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Successful treatment of Bloat?


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Hi Guys,

Please share with us your tropheus bloat experience. What alerted to u to the fact that your trophs had bloat? What actions did u take to keep the disease from spreading? How exactly did u treat them - include drug, dose, dosing frequency and duration of treatment?

I use to remove the affected fish and isolate in a smaller volume hospital tank and treat aggressively until eating again.

I also treat the entire tank (which can be costly if u got a 6 footer!!!!).

I use dimetronidazole (ask Anthony from Auburn Aquarium) at 1g per 50L, sometimes treating twice daily since metro has a short half-life - normally dosed three times a day in humans! I also dissolve 1/4 tsp into a tablespoon of spirulina flakes and feed those that r still eating. I treat until all affected are eating. Remember to do a major water change after 3 days of treatment. I also add some garlic appetite enhancer to the flakes (made by Seachem) to make them want to eat the flakes.

Dave

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metronidozol for bloat.......as far as i can tell its a myth

you tell me what the causative agent for bloat is, and i will tell you the best antibiotic (if its bacterial) for the treatment.

I have heard that aeromonas sp is the causative agent, and it well could be, it is in every puddle, drip, lake , ocean in the world. and even in your happily treated tap water.....this organism by the way will grow quite well in the presence of metronidozol, but tetracycline will stuff it very quick indeed..haveing said that cold water trout farms have mass losses due to aeromonas sp, as there are a few bad ones abouts...

Ps .I work in the microbiology department of a pathology lab...and no i am not allowed to take any samples in to culture .....i have asked...maybe one day i will be sneeky!

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I have used tetracycline in the past but it tends to make the water and the silicone turn a sickly yellow!

I think Nigel has recommended using metro with a strong broad spectrum antibiotic like kanamycin (which is not available in Oz), but i think tetracycline is a good alternative.

Anyway, i still think prevention is the key, once bloat occurs u have done something wrong to make them susceptible. As trofius has rightly mentioned, the causative organism is ubiquitous to the fishes natural environment and may be part of it normal intestinal flora so some stressor has made it vulnerable to it. I guess treating with these antibiotics/antifungal are just a desperate act to try to buy u some time to correct the original problem.

I think this is the key reason why people r reluctant to venture into tropheus since the treatment of bloat is so uncertain!

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metronidozol for bloat.......as far as i can tell its a myth

Its just one of the medications you can use I have had success using it in conjugation with an antibiotic. The way I use it is to mix it in with there food it only works on the ones that are still eating but helps to control the parasite that is the cause of bloat. What kills the fish is a bacteria.

I know there is a lot of speculation about treating bloat and what the cause is. I have saved a lot of Tropheus the way I do it but have lost a lot as well. There is no magic bullet as far as I know.

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I have fish that weant eating before, sometimes for a few days, I have treated them with metro and they have started eating again. Did they have Bloat? Who knows! and I couldnt even say it was the metro that made them eat.

once bloat occurs u have done something wrong to make them susceptible

I dont think thast always the case Dave. Some people are just unlucky, there are hobbiest who have tried so hard to keep these fish and cant do it.

If any hobbiest see the early signs of bloat, then they should start treatment straight away, it is IMHO, the only hope you will have to save them. The first sign I look for is a fish that isnt eating. I watch mine eat once a day atleast and you can pick out a fish that is not eating quite easily. Once you have seen it then watch it then next few times you feed them. Mine get feed plenty of times so it becomes pretty obvious when a fish doesnt eat. Then I treat the tank with metro and have had great success in getting my fish to eat again doing this. My fish may be suffering from stress or any one of a number of problems, But they get treated with metro and I havent had a fish die from bloat.

Josh

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1 400mg tablet per 40l twice daily for three days. I have never had to treat them for longer then that. I will also catch out a fish and give it a bath with one tablet in 5L at the start of the treatment as sort of a kick start.

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I thaught i beat it on one of my foai females but 4 weeks later she dies even though she wasn't bloated any more. I treated with epsom salts.

Anthony

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I think the one thing we have wrong is we see bloat as a single infection. I think it is a symtom of a number of different bugs, hence treatment sometimes works and sometimes misses completely.

I think the same thing about a lot of infections. I have seen white spot as a minor secondary infection, until I got a strain that decimated a tank. Also talking to a local pet shop they had it too.

Steve

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