Fat belly always means bloat yes or no?

[skuzzlebutt]

I have a 55 gallon with a bunch of malawai haps and mbuna and a couple of peacocks along with some neolamp. cylind. anyhow. a lot of the malawis havs big bellies. right off the bat i think bloat. but their bellies have been going from normal looking to "bloat looking" for like the past 3 weeks. if i wait 24 hours to feed them the bellies go down and they look normal and they swim like crazy and eat like nobodies business. they are all juvies. no resting on the bottom. is it possible that im just overfeeding and my fish are fat? or should i be jumping on this to treat for bloat reguardless? like as a just incase thing. ive always been under the impression that bloat kills in under a week and these guys have been doing this for 3+ weeks.
Thanks
Ken

[dtoth]

I've only dealt with bloat once but from that and what i've read the first symptoms of bloat are lethargic and sitting towards the bottom. By the time they get the bloated belly its normally too late or at least an upwards battle.

[Lotsapetsgarfhts]

It sounds like they are well fed cut back a little they shouldn't ever really be plump. If you are feeding lower protein veggie foods, it's not so bad though. I was having some concerns over some A. heckelii and S. daemon but I realized the little beggers were getting fed almost every time I walked past the tank. Stay away from large amounts brine shrimp.

[dtoth]

For whatever reason it didn't post my second paragraph. Add what was already stated our doesn't sound like bloat just pleasantly plump lol. In any case bloats first symptoms will be lethargic and not eating before the plump belly forms.

[Don Danko]

Another symptom of bloat is white stringy feces. That's a tell tale sign that they have it. They probably won't be eating at all. In addition, they'll get pale looking.
Don

[dtoth]

+1 on the stringy feces

[fmueller]

This video shows pretty well what the infamous 'white stringy feces' look like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByEntnOX6FM

[skuzzlebutt]

ahh i see. Good to know. Thanks everyone. Every once in a while i'll see whiteish pooh but it will be like 1" long of normal color and just the tip will have a bit of white to it. All the fish are super active and to boot... My dom. and subdom. male saulosi's just turned from a little blue on the forehead to like 50-60% blue over night so looks like im good. I just need to stop feeding them so much. Its hard when they come up to the glass when your all the way accross the room. They even sometimes think my cat is going to feed them Thanks again.