Recovering Tank after Bloat Incident

[JimmyFrontosa]

I recently had a bad case of bloat hit my 120 gallon show tank that took out several of my fish. I was able to move some of the fish to 10 gallon tanks and nurse them back to a healthy state but now what do I do with my 120 gallon tank? Is the water and filter still good? Can I just do a good water change and be set to add the fish back in?

Thanks,

Chris

[Kyle May]

Yes...usually a 50% water change, let the tank sit for a couple of hours then put the fish back.
Was the bloat bacterial in nature or food related?

Kyle

[JimmyFrontosa]

I'm really not sure. Why do you ask?

[smitty]

Good question and I am curious about the answer.

[Kyle May]

Bloat can be caused by overuse of protein rich foods.
I have no idea what caused your bloat problem, but I know that many fish
cannot take a regular diet of high protein foods. I lost a 10" female Texas cichlid
because I was in a hurry to raise a group of these fish to breeding size. I fed them
a regular diet of high protein and they bloated. I couldn't save the female.

Moral of the story: Using high protein foods for quick growth can work, but you have to mix in
an equal amount of fibrous food for balance. You'll still get quick growth because even veggie food
contains protein.

If you suspect that diet was the issue, then you can put your fish right back into the tank immediately.
If you suspect that the bloat was caused by a bacterial or parasitic infestation, then you need to treat the tank.
(Some guys will actually open up a dead bloated fish to see what caused the bloat.)

If you are not sure of the root cause of the bloat, I'd do a 50% water change without using dechlor, add some Epsom salts, (and possibly copper sulfate),
and let the tank sit for a few days. Then I'd do another 25% water change with dechlor and add fish back in. Gravel washing will help turnover the bottom
and refresh a tank too. Excessive waste hidden in the gravel can pollute a tank from the bottom up providing a good environment for bad bacteria to flourish.
So if you are going to do a 50% water change, I might draw that 50% through the gravel to reset the bottom.

I recently had some unexplained pleco losses in a show tank in my living room and the above is exactly what I did. 50% water change with a gravel washer.
Cleaned both canister filters, then let it sit for a few days. Next I did a 25% water change and added fish back in. Two weeks later, the fish are doing great.


Best,

Kyle

[smitty]

Thanks for the info.

[JimmyFrontosa]

Sounds good! I'll give it a try and let you know how it works out. Thanks!

[Ken Grimmett]

Raise your tank temp to high - very high with out fish. Treat it or just fill it with hot tap without declor (or 1 cup of bleach per 50 gallons for 10 minutes then declor. - cheap bleach not the improved type). Let it cool for a day or two and then use a test fish or two. Off course your bio. filter bact. will be dead but that can be restarted.

How much did you put into those fish vs being certain the tank is safe ...

I lost to many fish over the years to "stuff" I like to make sure the tank is safe.

[JimmyFrontosa]

Hi everyone, First I want to thank everyone for the responses to my post. It's been a tremendous help! Here's an update on my tank situation:

I took out the remaining fish in my 120g and put them in 10 g tanks and treated them with Maracyn Two. Most of them recovered and they seem to be back to normal health. In the 120g, I did a 50% water change, treated it with Epsom Salt, let it sit for several days and then did another water change. At that time I put the fish back in and so far they seem to be doing okay.

Now, here's what's odd, I had a fish suddenly die in my 55 g. He didn't seem bloated or have anything visually wrong with him so I just moved on from that. Well, a week later, I noticed my buffalo head was breathing heavy and bloated. Sure enough, I put him in a 10g tank for treatment with Maracyn Two but it was too late and he died. Now I noticed another fish in the 55g tank breathing heavy but visually she looks okay. Additionally, I have a 2 1/2 gallon tank with fry in it. I've done nothing different with this tank and suddenly everyday I wake up a fish is dead. I've completely changed the water with water from a good tank and still the same thing; a fish dies everyday. I even started adding Armetiss by Microblift to it (just a couple drops) because a couple of the fish that died looked like their eyes were bulging (not sure if that was because they were dead or if they had pop-eye.). The fish visually look healthy. But the other odd thing is that the only fish dieing in this tank are electric yellows and not the peacocks in there. Not sure if this is coencidental or if maybe the electric yellows had some type of birth defect. Very odd.

It seems that the issues I'm experiencing are bacterical in nature because I've had some fish come down with other bacterial diseases such as pop-eye and fungus. I just don't understand why now I'm having this problem. The tanks have been in such good health and then all of the sudden all my fish are sick and I really don't think I've done anything different in the maintenance or whith feeding. The only thing that is different is that it is summer, it's very hot and I don't have central air so the tanks are running a much higher temperature than normal, around 85 degrees (even with the heaters turned off). So my question is, is the high temperature what is creating bacteria in my tanks and making my fish sick? That's the only thing I can think of. Also, I've heard Epsom salt is really good for treating tanks so I thought it might be good to treat my 55 g that I talked about above with Epsom Salt. If so, how much do I use and can I keep the fish in it while I do the treatment?

p.s., all of my fish are African cichlids either from Lake Malawi or Tanganyka

Thanks!!!

Chris

[Kyle May]

When temps are hot fish are stressed.
When temps are hot, bacteria grows rampantly.
Hot water holds less Oxygen than cool water.
A bad combination.

This bad combination shows up quicker in smaller tanks
as there's less of a buffer do to smaller volume of water,
so small bacterial infestations become large problems fast.

We've all had tanks go bad on us, and most of my problems have cropped up
in the summertime. I block the AC vents in my fish room so temps can get hot.

I battle back using water changes and by keeping the air moving in the fish room with
fans so that heat doesn't build as easily. Keeping your water moving with power filters and
power heads can help too, although in smaller tanks this can be a challenge.

Hang in there.

Kyle

[JimmyFrontosa]

Thanks Kyle, that's good to know that that is likely the problem. Besides for controlling the temperature, what can I do to get the bacteria down. I still have fish in my 55g that seem to be getting sick and I would prefer to treat the entire tank instead of moving them into 10 g hospital tanks. Can I use Epsom salt? If so, how much should I use and what would the treatment process be? Or is there another medication that I should use?
Thanks,
Chris

[Kyle May]

Epsom won't help if it's bacterial.
If this were my tank, I'd head over to RMS and get a bottly of Erythromycin,
or Tetracycline. They have this stuff in large bottles and you use one capsule
per ten gals. I think the bottle has like 80 caps in it, so you can treat the 55 no prob.

I had issues with bulging eyes in a tank with large fish and I treated this disease this way.
Eye issues can be persistent, so it took a while to cure it.
After treatment, increase the amount of water changes.
Think about doing a gravel wash to get any excess food out of the environment.
Feed less.

That should help,

Kyle

[JimmyFrontosa]

Thanks Kyle! It seems everything is starting to stable out. I've increased the water changes and started using aquarium salt. I've also added a couple fans to the fish room to get the circulation moving and decided just to keep the door open so that it doesn't get to hot in there. The temperatures on the tanks have really stabled out to where they should be and with the increased water changes, I think that is really helping a lot. I had already picked up Maracyn Two from RMS so I've been treating fish in hospital tanks as soon as they show any sign of infection. That medication seems to be working pretty well if you catch it early enough. The next time I stop up at RMS i'll pick up the couple medications you suggested. Always great to have them on hand! So far, all my fish are looking pretty good so I think I figured out a good summer regimen to help fight back the heat. Thanks for all of your help!

Chris