Bloat, or is it?

[ChrisNorris]

Hi Guys,

Help would be greatly appreciated!

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
Noticed 3 days ago that she started to recluse towards the back of the tank. The next day I noticed quite a large lump in her stomach like shes swallowed a marble. I immediately thought bloat because I'd been heavy feeding freeze dried blackworms to encourage another smaller one to eat, and noticed that she had been getting the lions share of those.


2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).
Large lump in her belly, sometimes learning on a 45 degree angle but seems to right herself up when I come near the tank. Very heavy breathing but no issues with her colour.


3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
Epsom salts at 1tbsp per 10gallons and temperature up to 32 celsius. Has been like this (except the temp which was yesterday) for 3 days, no improvement.


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
410L, 4 months old, 5 wild tefe green discus, 4 sterbaii, 2 lemon tetras, 8 rummynose, 4 bristlenose


5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
30% every other day


6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
Running for 4 months or so, very thin layer of sand


7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
Yes, for 24 hours in a barrel, no noticeable swing


8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use?
Prime at recommended dosage

9. Parameters and water source;

Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.


- temp 32 celsius

- ph 7.5

- ammonia reading 0

- nitrite reading 0

- nitrate reading 5

What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.

- well water 0

- municipal water 100%

- RO water 0


10. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
No

11. Please tell us what you feed your fish and how often. This can be critical information for solving the problem so be as specific as you can.
A mix between freeze dried blackworms, tropical wild, tropical spirulina, tropical krill, bloodworms and brine shrimp 4-6 times per day.


NOTE:

I'm thinking possibly a salt bath, I've heard 30grams per L for up to 30 minutes but that seems like a lot to me. I'm not experienced with a dip either so any advise would be great.

I'm based in Australia, so many medicines aren't readily available here unfortunately.

VIDEO BELOW:

https://youtu.be/JyesGyVWIVU

[brewmaster15]

Chris if you can put the fish in a hospital tank itd be best. It looks like a blockage.. you are feeding quite a few foods that are high in hard to digest materials.... "tropical krill, bloodworms and brine shrimp 4-6 times" those plus the other foods and an over eating fish can cause blockages.

In a hospital tank you can go higher on the epsom salt 3-4 tablespoons per 10 gals is not a problem.Ive had discus in twice that.

Dont raise the temp. Blockages are a breeding ground for bacteria..higher temps can make that worse.

Al