greshaki Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 In my experience, Ive found that if I lose a fish to bloat, another will go down soon after. Is bloat actually contagious, and does a sick fish repesent a hazard to the rest of the tank? What about when fish (as they do) nibble at a fish that has died from bloat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchar Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 Hi, There are differing opinions as to the cause of bloat in fish - bacterial?. It seems to be a general term that is thrown around to cover a host of conditions. However, if it has been induced via poor water quality, then it seems quite reasonable that other fish, occupying the same tank, will become infected. It is also important to remove bodies quickly, as many diseases can be passed on through "snacking" on the dead (doubt that bloat is passed on this way though? don't know).merjo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 Bloat is highly contagious....paracite can travel from fish to fish effected fish should be isolated and treated,most cases whole tank should be medicated.U need a medication which has metronidazole as the active drug.HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edward Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 how do I know if my guppies have bloat?Their stomach looks fat, and there seems to be a small redish rash near the anal area. Is this bloat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griffin Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 Bloat is "kind of" contagious - I'll use the typical Tropheus bloat as an example (not all cases of "bloat" in other fish are caused by what I'm about to describe - bloat can be a result of organ failure due to plenty of other causes).Tropheus carry a protozoan in their gut - it's normal for them to have small numbers of them and in small numbers it does no harm and may even aid their digestion. If they get the wrong diet or get very stressed the protozoan gets to increase its numbers out of control. Then it becomes harmful, causing damage to the gut wall making the fish sicker and more stressed, allowing the protozoan to increase even more in numbers until the fish dies.When the sick fish has these high numbers of protozoans it is basically "pumping" out large numbers of the protozoan into the water. Now, fish that were healthy and fine before could actually come down with bloat as a contagious disease in a way. Because there's only so many they can fight off.......if there are huge numbers around in the water even a healthy fish will then come down with bloat.So in some ways the protozoan is a "normal" part ofthe fish's system, but under the right (or wrong?) conditions it can act like a disease.Hope I've explained this OK.Cheers,Jess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trofius Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 I also believe that bloat is contagious, i had 6 Tropheus go with it and then a week later all the regani died, all the other fish were fine however. As for the guppy question sounds like they are gunna have babies!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fins Posted December 13, 2003 Share Posted December 13, 2003 U need a medication which has metronidazole as the active drug. Jim,Which med contains metronidozole?I can't find it anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griffin Posted December 13, 2003 Share Posted December 13, 2003 Octazin is a metronidazole based drug produced for ornamental fish - some aquariums will carry it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted December 13, 2003 Share Posted December 13, 2003 U can also try General cure wich has 125 mg of metronidazole per capsule if u can find it....ring around.Fins if u cant source any and in need for it i can possibly help.....just let us know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lungy Posted December 13, 2003 Share Posted December 13, 2003 Anyway my opinnion is Bloat is NOT contagous, as i have had the occassional bloatcasualty and never had the need to do anything , Other than remove the deceasedBesides as far as fish picking at other dead fishes :o i doubt that would matter either :lol: As if you had to eat a human , i think you'd know when it was time to stop Thats why we and fish are given sensery perception for our own saftey.Yes i know yer gunna say .. " well howcome humans get food poisoning ????Well humans Mask food with flavoring and therefore sometime can trick the mind that the food is ok..... Fish don't have this option ... Dam Mark would be proud of some of them big words :lol: Andy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fins Posted December 13, 2003 Share Posted December 13, 2003 Griffin,Yes I did find Octazin, but it didn't have any active ingedient written on the bottle, so I gave it a miss (also, the lfs wanted $2 per tablet .... ouch!)Jim,Who makes General Cure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E4G13M4N Posted December 13, 2003 Share Posted December 13, 2003 Octazin is probably one of the better ones ... If you can still get it that is ..I know a shipment comes in now and then but we never get it in SA as the eastern shops seem to hog it all when it does turn up :lol: :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted December 13, 2003 Share Posted December 13, 2003 Fins General cure is made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Inc. same company that makes Furan-2Try auburn or trans usually sells for $1 per tabletOctazin use to be 50 cents per tablet :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trofius Posted December 13, 2003 Share Posted