tropheus duboisi's and bloat

The last two weeks Ive been dealing with bloat with my duboisi's and ended up loosing 7, so my remainder 9 seem to be doing ok and eating, kind of sucks setting there and watching them die and knowing the the other ones will die also since they were to far along for recovery. In a couple of weeks after I make sure the remainder 9 are eating good I will go and buy a few more to have a good colony of them.

Once again the tropheus and there bloat epidemic!! They are such a difficult fish! MAN! such a bummer! cause they are stunning....

Anyway, sorry to hear about your loss, luckily you know a great breeder I introduced you to so it doesnt cost much to replace them.

Was it Metro+ that helped them as a medication... I know you tried several different things.. .can you share what helped, what didnt help so people know that are tryin to keep this difficult fish.

Started off trying some epsom salt, didnt do much then I tried that link you sent me and did that for 3 days, I had 7 that was still healthy and 7 that were hiding or laying on there belly, so only 2 I saved that were hiding. So its kind of hard to say if anything did work or not, I did starve them for 5 days so who really knows what saved the 2 that survived out of the sick ones. I feel it was my fault by over feeding them but not sure because it It was it was a slow process I dont feel I was feeding them anymore than I was at the beginning it could of been the mix of veggie and meat diet but who really knows. I know now Im going to just try sticking to just a veggie diet for now and measure the amount I give them per feeding. Its all new to me so its just trial and error and trying what works for others.

Betty just had a bloat epidemic too! I just got an email from her.... BETTY! post your story here... maybe you can tell us your tech. I think you only lost a couple right???

Oh man everyones trophs are getting sick
first it was you joe then lars and now addictedtofish and betty....I hope I'm not next
cause that would totally suck!

My first tropheus experience started out as a nightmare. I am not new to fishkeeping, I've kept fish for longer than a lot of you have been alive! I've been into African cichlids for about seven years now, but I have never gone through anything like this before. The sick feeling of watching fish die and not being able to stop it. I lost six out of a colony of 20 over a two day period.

I picked the fish up on Saturday. One was dead in the bag before I got them home and the other four, I think it was, were in distress. A couple of others in other bags were a little lethargic, but the rest seemed to be okay. The first two died overnight and I had that Oh $hit feeling -- now I'm in for it. I was hoping that those losses were just the fish that were sharing the bag with the dead fish and had been in that polluted water, but to be safe I started with the Metro+ treatment and asked a friend who has been keeping tropheus for many, many years what he recommended. After describing my situation, he wasn't sure it was bloat and recommended a salt and temperature treatment which I started that day (Tuesday) and now after four days of the salt treatment, things have settled.

The fish are eating, which they weren't doing before and I haven't found any more dead bodies. I'm knocking on wood and keeping my fingers crossed that the rest are okay! I'm guessing the problem was the stress of being moved and a weak one that died in the bag and fouled the water for the rest.

The salt treatment that I'm using:

"...In these cases I used sea salt (approx 3 full teaspoons per 10g) and the temperature up to 83-84 degrees F for 3-4 days. Then I did a large water change, reduced the temp. to 82 and the salt to 2 teaspoons for another week. Then repeat this again until you are back to no salt and 78-80 F. I had more success with that method then any medication or other chemicals..."

I didn't use quite that much salt because I already have some salt in the Rift Lake buffer that I'm using. And I don't want to say not to use Metro or other medications -- I think it depends on your situation. In mine, I never saw any stringy poop or signs of bloating/swelling. There were just some that were lethargic, hiding, and had clamped fins. Others seemed perfectly fine, active and chasing each other around, but none of them had an appetite for a few days.

Addicted, I hope the worst is over for your trophs as well! Good luck.

Thanks for the post betty! and hope those gorgeous cherry spots start producing for ya! I want some babies!! Post some pictures in show and tell, they are stunning!

what people don't understand is you need like 3 times the filtering capacity for trophs. Their lake is so isolated and unique to the world that they need astonishingly clean water. Nuka know's my troph tank had 140gal filtering capacity for a 55 gallon..not 1ce had bloat with chikitas, kasangas, or duboisi.

then again a tube of metro for extra precaution when moving them doesn't hurt either lol

That is very true baker, I know a couple breeders in the area and they definelty over filter there tanks.... I think bloat for trophs goes like this... in this order too.

1. Food, too much, or protein... INSTANT BLOAT!

2. Water, Nitrate/nitrite high

3. Aggression

well food just HAS to be veggie. until they've been in a tank for 10+ weeks and are very comfortable..then you can feed them small amounts of proteins. they do consume proteins in their natural diets with small crustations..but they are grazers as you know.

water clarity is very important. but I've found that nitrite isn't as deadly as nitrate. ammonia breaks down into nitrate and nitrate breaks down into nitrite. Tropheus will feel the affects of nitrate long before nitrite..and this is deadly for them. If your reading high amounts of nitrite and low nitrate you should be in the clear.

and aggression is [if tank is undersized] the most common cause for bloat. the smaller fish get it and once you have it..it doesn't matter if the more dominant fish aren't stressed the bacteria can spread. best to appropriate fish communities to prevent sickness.

bakersk8er - You got it backwards man... Nitrite is the killer.... Nitrate is what you need in your tank, you got no nitrate, your tank isnt cycled, that is the end product... should be around 10ppm. Nitrite and ammonia should be at 0

I know a place that has an adult colony of duboisi's in a 125 gal tank and the nitrates are in the 160's but they still breed like rabbits.

duboisi are the hardiest of the tropheus, can even eat more protein.... my brother had one in a mbuna tank that he only fed bloodworms, no veggie at all.... never had a problem?! crazy huh?! how they are raised I guess.... but I pretty sure WC wouldnt last a minute in that tank.