Losing Tropheus one a day

Just found another dead Tropheus and that makes four I have lost.
Water is perfect but all my Tropheus look lethargic and are not shialing or eating. I hope it is not Flagellets. All my other fish are fine.
I think the vitamins did some damage or the male is killing off the 5 I added a few weeks back.
Stumped at the moment which is not like me.

Jesus man thats not good.
In the absence of new data I'd just do what you do normally.
Water changes and I'd clean the top layer of the sand vigourously, just incase the vitamins or some residue is still there.

anto i dont know anything about tropheus...but is iy possible its their diet...ie if they are in with carnivores/ominvores etc could they be eating the wronng food? i know ud feed them veggie stuff aswell .

just a thought

anto i dont know anything about tropheus...but is iy possible its their diet...ie if they are in with carnivores/ominvores etc could they be eating the wronng food? i know ud feed them veggie stuff aswell .

just a thought

They are on a proper diet.
They get the same food as my Lupota and they are in stunning form. I
lost another one today (six in total) and the fish are not eating and look lethargic. Has to be the vitamins.

Any chance of a short video, or photos, are you saying there is one dominant fish that is in perfect health or all of them looking shaky?

None of them look perfect. One male is a bit boisterous but I have not seen him attacking fish with any real menace. My Lupota are in a different tank and look fine.
I will make a short video later.

Anto you may have to bite the bullet, move the fish amonst your other tanks, empty the Tang tank, flush the substrate, filters, sponges and begin an accelerated nitrogen cycle from scratch. You could probably house the fish in someone else's tank for a week or so until the tank gets sorted out?

Are they eating. what colour is the feces.Could it be bloat the vitamins could of disolved in there stomach. Just a guess really if it is though its cureable with clout.

Are they eating. what colour is the feces.Could it be bloat the vitamins could of disolved in there stomach. Just a guess really if it is though its cureable with clout.

I still think it is the Vitamins. Where can I get clout. I have heard of it but never seen it for sale. I will have a lot of fish to move. I don`t want to chane moving them into my other Tropheus tank incase it is a disease.
And no, they are not eating. None of the fish have swollen stomachs.

It will be a big bullet to bite.€525 worth of fish. I think I will loose them all.
Slow and lethargic, not eating and all the fish have isolated themselves from each other. Look like Discus with Spironucleus.

The only treatment I have put in is Flubenol 15 in case it was the newbies bought in some type of worms. All the Tropheus are wild caught.

@Tetra-Tetra,
vitamins don't dissolve in the stomach. I'm not going into detail here how vitamins are proccessed in the body in fear of boring everybody to tears.

@ Anthony,
what vitamins did your son throw into the tank? One of the friends of my 3 year old once chucked half a body of Abidex (is that the way you spell it?) into my son's tank. No losses. That was the plain stuff, no idea what the orange flavour stuff will do but I doubt it's poisoning of any sort because that tends to kill fish faster and not one a day. I suspect some sort of internal infection

Is both sexes effected equally or are the males worse off/dieing off

Not to sure were you can get it here or even if ya can but I know that they use it in the states alot for internal infections
checked ebay there and this came up cgi.ebay.com/AQUARIUM-PRODUCTS-FISH-TANK...eZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem is suppose to be very good.
Just one more question is there any flicking??? if so id agree with apisto that is likely to be an internal infection.
this might be of some help cgi.ebay.com/AQUARIUM-PRODUCTS-FISH-TANK...eZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

@Tetra-Tetra,
vitamins don't dissolve in the stomach. I'm not going into detail here how vitamins are proccessed in the body in fear of boring everybody to tears.

@ Anthony,
what vitamins did your son throw into the tank? One of the friends of my 3 year old once chucked half a body of Abidex (is that the way you spell it?) into my son's tank. No losses. That was the plain stuff, no idea what the orange flavour stuff will do but I doubt it's poisoning of any sort because that tends to kill fish faster and not one a day. I suspect some sort of internal infection

I have seen a lot of wild one arrive in Hardy's wholesaler, and thats one fish that does NOT have big losses and i have never seen them with bacterial disease, the african freshwater butterfly do have big losses due to bacterial diseases, any way Bacterial diease is easy to spot.