December 13, 2003 you could try going to your local vet and ask for some, just explain what it is for, I took a book and some printed web articles about the stuff and they were cool about it, can get it as a liquid for iv use in animals or as a tablet, go the tablets and crush them up and dissolve in soem warm water... there are plenty of web sites about what to do. ummm think steveaka benga boy has some info about treatment regeimes etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted December 14, 2003 Share Posted December 14, 2003 Check out this article on bloat,was written for discus but also applies for cichlidsVery informative and a good piece of info, one of the best aroundbloat article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greshaki Posted December 15, 2003 Author Share Posted December 15, 2003 The product I have used in the past is called ‘flagyl’, and its an antibiotic available only from vets. It was great, and stopped the disease dead in its tracks (it was picking off my fish one by one). Are these other treatments, Octazin and General cure, as effective as the prescription stuff? It is quite hard to get Flagyl from the vet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griffin Posted December 15, 2003 Share Posted December 15, 2003 Flagyl is the trade name for metronidazole. Metronidazole is the active ingredient in Octazin and General Cure too. I think the concentration of metronidazole in octazin is not as great as that in Flagyl (which usually comes as 200mg, 250mg and sometimes stronger tablets). They all work the same, it's the same drug, you just need to add up the milligrams of the tablets to get the dose you want.Getting Flagyl from a vet can sometimes be difficult - legally they are not supposed to give it to you over the counter without seeing the sick animal in question first. This law can sort of stretch to the vet discussing with you the problem your fish are having so that the vet's satisfied that you are using the drug for the right reasons. If they give you metronidazole over the counter they are actually bending the rules and doing you a favour. Cheers,Jess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishly Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Hi All, As it is stated earlier that bloat is highly contagious to other fishes. But if my mbuna bloated, would it make my BN bloat as well? Regards, Fishly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishly Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Hi All, As it is stated earlier that bloat is highly contagious to other fishes. But if my mbuna bloated, would it make my BN bloat as well? Regards, Fishly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herefishiefishie Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Very little formal scientific or veterinary research has been conducted on this disease.. Has been formally associated with bacterial infection &/or an inappropiate or unvaried diet. On the "very rare" ocassions that severial fish are affected simultaneously, then bacterial infection should be suspected. Causes are,unsuitable diet,poor water quality(especially if high in nitrates) also the long term addition of salt.(Nacl) "Prevention here is better than cure." as there is no known cure for environmental or dietary bloat. If bacterial try & get a broad spectrum antibiotic. Frenchy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishly Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 How would you prevent if it happened already? And if I want to add new fishes, do I have to change all water first or what should I do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevy73 Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Natural Yoghurt is a better, cheaper solution. I know it sounds stupid, but believe me (I can't wait for the replies on this one) it truly does work. Get a teet Pippette or however the hell you spell it - catch your fish if possible and gently squeeze some yoghurt into it's mouth. After a few days, problem is gone. I have done this from experience, and whilst I was EXTREMELY sceptical about the whole thing (I was positive the guy at the LFS was taking the wee wEE out of me) If you can't catch the fish, what I did was just carefully drop a small amount from the pipette into the water, the yoghurt stayed in its form and sinks slowly. Try and aim for the fish get them to eat a few drops of this. Worked a treat for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willy Wombat Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Kevy.... Congratulations thats the wierdest thing i have heard today...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishman Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 I have got 9x 4ftx18inx18in tanks on 1 sump filter and only 1 tank of dimi compressicepts got blout nothing else was afected not even another tank of the same fish next to them in the same water. Just thought i throw that in.CHEERS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishly Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 That's interesting Kev. What kind of yoghurt did you use? Fishman, I think you are lucky that it didn't cause other fishes bloat. In my case, I have 5ft tank, it started from 2 fishes bloated, then the disease spread to all mbunas in that tank except the BNs. And now I am not ready to add cichlid in that tank as I am too worry if the water still have the bacteria or virus which causes the fish bloat. What should I do? does anyone have other option to prevent this nightmare other than using yoghurt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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