Malawi Bloat

[sandy001]

I am having some issues with bloat at the moment.

I have some 400mg metro tablets that I was going to presoak with some food & was not sure on the best way to do this.

I was thinking of crushing up 100 mg of metro & combining this with 1 tablespoon of food & soaking it all in water for 5 mins before feeding.

Does this sound okay ?

Thanks Dave

[Lee Miller]

G'day Dave,

This must be for a friend, right?

What you suggest sounds feasible, but I'm told (by friends who have had these problems) that fish with bloat might not be feeding, so what happens to the metro then?

Good luck to your friend.

Cheers,

[sandy001]

Hi Lee

My friend says that he has had a couple of fish showing symptons & wants to treat them all before it progresses any further.

Thanks Dave

[Lee Miller]

Hi Dave,

What symptoms are your fish showing?

Is your friend using a hospital tank, or dosing a tank full of fish just to get a couple of fish that are showing symptoms? The problem with using a hospital tank is that you can impose more stress on the fish by moving it to a strange environment.

My friend has had one fish develop bloat in a tank full of other fish that all remained fit and healthy even after the bloated fish died. He recommends treating just the sick fish.

My friend's not a big fan of metro (obviously, being a master fish keeper myself, I never have need of such things), he thinks it might be a fairly harsh remedy. Have you considered a more gentle treatment like Melafix?

Just a few thoughts.

Cheers,

[Colfish]

What symptoms are your fish showing?

Have you considered a more gentle treatment like Melafix?

might be good to know what fish your 'friend' intends to treat

if it's tropheus??, my friend says to tell your friend NO

[Lee Miller]

G'day Col,

Is that a "no" to melafix or metro for tropheus?

Cheers,

[sandy001]

I am treating some demasoni & flavus that have been in a tank together for a couple of years with no problem. There has been a flurry of breeding recently & maybe the added aggression has bought it on.

I have been treating with spectrum soaked in Metro for a day now & most fish seem to have long healthy looking poo.

Only a few fish are bloated & out of these only a couple appear to be not eating.

Have noticed alot more enthusiasm in eating since using Metro but this may be because I have also reduced the amount of food they are getting.

Thanks Dave

[rosco]

Dave,

If "your friend" wants to try and treat a fish in the past I hve treated my yellows that that had wasting with metro but since they were not taking food in (as Lee suggested) I used the treatment that has been recommended for trophs. I had 200mg tablets and I isolated the colony into a 100litre tank and treated 1 tablet per 40litres. and also does the food 1/2 table per 20grams of food and soaked the food for 15 minutes.

Each week I did 50% water change and treated the tank with the same dose of metro and continued the food treament. I did this for three weeks and saved 75% of what I had left. So since your friend 400mg tablet the same dose would would be 1 and half tablets per 100litres.

Another thing you could try dave is use epsom salt treatment on the water if you isolate the fish out. I did this treatment of a troph that had drospy and saved her. I added 1 200mg metro tablet and 3 tbls of epsom salts on day 1 to 15 litres of water, day 2 I added the same, day 3 I did a 30% water change and changed it with aged water and added 2 tbls, day 4 I added 1 and then left her and she slowly got better. I left her in the tank 12 days and then put her back in the colony. I am not sure if this would work with demons but it trophs bu worth a try since this troph was not eating at all.

cheers

rosco

[sandy001]

Thanks Rosco

I seem to have the problem in hand.

No more deaths & all seem to be eating & have a good body shape.

Thanks Dave

[Colfish]

G'day Col,

Is that a "no" to melafix or metro for tropheus?

Cheers,

hi Lee

melafix, trophs don't handle it to well at all. seems to promote unhealthy tummies

[TropheusQueen]

My friend's not a big fan of metro (obviously, being a master fish keeper myself, I never have need of such things), he thinks it might be a fairly harsh remedy. Have you considered a more gentle treatment like Melafix?

Just a few thoughts.

Cheers,

Metronidazole presents no problems at all in fact you would be hard pressed to overdose in any amount with these meds. Dimetronidazole however is another story and dosages need to be exact along with an awareness that it will also kill all bacteria in the tank.

[CThompson]

I have kept a copy of the below information and thought I'd post it FYI even though you have fixed your problem. Often these non-eating fish will mouth the food, where medicated particals may slip past adn be ingested. I think if possible quarantining and dosing quarantine tank and food is the best way to go, dosing the whole tank will cost more but still an option;

This method works whether you are soaking food in a water and liquid medication solution or a water and a crushed tablet solution. A slight variation allows you to use live food.

The main trick is to use the correct amount of water, with the amount of food you are feeding.

I find/feel that pellets (and crushed pellets for smaller fish) are better for a type of food than a flake. I use NLS.

Put in a small/appropriate amount of water into a container (experience will teach this), add your liquid medication and/or a garlic flavour enhancer (optional but this can help to make palatable a food that has been made to taste a bit crook due to the chemicals you are trying to get inside your fish) such as Garlic Guard. Swish to mix, and now add your food. The idea is if you get this liquid and solid mix right, so that after about five to ten or so minutes, all the liquid (medication/Garlic Guard and all) has been soaked into the food, and the food is siting no longer in a solution as it has all been soaked up.

When you first put the food in, you want the mix to be too wet, as if you have gotten the percentages correct, this excess medicated water will be drawn in to the food.

In the case of tablets that have been crushed, follow the same above procedure (including adding Garlic Guard if you want), but be aware that the particles that don’t dissolve (there will probably be lots depending on type of medication used), will stick to the outside of the food particles, and hopefully some of it will get to the targeted tummies. You will see crushed tablet particles in the water when you feed, but I feel this is no great issue, and some of this may be ingested also.

Remember, the idea is to get the liquid to food ratio correct, and to not have this mixture sitting around too long (where you may lose vitamins from the food) soaking the solution up. In the case of medicating extremely ill fish (live food is a big tempter here if they are not eating well), I’d put priority on getting the medicated food inside the fish as more important than a few vitamins they may miss out on anyway. But if the food is soaked quickly, there should be no loss anyway.

I have used a variation on this method to soak live food in too, such as wrigglers and Daphna for example, but you will have to have just enough water so they can still swim. Also, leave the medicated water/live food mix sitting longer so the live food can ingest some of the medication, and still be alive once you add them to the tank. Once added to the tank insect larvae such as wrigglers will have medication stuck to their bodies too, so any that are immediately eaten should have a good coating on them.

I have also done similar with frozen food, using medications such as Metronidazole, and refreezing the food once mixed.

[sandy001]

Thanks for the info Craig.

Some good tips to use if the problem reoccurs.

Thanks Dave