Qes what if it was not vitamins tablets that throw in the tank, and but birth control tablets, this would explain the slow losses due to the destruction of their gonads. :roll:

I was a box of multi vitamin. I think some of these contain animal derivatives. I don`t know how to sex them properly but I think it was both sexes that died. There is wite solid pooh coming from the fish but this can be expected seeing they are only fed Spirolina but I dosed with Flubenol just in case.
The fish do look genuinely sick. As I said before like Discus with Spironucleus Vortens. Some are lying on rocks or on the sand. Its only the Tropheus effected.

I am sorry Anthony, I feel I have lost some of the dark side of the force and can not help you.

Qes you have talked a bout white poo and worms a hundred times, how can you kill worms with anti biotics? if it was worms(I am not saying its worms this time but if it was) wound you use a type of insectiside/wormer, please explain. :cry:

Flubenol is not an Anti-biotic its a de-wormer.

Thanks Anto

Finally after some consultation and excellent advice from another member here
RED EMPRESS. I have finally some to the conclusion that it is bloat, brought about by the vitamins. I vented two more dead fish yesterday and it was a male and a female.
I have fed them Metro through a syringe and will do so a few more times today(plus an epsom salt bath) but I think they are too far gone for recovery.

Any time Anthony. You know that. I am just sorry I couldn't help you more.

Good luck with the rest. I just hope you can save at least some of them.

@ Anthony,
no idea how the vitamins could have possibly caused bloat and darkening is not a symptom of Malawi bloat as far as I can make out. Fish also die within 72 hours once the swelling becomes obvious. Did any of your fish display red marks around the anus or any ulcerations on the skin?

Bloat occurs in fish that are fed a high protein diet and not a diet based mainly on plants, stress and too much salts.

Stress is also a factor regarding bloat.
I must get another box of those vitamins as they have had to contain animal derivatives.

The fish were lethargic. Some hiding or lying on the sand.
Swollen anus. Not eating. White pooh.
The fish never darkened and there were what looked like deep scrathes on one or two of the fish.

Two that I removed last night were absolutely stinking. They could have been dead for a few days but I don`t think so.
One had hole in its underside. I don`t think it was caused by another fish after death.

Bloat is always caused by stress.

Stress can be caused by many differnet things.

Basically the stress causes a harmful bacteria in the gut (which normally resides harmless) to damage the internal digestive system and the result of this is 'bloat'

I also think it could be a secondary external bacterial infection because of the smell. Maybe Costia got a hold on the sick fish. All my other Tangs are fine.
I have an almost empty 400l tank with shellies and a few Topheus.
I have anothe colony but it be too risky to add them to the 400.
I don`t think Bloat is contagious is it.

I also think it could be a secondary external bacterial infection because of the smell. Maybe Costia got a hold on the sick fish. All my other Tangs are fine.
I have an almost empty 400l tank with shellies and a few Topheus.
I have anothe colony but it be too risky to add them to the 400.
I don`t think Bloat is contagious is it.

Been on the phone to my mate anto.

Don't use epsom salt use ordinary salt.

octozin 3x the ammount as it says on the packet don't use the wormer.

Bloat isn't contagious but it can cause secondry infections to your other fish that is contagious. So don't move them.

Hope that helps Anto.

Jill

Just wondering anthony if you found some were that sells clout.

@ Red Empress

I just had a look at Untergasser, excessive salt can cause Malawi bloat so why add it to cure fish?

Same info on the chichlid-forum, see link:
www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/malawi_bloat.php

@ apistodiscus This info. is given to me by a very experienced Malawi person who owns his own LFS.

He imports and exports wild Malawi every where ( even to Southern Ireland )

He really knows his stuff.

I would never put Anthony's fish or anyone elses in any worse danger.

I have posted the info. as was said to me over the phone.
If you would like to question this info. you can phone him on

0116 260 2001 ask for Colin

I trust what this guy has to say. He has had many, many years experience.

@ Red Empress

I just had a look at Untergasser, excessive salt can cause Malawi bloat so why add it to cure fish?

Same info on the chichlid-forum, see link:
www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/malawi_bloat.php

I don`t add salt to any of my tanks and I am only trying epsom salts to hopefully flush out and blockages.
Although Undergasser is good his books are a little old and dated(not according to me I have never read them) and Bloat is still a questional thing.
To me it looks and sounds like Spironucleus on steroids...