cichlids keep getting bloat

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rockhoe14er

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Jul 19, 2010
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so it seems like once a week one of my demasoni's has a case of bloat. I got a new bunch of demasoni's about 3 weeks ago. I have no idea what i'm doing wrong. I have lots of rock work. I feed veggie flakes once a day what they eat in 30 seconds. I just fed them a slice of cucumber yesterday and they seemed to like it. Everyone one else beside the demasoni's in my tank seem perfect. I also do a water change once a week 50%. All my water parameters are perfect. I also have a yellow lab holding at the moment.
 

Jannika

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Mar 17, 2010
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Are you talking about Malawi Bloat, or just bloated in general? Malawi bloat affects African cichkids, especially herbivores, and often strikes in sequence like you mentioned, one after the other. If they're not dying however, it must be something else, since from what I understand Malawi bloat takes them out pretty quickly.
 

shaynablizard

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Sep 9, 2008
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I had the same issues. I finally switched to 1mm Cichlid New Life Spectrum and high quality spirulina flake. I don't feed my cichlids anything else and they do great. Haven't had an issue with bloat in over a year. My leleupis went from yellow to bright orange too. It's really enhanced all my fishes colors, but most obvious on the leleupi. Limiting food didn't help.

I have also heard that parasites and cause the issue. I did switch to Thera A New Life Spectrum first, which has increased garlic, then went over to the cichlid formula after that 5 lb bucket was gone. The 1mm pellets are quite small for some of my cichlids, but I think that may be better for the fish. They also get to hunt more for their food.
 

shaynablizard

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My Pseudotropheus Saulosi, Ophth. Boops, and goby cichlids were very susceptible to bloat. Unfortunately, I have no idea why some fish seem to get it so easily, even with so many precautions taken, and it kind of seems like no one else does either. There's really not a lot of great info out there on bloat. NLS is an expensive food, but it's made all the difference for me in the health and quality of my fish.
 

Jannika

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Mar 17, 2010
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I'm confused because i don't feet them any animal based protein so i'm not sure how they are getting bloat. Also it's odd that it seems to only happen to the demasoni's.
I was just reading up on Malawi bloat the other day, since one of my cichlids always looks bloated, but it must be just his body type. Apparently like shayna said it's kind of mysterious, no one knows for sure what causes it but the first sign is no appetite, then the bloated belly. The article said if treated quickly with Clout at the first sign of not eating some fish can recover, but it progresses very rapidly. Sorry to hear, keep us posted.
 

Pittbull

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Apr 14, 2007
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Feed the NLS Thera for a bit and then switch to the NLS regular pellet 1 mm or 2mm once a day for 5 days let them fast for 2 days with no food at all, you can also do like feed 3 days miss 1 day feed 3 days and then miss 1 continue pattern i fast all of my fish at least once a week for a day.. Sometimes twice a week..
 
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