possible BN bloat?

[lilu]

Hi Everyone,

I took this picture of my male BN a few minutes ago and am quite worried it is bloat. Unlike my females he doesn't spend much time on the glass, he's usually in one of the caves or on the plant leaves where I don't have a good view of his stomach so didn't notice anything was wrong until now. His silhouette when resting on the leaves seemed normal. I feed zucchini every day as well as Repashy soilent green and super green but he always had a taste for stealing some of the sinking pellets I put in for the corys. Does it look like he is bloated from the picture? If it is, would it be better if I moved him into a quarantine tank? Thanks for any suggestions...

[lilu]

Found him dead this morning, still as bloated as in the picture.

[.Plecomania.]

yes that's bloat. also lost a male a couple of months ago to it. i think i was feeding too much protein food (for my L260) and the male could not restrain himself.

there are ways to treat bloat, and i tried for one week but he still died.

[lilu]

thanks for confirming....is there a way to differentiate between a well fed BN, and early warning signs of bloat? Is it mostly bahaviour?

[.Plecomania.]

a well fed BN male can deflate after a day of not eating while a bloated one will continue to get fatter. so if you see a BN thats getting fat continuously, then try treating for bloat. it's harder to tell on females since they like eating all the time.

To help avoid bloat you can try feeding vegetable matter as a staple of their diet, and make sure their tank is clean (bloat is caused by bacterial infection of intestine).