Malawi Bloat

Hi All,

I've had a 450L Cichlid tank with +/- 25 fish in it for just over two years. I've lost the odd fish along the way mostly due to the stress of being nipped at by the more aggressive members of the tank but now I have a fish who seems to have developed Bloat. I've checked various references online and I'm 95% sure from the pictures I've seen that my fish has it.

My fish live on a mixed diet of Kens Cichlid pellets and New Life Spectrum Cichlid Pellets.

The only event which may have caused increased stress recently was the tank went without food for about a week. I had to go to Asia on business and left a timed feeder with a full load set to feed the tank once a day. Problem was in my determination to ensure nothing went wrong I replaced the batteries and when reprogramming the feeder I omitted to program how many revolutions it should make so when the time came to feed it made zero revolutions. I was gone 8 days and as son as I got home I checked the feeder expecting to see it nearly empty but it was still full. Needless to say I fed them well straight away and fixed the setting so they have been back on a regular diet for 5 days now. Could the lack of food have initiated the bloat?

I don't have a separate tank to treat the affected fish in and generally allow nature to take its course but I don't like seeing him in this state.

Any suggestions as to what I should do? From what I've read once they get to the 'fully bloated' stage there is no recovering them so my main questions are:-

1. Should I just take him out of the tank and put him out of his misery?
2. Should I do anything to prevent others from developing bloat also?

All help as ever much appreciated.

Regards,

Ben

Hi,
have you seen this fish passing any fieces at all?
Was wondering if after 8 days of fasting he could have gone mad eating as much as possible probably too quick and could have some sort of compaction?
That is totally hypothetical...
Else is the fish actually swollen or the scales stick out of the body kind of like Dropsy?

Hi Dimitri,

Thanks for the advice and for analysing the water sample I brought into the shop yesterday. I took your advice and did the necessary!!

Regards,

John