Need help, possible bloat

[Steve]

I need some help guys. I believe my Labidochromis Mbamba and one of my yellow labs have bloat. I think I may lose my Mbamba because I've noticed him acting weird the past couple days and I think I may not have caught it or know what it was in time to save him. What is the best course of action right now for me to do? Whats the best treatment to try?

[GrizzlysDad]

You'll probably get different ideas here Steve, but here's what I do:

~Heavy water change and a good cleaning of the substrate.
~Remove carbon, if present, to avoid filtering out medication.
~Treat the whole tank with metronidazole according to dosage on product.
~Feed NLS Thera A exclusively.

In my experience the fish that are showing severe symptoms almost never recover. If you have a quarantine tank, move them and treat them the same way....but definitely treat your main tank. If anything, that's more important...to save anything else from getting to the point of no return.

[Steve]

I was afraid of hearing that Tony. This is my favorite fish too I just called the two local shops and they don;t have what you suggested. The one shop said they have ampicillin, penicillin, and amoxicillin. Will any of those work worth trying?

[GrizzlysDad]

I was afraid of hearing that Tony. This is my favorite fish too I just called the two local shops and they don;t have what you suggested. The one shop said they have ampicillin, penicillin, and amoxicillin. Will any of those work worth trying?

No, those will do nothing for bloat. Metronidazole is the active ingredient in "Hole-In-The-Head" medication so you can call them back and see if they have the meds to treat HITH.

[danielratti]

Another option would be episoms salts in the tank and raise the temp. Works as a natural laxetive its been working good for me for the past year. If you need straight metro I can probaly mail you some if needed.

[Steve]

The local shop doesn't even have anything for HITH, unbelievable 

I appreciate the offer to mail me some but most likely by the time it got here it would probably be too late to save him. But thanks for the offer I appreciate it.

I'm just setting up a 20g hospital tank right now, I guess I will try the salt and heat till I can get my hands on something better locally hopefully today. How much salt should I add to start?

[Regalblue]

I'd go with the Epsom salts myself

[danielratti]

Id treat the whole tank man maybe a cup of salt would work and get the temp up to 80. Adding more wouldn't hurt even when I had bloat in my 90 I was using 3 cups with no ill effects. Just keep up on water changes and hopefully you can get it taken care of.

[Regalblue]

If He's eating you can always soak pellets in Epsom salts.

[Steve]

He think he stopped eating about 2 days ago. I just have the 20g tank I got from Rich set up now and filled with water and epsom salt. Just waiting for it to come up to temp. I honestly don;t think he is gonna make it though, it's honestly unreal how quickly his condition is deteriorating

I'll let you guys know what happens this evening but I don't have much hope at the moment for him from the looks of it.

[Steve]

Well I'm pretty bummed right now, he just died before I could even get in in the hospital tank. I'm just in shock at how fast this happened to him. As recent as last night he was still chasing other fish a bit and his colors were still vibrant. But now I'm kicking myself for not acting 2 days ago when I first noticed him acting a bit strange. I thought I was just being overly worrisome but if I would have set the hospital tank up 2 days ago and started treating him then, I might not have lost him. Sucks big time. He was my fav out of all 35 fish.

[Ron]

Sorry to hear, I know how it is to lose a favorite fish.

As you've unfortunately found out, sometimes things can go downhill very fast. 

[nismo_sky28]

Sorry to hear about your loss. I had a battle with bloat awhile back and lost a few of my favorites. I have been feedingfeeding NLS thera a ever since with no issues. It's also a good idea to keep metro on hand for times just like this. I will would still pick some up asap and treat the tank as bloat can be a slow killer sometimes taking around a month between deaths

[saji1986]

+1 on keeping the metro on hand. I keep metro and clout on hand but pray I never need to use it.
For what it's worth I remember seeing metro at Kee's on 23 mile.

I have heard of people soaking food in metro and feeding their fish every so often as a preventative- not sure how effective this is, but some guys swear by it.

Sorry about your fish, that is a huge bummer.

[danielratti]

I've seen food with metro in it as well.