Tyrannochromis juveniles with Bloat

Personally I feel that with expensive fish in particular and with extreme illnesses (the last one I battled in January had no symptoms until hours before death, and any symptoms that the fish did have were inconsistent with the other fish, which is why I decided to overmedicate with 3 strong medicines when treatment with metro failed with two $50 wildcaught fish and two other inexpensive ones. Though me and you agreed to disagree about my treatment with 3 meds, I still think it was the right move as an emergency action when I was losing up to two fish a day. Though I do agree with you though on the potential risks of overmedicating...

Personally I am going to only follow through with the clout treatment and stop with metro because I am 95% sure what my guys have is bloat and the metro doesn't seem to work. So far they haven't gotten any worse but aren't any better yet. I'm going to go against the clout instructions and give them a major water change tomorrow (to give them clean water and get rid of the metro from the water) and treat clout again.

Thanks for the help cichlidaholic, and I'll keep you guys updated,
~Ed

Typically, when it comes to bloat Malawi Salt is especially good in helping them Poop. And the minerals keep Parasites and other things away from them. Also, skip a day of feeding them so that there intestines clear up. You can offer a mixture of flake food with Spiriluna that is kinda of a laxative in a sense.

As far as seeing white feces, Pure Metro is the best and if they are not eating soak some food with a dose or 2 of the Metro and let it dry. Then feed the sick fish and it will do it's job internally and kick the Parasites Butt! Don't use Clout, you don't need it and it will destroy all your good bacteria and then your fish will freakin stress out bad. I know what your going through, but don't stress out yourself. Good Luck and don't forget to do 50% water changes every 2 days and vacum up those white feces because if the other fish eat it they to will be infected with an Alien in their stomach if you know what I mean. :lol:

See ya,

SubMariner

Ed, I've considered doing the syringe thing with EBJD before, but have never actually tried it. I believe you would actually need tubing (very tiny tubing) to get it down into the esophagus far enough that it won't come back up, and I think this might stress an already sick fish past the point of no return.

I've said a thousand times that I always believe it's best if you can get a fish to ingest the meds, so I certainly wouldn't see anything wrong with trying it, but I do believe you need to get it further than the mouth area for it to stay in.

SubMariner, my point is that epsom salt alone is all you need as a preventative measure. It isn't going to help fish that are already too far gone.

I'm still not sure what you're referring to as "Malawi Lake Salt". What are the ingredients? Adding buffers to a tank that doesn't need them can be pretty risky. :thumb:

I do agree that improper food can lead to bloat, but Ed knows how to feed his fish. And even if he didn't, changing the food and cutting back on feeding isn't going to help a fish that is already refusing food. :-?

I don't like Clout, either. I find it to be very harsh and think it can sometimes be more than an already weakened fish can handle. But often, we're really just trying to prevent other fish from becoming infected, and I do think it works for this.

Kim