"Octozin - from Waterlife Research
The active ingredient is Metronidazole which is the same as used on people for gut infections. It can be around 50% effective as a treatment as long as you ignore the manufacturer's dose rates on the side of the package. Those dose rates are based on a broad spectrum treatment for everthing from neon tetra's to angelfish, not Rift valley cichlids. You need to at least double the amount of tablets per dose and an upto x8 dose can be administered to adult fish.
Metronidazole - from Vets
Pure Metrondazole is also available from a vet and can be effective if used correctly. There is an excellent treament regime on the article link above.
The dose rate I use is 400mg (crushed/powdered) per 50litres of water. This dose is carried out twice in succession at 8hr intervals. Remove infected fish into a 50ltr tank and treat there with just a heater and strongly aerated sponge filter for company.
Again with this treatment its often only 50% effective against bloat.
Coly - from Preis Aquaristic (Germany)
This is a natural based treatment aimed specifically at treating cichlids for hole in the head and bloat. The standard dose rate on the bottle is adequate. About 30% effectivity with this one.
Sera Bactopur Direct - from Sera (Germany)
This is a relatively new product and I've had some excellent results sofar with 50%+ treatment success. Standard dose rate as on the packet is enough to keep pathogen levels low within a tank as a preventative treatment. For fish that are infected with bloat dissolve 1 tablet in 4 litres of tank water and leave the fish for 30mins in this solution. This works well especially if fish are caught in the early stages of this condition.
There is also a food version of this available called Sera Bacto Tabs which can be fed to fish that are still feeding, this is a useful option for treating tanks where you suspect an outbreak is about to spread amongst it inhabitants.
Baytril - from vets
This is one of the products that vets are currently pushing instead of Emtryl. The only issue with it is that it can only be administered via food. As with the Sera Bactotab food it can be used as a preventative treatment only. Dose rate is 4ml of solution per 100gm of dried food (pellets are best).
From personal experience the best way to treat bloat is to mix two of the above products. I believe that there is limited success with each of the above treatments because of the wide range of pathogens that can cause bloat. If you treat with a metronidazole based product you may end up missing the pathogen that is causing the disease but wiping out the competition instead.
My current personal preferences are,
Sera Bactopur Direct + Preis Coly
Sera Bactopur Direct + Waterlife Octozin at a x4 dose.
For badly infected fish I use the regime below,
Sera Bactopur @ 2 tablets per 50ltrs + Metronidazole @ 400mg per 50ltr. After 24hrs carry out a 50% waterchange and then rest the fish for 24hrs, if there is no visible improvement then re-dose. This dose can be carried out upto 4 times.
With all the regimes above put an extra airstone in the treatment tank as so to maximise the O2 levels and gas exchange.
I've found the above treatment regimes to be around 70% effective and if the disease is caught early enough they can be 100%."
I hope Mike does not mind but this is nicked from his excellent article for treating bloat in the UK. If you want to talk to Mike direct you may have to register on
http://www.cichlidmania.net/forum/index.php
I think thats the only place he posts now.
Please note CLOUT is not on the list because it does not work better than these or because it is illegal to use it here but because you can not buy it here as far as I know (no licence for sale here I think) and we have not tried it.
