Sick Malawi ciclid?

D

duffsparky

AC Members
Nov 8, 2006
7
0
0
Hi guys,
My son is a newbie at keeping tropical fish and I think due to being to keen, and relying on the advice of 3 LFS's, now has an over crowed tank stocked with 18 various Mbuna's, a rock shrimp, a synodontis catfish and two other catfish. All the fish are quite small at the moment (between 1" & 2.5")

He's had several fatalities, all of which have been replaced by the respective LFS's, in the 4 or 5 weeks he's had them.

The problem he has now is that one of the blue fish has developed a very fat belly over the last week to ten days. Over this last evening it's been beaten up by the others, lost all but its gills forward color, it's scales appear rough, it predominantly lays at an angle with shallow breathing. Every now and then it moves around but not for long. I've put it in a breading trap to stop the others getting at it.

Looking at various fish sites it would appear to have Malawi bloat (at first we thought it might be pregnant). The question is should I put it out of its misery and get it out of the tank so as not to contaminate the other fish?

I'm sure I could find the answers by reading the posts on this sight, which I will do over the course of time, but that is no good if I need to act quickly.

Apologies for spelling and grammar.

Kind regards.
 
Unfortunately, it does sound like the Malawi bloat. I've never seen one make it once it sets in, but I've heard stories of ones that have.

The bloat is not contagious or will not harm the other fish. Don't worry about that. It's usually brought on by overfeeding or too much protein in the diet.

I'd hate recommending you cull the fish. It really depends on how bad off he is. If he's laying sideways or upside down, I'd say it's over. It's hard to give advice about culling a fish if we don't know how bad they are. Try seperating the fish and see how it goes. DO NOT feed the fish anymore. If he returns to health, then go ahead and start feeding again. They can live for many weeks without food.
 
if you put him in a tank with half water content and a bubble filter that will be a start. use epsom salt at 1 tbsp per 10 gllons, aquarium salt at 1 tbsp per 10 gallons and dose with meth blue. that will be a good start. let us know how he is doing
 
aquarium salt at 1 tbsp per 10 gallons and dose with meth blue
Click to expand...
. i would strongly disagree with this. NEVER USE SALT for treatment of dropsy. this will KILL your fish in a very short time. the affected fish are already having a difficult time getting rid of salts due to kidney disfunction. this causes the blown up appearance. the osmotic inbalance caused by addition of sodium to your tank water will make this condition far worse.

EPSOM SALT on the other hand, does not pass through the walls of the gut or gills and will extract water OUT of the surrounding tissue into the gut where it may be excreted. EPSOM SALT may help reduce the internal pressure caused by the swelling. concurrently increase the tank temperature to 85-86° with extremely good aeration.
 
wobble said:
Try seperating the fish and see how it goes. DO NOT feed the fish anymore.
Click to expand...

The sick fish is already in a breading trap placed within the main tank, thanks for your input though.

kcooley -- I don't have any of the items you listed so I guess the best I can do for now is as wobble suggests.
____________________________________________________
The food we have been giving the fish is what was recommended by the LFS's when we bought them, but I think it's the wrong type, I've added the appropriate links (I hope) to the food we have been giving them:

http://www.hikari.info/tropical/t_16.html Item 04228 (fish don't seem to keen on this food).

http://www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/nutrafinmax/tropical.cfm Item A-6174 at the bottom of the page (fish don't seem to keen on this food either).

http://www.sinclair-sahc.com/fish/fishdefault.asp Item - Cichlid Flake Food. Fish go made for this stuff, so this is mainly what we've been using. Couldn't find the specs for this food but the protein is 47%. The label on the pot state "For all cichlids" then underneath in small print "carnivorous fish"

Also from same site, Item - Tropical Fish Mini Pellets.

It seems from things I read recently that Mbuna are veggies and this food looks like it's for carnivorous fish. What do you think?

Kind regards.
 
epsom salt and meth blue are at walmart. lowering the level in the tank will reduce the stress on the fish itself. and yes, raise the temp.
 
While the food you listed would not be my first choice for mbuna, I don't think it will harm them. How often/much are you feeding them? I am only asking to try and prevent further bloat victims. Sometimes they just get the bloat. Things happen. You may have done nothing wrong.
 
The fish died :sad:

wobble said:
How often/much are you feeding them? I am only asking to try and prevent further bloat victims.
Click to expand...

Usually a pinch, between thumb and forefinger, 2 or 3 times a day.

kcooley. there is wal-mart in germany, you are on the wrong side of the channel.

How can we possibly be on the wrong side of the channel? It's a British invention!!!!! :) :) :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom