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Bloat


Bradc

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Ive lost a few of my geophagus tapajos from bloat and im unsure why. I had 6 and are down to 3. 1 was lost from aggression the others just kept attacking him. But the others have died from bloat.

Ill feed small amounts of a morning and night if i remeber cant say im religious with it though. Otherwise its just a normal amount of a night and skip every Monday. I feed dainichi super krill and dainichi supreme color every other day.

Soft water 4x2x2 tank lots of wood and plants sand substrate bottom. Gh and kh of 7. Ph at 7.1 no ammonia nitrites and nitrates usually are 10ppm at the end of my WC week. 50% WC done weekly. 

Any advice is appreciated as im at a loss all the corys that i had trouble keeping before are now doing well since moving LFS and the rummy nose are doing great as to are the loaches. Its just weird as ive read alot saying they do well on high protein diets but the dainichi is only 40% protein and a certain % of that being plant protein.

Its annoying me as im down to 3 now and the 3 i have look fine.

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Sorry I can't answer why but.......

I feed Dianichi cichlid pro, NLS thera a, Extreme scavenger, NLS gel, Hikari Gold, live mozzie wrigglers, live blackworm, freeze dried blackworm

to Tapajos, Steindachneri, Heckelli, Leucosticta, Balzanii and Rio Branco

never had a bloat probem in too many years to remember now

only time I lost a fish with a boated gut was a Peppermint that had sand impaction in the gut when I cut it open

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Much of a fishes ability to handle a new food comes down to its intestinal flora/fauna. This is why, when changing food its often best to start introducing the new food, along with their usual. Feeding variety also helps keep their microbe population nice and diverse. If you have recently medicated fish with antibiotics the reduction of beneficial microbes in their digestive tract makes them much much more delicate.

This time of year we see an increase in bloat cases, mainly due to the elevated water temperatures increasing the rate at which microbes in general reproduce. What may be a slow moving bug, that a fishes immune system can crush at 24degC, can become a runaway nightmare at 29degC :(

 

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Probably what it is the AOA as i havent medicated and i did as you said introduced the new food with their old. I lost 2 but from memory it hadnt been to hot and tanks were still constant temp. Ive definitely have had temps rise in my tank to probably 30 degrees on the hotter days, i usually have it at a constant 27 degrees. I usually do a slight water change. Or add a frozen water bottle if i know its going to be scortcher that day. 

Is there anyway of curing this as my tank isnt looking as busy as it use to.

And will it effect geos more then other species as they are the only species i own that are getting this.

Ive tryed the epsom salts etc but i have no parasite foods or anything. I do have proziquantel but im guessing its not going to help, and i doubt ill go see a vet for some metro based products.

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You can knock down water column bacteria populations using most of your antibacteria/antifungal meds. It may or may not help. I have used half doses of wardley fungus-aid with good results....  BUT could not tell if it was this that helped or not, as I used several things combined. Always makes it hard to pick out exactly what part worked. Even with things like antibiotics, was it them that worked or was it the focus on improving water quality? Drawback of course is it can knock around other fish. Waterlife myxazin would be my prefered but its not cheap. This is also treating the water, rather than the fish, so a scenic route to solving the problem.

* Really need to remove any corpses, or spoiled food. Eating these can really spread a bloat type infection through the other fish.

* Replacing lids with eggcrate, and then blowing across water surface with a fan is a great way to drop temperature. It does increase evap so be prepared to top up more.

* Keeping KH and GH nice and high can really help out with internal problems with Africans.

* Sometimes giving them a day or 2 or even 3 with no food can do more good than pretty much anything else.

* When I started out with geos I found giving them the odd feed of live earthworms seemed to keep them nice and robust.

Anyone know where Japes posts these days?

Closest we have to a geo guru here in Oz. He is who I would be asking :)

Feeling like this entire post is a bit anecdotal, rather than scientific :/

 

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Yeah i have lots of catfish like corys and loaches and stuff like this so uneaten food isnt really an issue and i feed sparinglyas it is.

My water quality i think is good i do 50% sometimes more water changes weekly gravel vac every week and clean canisters once a month maybe month and a half so im pretty constant and have my ways set.

I think temp is my issue as i had no issues in the cooler month. Also i dont vary the diet. I really only stick to those foods i mentioned. In saying that i have feed them bloodworms a few times over the past few months and i stopped when i read on this forum about nothing about bloodworms is good so i stopped lol.

Ill try pimafix as an antifungal. And ill leave the lids open more just worried about them jumping out but ill make some flyscreen holders or so they cant. In the room the tanks are in there is a ceiling fan above them nearly directly so hope to keep this on now until i install an ac unit in the dining room. Planning a wedding so thats costing me a fortune.

Ill also skip a few days feed i usually skip monday but this week ill skip monday till Thursday and see if this helps.

If they all die ill just go another Avenue. I like the geos but at this stage they are causing me a few headaches and ate not making keeping them enjoyable. 

Ive had no issues with my malawis or tangs. But as you have said high gh kh helps and they are all around the 14-15 mark so that explains why they are fine.

Thanks for your help mate. Ill keep you updated.

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Only other thing I can possibly think of to add to this thread is to check whether the foods your feeding are compressed into pellet form. I have read a couple of articles recently that suggest if a food is compressed into pellets, then your particular fish has a bit of a guts out on them, they can then swell in the digestive tract causing bloat in many species. I'm unsure if this is your problem, but thought it might be of worth to note. Good luck. I hate to lose geos. Such great fish. :)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Bloody hell, that is not good. Antibiotic soaked food is likely going to be the go, but wouldn't know if its just gonna be a waste of time without an autopsy. Basically whats causing the bloat? Is it fluid build up, swollen organ, constipated impaction....  but yes thats certainly bloated.

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I caught it out today and felt the stomach its was very soft and squishy so i got a sowing needle and pierced the stomach as i watched a few videos on youtube. Alot of clear fluid (definitely not water the smell was very noticeable) and massaged the stomach till no more came out.. it definitely made its stomach alot smaller but if it doesn't help in the next day or so im going to knock it on the head

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