a couple weeks now... Any improvements?

 

[DCcrest]

@DCcrest, Been a couple weeks now... Any improvements?

I grabbed them from wet spot in September.

The two that had bloat didn’t make it. They both started to show improvement (swimming around, taking a couple bites at food once I moved them), but about few weeks later one passed, the other about a 4 days ago…Still one left, it’ll be ok and for a male.

 

[sir_keith]

Unless you catch 'bloat' really early the prospects for recovery are slim.

 

[DCcrest]

Unless you catch 'bloat' really early the prospects for recovery are slim.

Yeah, I think I know where I went wrong …I took a loss, now I’m more knowledgeable as a fish keeper because of it.