Digger is sick. Please help.

[ahamm]

My zebra cichlid has not been feeling well. His stomach seems swollen just under his gill slits. I have attached some pictures to see if someone can help me identify his illness and prescribe a treatment. Is this Malawi bloat? All of the pics online showed the swelling for that further back on their body. Any help is appreciated.

Angie

[bra8ndy8]

WOW.....I wish I could help.....but I have NEVER seen anything like that. I would just do a 30% water change........and put him in a ISO

[lellison]

wow, that is odd. Is he eating? Is he lethargic? Any behavioral changes other than the obvious physical swelling

[fishman76092]

Bloat is misleading as many fish actually get sunken bellies. Your fish probably has this. Clout and Metronidizole are the only two meds that I know that can fix it. Clout is quicker and cheaper-also easily found at non-chain LFS.

Im not sure what you feed, but if you are feeding anything but plant based pellet/flake, then you are asking for a problem with most Malawi fish. Even the 'carnivores' like Tyrannochromis, Champsochromis, etc will get bloat if fed brine or blood worms, etc. Stick with Spirulina based foods at all times and youll more than likely be fine.

[biggin]

Really? I kinda thought a little brine would be good for most fish. Not as a staple but a treat every now and then.....Mine get mostly NLS and veggie flakes but I do get live brine from time to time and always throw some in just to watch the fun. Hmmmm never had bloat with the Cichlids but I have had it in 1 other tank....

Even the 'carnivores' like Tyrannochromis, Champsochromis, etc will get bloat if fed brine or blood worms, etc.

[ahamm]

Digger died this am. I had removed him from the other tank. I am feeding the fish danichi cichlid pellets and cichlid flakes, so I am not sure what was going on. I am watching my other fish to make sure that I don't see the same thing in any of them. Everyone else seems to be o.k. so that is a blessing. His problem may have been aggression from other fish. I have a couple that have been going at it. I'll keep an eye out. Thanks for all of the info.

Angie

[bra8ndy8]

Sorry for you loss!

[Shayman10]

Sorry to hear it. It is always a bummer to lose fish.

[EAST_TX_RN]

Oh, I am so sorry!

[kewlkatdady]

sorry to hear about your loss.
I had malawian bloat in my mixed (malawi and tang) tank. At that time I was feeding frozen brine and beef heart to try and get them to grow a little faster.
I lost about 4 fish over a 4-6 week period.
I treated it with Metronidizole as recommended by Fishman, and the problem was gone in around 2 weeks.

I have since stopped feeding frozen brine and beef heart (except for the occassional treat) and have started ONLY feeding spirulina flake and NLS every once in awhile, and I haven't had a problem since.

I'd listen to fishman as he seems to have good advice, I did and problem solved.

[fishman76092]

Really? I kinda thought a little brine would be good for most fish. Not as a staple but a treat every now and then.....Mine get mostly NLS and veggie flakes but I do get live brine from time to time and always throw some in just to watch the fun. Hmmmm never had bloat with the Cichlids but I have had it in 1 other tank....


There are some breeders (Peter Durkin as an example) who can get away with it. In the hatchery/wholesaler I worked at-it was almost guaranteed bloat for most Malawi cichlids. You could feed the fry baby brine, but as they got bigger, they didnt handle it well. To each their own-I just hate dealing with it.

[biggin]

Interesting. You are probably right, just not something I had heard(or did not pay attention to) before.

Some thing I was thinking about today is this just cichlids? For example puffers, who have a different diet, this can not be case. Right?

What about NLS? It has Spirulina but it is pretty far down on the ingredients list.

There are some breeders (Peter Durkin as an example) who can get away with it. In the hatchery/wholesaler I worked at-it was almost guaranteed bloat for most Malawi cichlids. You could feed the fry baby brine, but as they got bigger, they didnt handle it well. To each their own-I just hate dealing with it.

[tsunderl]

Sorry to hear your fish didn't make it. It's always tough to lose one.

I have livebearers and feed a variety, from flakes to frozen brine shrimp and so forth. Is it best to stick to one food and not change things up? Seems that's when problems start showing up. I only feed one food to my cats and dogs... Don't know why I feel as though the fish need variety. :confuzeld:

And forgive my ignorance, but what is NLS?

[biggin]

And forgive my ignorance, but what is NLS?

New Life Spectrum

[fishman76092]

I only feed OSI. Im old school. Ive not tried any new foods in 15+ years....

There are certain CA cichlids that are very susceptible to bloat as well-Nandopsis spp (grammodes, istlantus, tetracanthus, haitiensis, etc) The labridens-types are also very easy to bloat-bartoni, pantostictus, etc. Most other fish seem to be fine. There are a few exceptions, but most of the problems come from cichlids.