Malawi Bloat

[jeff12399]

Well i am dealing with my first case of bloat. My male Blue dolphin started showing signs over a week ago. So I had been changing water and adding salt to the main tank to keep the others from getting stressed. I isolated the male in a 10gal. with a sponge filter and raised the temp to 84 degrees. i did this for 3 days. Still no improvement. So I added Jungle Parasite Guard to his tank. He still shows the bloated look but has not got worse. He has been breathing heavy and swimming around normally. tried feeding him a few flakes but he didn't touch them so cleaned them out before they could turn the water bad. siphoned water today added more salt and decided to try one more tablet of Parasite guard. Some people say Jungle works but I am a little skeptical when it comes to putting chemicals in a tank. Going to wait 48 hours then I will siphon and just use aged water with Prime Water Conditioner. Will update as soon as I see where this is heading. Will now keep 3 or 4 juvies to grow out just in case he don't make it.

[jeff12399]

Well did another 50% water change and added lots of salt and it seems to have worked. I am still going to keep him separated but he is not all swollen up and is starting to act normal. We will see how he does in a week or so before I put him back in the group.

[jeff12399]

After a couple more days in quarintine my blue dolphin is back in with hiis mates. He looks back to normal but still breathing a little hard. He is eating and swimming with the rest of them so all is well.

Jeff

[sammyt20]

I read another thread here about Malawi bloat but its said to do everything you pretty much described above I have had several cases and was not so lucky with my Angels glad all worked out.

[jeff12399]

Thanks but I may have jumped the gun. He is still not 100% but I am still working with him.

[sammyt20]

Make sure you feed him sinking foods. The number one reason and cause for bloat is floating foods not sure if you knew that or not so am just posting it to make sure others know as well. I have lost several fish do to bloat and its not a pretty thing to watch happen to your pets. I hope he pulls through, Good luck Jeff!

Sam

[jeff12399]

It was touch and go for the last couple days. He stopped eating and lost alot of weight but last night he was eating and looking better. i did just do a 50% water change and that seemed to help. Thankks for the feeding advice. I feed them flake and pellets. with the flake I actually hold it in my finger tips and swish it around in the water so it sinks.

Jeff

[jeff12399]

My newest update on the Male Dolphin. Although I never had a fish before with Malawi Bloat. I wasn't sure how to treat it. Now I am almost (99%) sure that the parisite clear may have helped a little but when i put him back in the tank he still looked like Death warmed over. After a few more water changes and lots of salt the male has bred with both females that are now holding. This is a first for both of them together and a first spawn for one of the females. Now I will wait to see if the eggs will hatch and if the fry will turn out ok. It's ok because I know Kris has some of my stock and if his breed i will buy some back from him. (LOL) I still have some 2" Juvies that I will be keeping that have better color than the parents.

Jeff

How are yours doing Kris & Amy?