# Malawi bloat and what has worked for me



## AKAmikeross (Nov 5, 2012)

Luckily I have yet to have to deal with bloat in my own tank. A friend of mine who recently got into keeping africans about 3 months back has developed bloat. By the time he called me and I saw the fish it was very late in the bloat cycle so to speak. He told me he first noticed about 6 of his fish not eating 3 days prior. 2 of his fishes bellies were extremely swollen and about half his stock was effected, not eating, somewhat hiding and hanging out at the bottom of the tank lifeless.

I did a bunch of research and decided to try the following....

"DO NOT FEED ANYTHING during this process.
Start this procedure as soon as the fish shows symptoms (spitting familiar food, hiding during feeding, etc.)
Medication required: Clout (Aquarium Products) or any medication containing Trichlorphon as the main ingredient. If you cannot find something with this drug, then a cure with Metronidazol is recommended (ie: Jungle's Internal Parasite Guard or Jungle Parasite Clear Tablets.) Metronidazol is also known under one of it's brand names Flagyl. Clout (Triclorphon) is the most widely used cure for bloat, though.

Day 1: Move fish to quarantine tank and treat with Clout at full strength (1 tablet / 40 litres-remove carbon from filter). The water should be heated to about 28°C.
Day 2: No water change. Treat again with Clout at half strength.
Day 3: Do nothing
Day 4: Do an 80% water change and treat with Clout at full strength
Day 5: Do nothing
Day 6: Return fish to main tank only after symptoms have subsided and the fish has been healthy (eating, swimming, breathing normally) for a week."

I found the above treatment all over the net but here is the link and more info I copied the above text from... Malawi Bloat | dreaded Cichlid disease

I have read that treating bloat is really a 50/50 chance of survival if caught early own and less then 10% chance if caught late like these fish were. I have read that if their bellies are very swollen the fish will probably be dead within a day. We are on the 5th day of treatment and all fish are begging for food and active as usually. The 2 fish whos bellies looked like they were ready to explode have made a full recovery IMO. The above method may be aggressive form of treatment compared to other options but it works even in the worse cases IMO.

Would like to note that clout will stain your silicone. He has a hagen tank with black silicon and didn't have this issue. Also with preventative measures malawi bloat can easily be avoided.


----------



## AKAmikeross (Nov 5, 2012)

Also wanted to add that if you are not treating the entire tank and you have the fish already in quarantine I would not move the fish back to the main tank on day 6. The above process says to move your fish back after day 6 but I would give it an extra week just to be safe and observe the fish. 

Only place I found clout locally was at j&l aquatics. One bottle treats 1000g so its nice to have in your arsenal of meds. j&l seems like a salt water shop but they have many products us freshwater guys use. There is one girl there who keeps africans and really knows her stuff as well.


----------



## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

Depending on the food you feed your cichlids, you can treat for bloat without clout and just stop feeding for 2-4 days to allow the fishes digestive system to break down the proteins and fats. I've lost quite a few fish to bloat and have saved a few from it as well and I totally agree with your 50/50 early stages vs 10% late stage. Any fish that I've caught with bloat where their belly was swollen died. The fish I caught where they were just not eager to eat had about a 75% survival rate but that's only with 4 fish so 50/50 could be more realistic! How did you catch non-hungry fish? I have too much rockwork to catch mine without trapping them with food.


----------



## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

I have metro, clout and jungle parasite guard on hand as well as seachem kanaplex. My first line of defense if the fish are still taking in food is a 3% Epsom salt solution that Neil (former distributor of NLS foods in Canada) told me about. Cheap, effective (I've used 3 or 4 times) with good results. Unlike antibiotics, metro can destroy their organs with repeated use. Epsom salt simply passes through their system because it's all natural.

Treating Hexamita aka Spironucleus


----------



## Sidius (Mar 25, 2012)

I'm lucky enough to have only seen this once and I caught it early enough that only one fish was effected and died. I treated their food with metro and it was contained to only the one fish.


----------

