came home to to find

Alright so I just home about an hour ago.....and started checking my tanks......and I found 2 of my Tropheus dead and I have no idea WHY??

They were doing just find yesterday
The only different thing that change from yesterday was that I took 3 other fish out from the tank

and is not my water parameters

BLOAT! the other fish distracted them enough so there wasnt much aggression... when you pulled them they focused on re-setting up there hiearchy, and BAM too much aggression, BLOAT! I was told, and have learned from keeping tropheus, you must keep itleast 10-12 tropheus, or other fish in a tank with them.... I would start medicating the tank with Metro+ now, or your most likely to loose the other guys.

This is the reason I pulled my small bemba colony of 5 fish from there 46gal, and put them in the 100gal with a bunch of other tropheus... the aggression was horrible when they were by themself.

Generally tropheus only aggressive towards each other, but for maybe some reason the labs took some of the aggression and now since the labs are gone with only 5 ikola's in the tank the aggression was to much. Otherwise im not sure why keep an eye on there bellies and make sure there not turning white because there stretching out from bloat.

Yes I think your right is due to aggression...cause the biggest one right now is trying to claim the whole tank...I was actually thinking of transferring my brichardi to the same tank with the ikola???


Yes I already started medicating them with metro

awesome! good job on jumpin on medicating before its too late like I did... I would personally bring the brichardi in that tank (even though there is medicine in there).... it will spread aggression a little more so the big guy is not too hard on the little ones. if its not working, you can always pull them back out.

What is bloat? I have heard of swim bladder, dropsy and Malawi bloat. Is it a cichlid thing?

same thing as malawi bloat.

Ahh I see, so it's dropsy.

Hope things turn out positive.

Bloat is very common with Tropheus.... Anyone who has kept tropheus has heard of, if not delt with, a bloat issue.... They are super sensitive fish with a very long digestive trac... anyway, I looked up dropsy cause I wasnt familiar with the name and found this site/definition..... I WANT THIS FISH DOCTOR!!! surgery on a gold fish to help bloat! WOAH! what a VET

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Alright so I woke up this morning and the first thing I saw was that the biggest one in the tank
half of his body had basically turn a very bright yellow....so I did a water change and added more meds and I also transfer the brichardi to the tank to spread out the aggression
after a couple of hours of the brichardy being there his colors turn back to normal lol

wooooohoooooooo! glad everything is getting better...... I am so smart.

Sand, your a funny mofo. lol..
nice save guys. : )

Actually I wouldnt consider this bloat, its aggression. Only 5 trophs in the tank with a male trying to claim dominant role with very few fish to spread the aggression. Bloat wont happen over night, takes time even up to a month, he never said his fish feeding habits changed that quickly. Even with 5 trophs I would either sell them off or talk to who ever you got them from and maybe get some more, unless your not wanting to breed them then dont worry about it unless you see more deaths happen from aggression.

When my fish dropped dead of bloat it was overnight? aggression caused the bloat, cause they definetly didnt die of battle injurys. and it happend when i was asleep and woke up in the morning. (well, one of the times I delt with bloat).... I dont usually see just stress kill tropheus from aggression?? usually stress triggers bloat in my tanks.... You have a different thing happen addicted?

Sand, had you noticed there eating habits changed? If they were all eating like piranha's the whole time and you never seen any change in there behavior, then its not bloat. Bloat never happens overnight, there is no disease out there that will hit a fish and kill it in 24 hrs. with no behavioral changes. Sidekicking had 8 fish in the tank and he took 3 out, the next day with only 5 fish in there with less fish to take the aggression some other fish will have to take it. I know for a fact his troheus wasnt the dominant fish, He had a yellow lab that was, because after I introduced the 2 yellow labs and the white one 24 hrs. later even in my tank of now 28 fish the biggest yellow lab is now the dominant fish even over my elongatus that use to be. There all around the same size so there is no size differnce to say thats the reason the lab is dominant fish. He lost 2 tropheus due to aggression even after those 2 dropped dead he still hasnt noticed any feeding habit change. If you dont want to believe me then look it up it clearly states it on most websites.

addictedtofish - Im gonna have to disagree with you, every forum including tropheus.com has had members stating "Saw bloat symptoms last night, woke to dead fish in the morning", that was cut and pasted btw.

I have also lost fish overnight to bloat. Betty just had a bloat ordeal that happened overnight. Seein it one day, next day fish dead before i could even start medicating. So, we can just disagree here. you dont believe bloat can kill overnight, I do. not much more we can do or say to convince eachother besides posting things from the web probably agreeing with each one of us.

Side - I would keep treating with metro+ until everything is 100% back to normal... this is what I would do as a precaution. I believe your fish died of bloat, and the ones that still alive are very likely to get it if its not treated immediatly.

Well Sand this is another time I guess you forget what you have read or you havent done your research but heres a link telling about malawi bloat.

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I said this was next, finding quotes and information on how we can prove our point on the web.... I am saying I had bloat overnight kill my fish.... thats it, dead. So have allot of people I know.

"After the onset of secondary symptoms, death typically results within 24-72 hours, " this is pulled out of the link you gave me... thanks for proving my point?

Come on guys. no one can be sure why his two fish died. addictedtofish, it could be that they died because of elevated stress levels because of aggression. Or they could have been physically harmed by the dominant fish.

But sandnuka could be right as well. They may have had bloat a day before, and just kept acting normal so sidekicking could never tell.

There are many possibilities. But the cause of death can't be proven..So no reason to argue. You both have valid points IMO.

Side, sorry to hear about your loss man.

I totally agree with you Mikey, but I did call side to verify what he had said. But I havent read anyting anywhere stating fish dieing overnight with no other known symptoms. Its hard to say because ive even been told it can take up to a month before bloat occurs. He could of very easily not have been watching his fish that closely and its been a slow occurrence. But he did say today after the fish are still eating very well after the new fish has been introduced.

Lets just hope he dont loose anymore and I will be done with this topic.

SOrry if it got out of hand... Or even off subject.... Honestly, Im just saying aggression is the main cause for bloat, so I would treat it this way cause you dont want to loose all your fish like I almost did when i thought mine was just an aggression thing the first time I encountered the evil bloat....

How the fish actually died, I guess no one will know.