Bloat in catfish????

[clint8]

Hi people's,

I was wondering if anyone knows or has experienced bloat in their catfish which usually leads to death. Does anyone know what definetely causes it? I had a few plecs that died with these symtoms (where their stomach was about to burst as it was so big) but could never find out what caused them, even after checking all water parameters, etc......
Does any food causes these problems??? So many questions...so little answers.

I hope you guys can help me out here.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Clint

[Watters]

What are you feeding them???

[clint8]

Hi Watters,

Well, with the Synodontis i feed them frozen Hikari-Bloodworm and Brineshrimp, high protein pellets, colorbits, brineshrimp flakes.

With my Loricariidae: Frozen Hikari- Bloodworm and brineshrimp, Hikari algae tablets, high protein pellets, colorbits, brineshrimp flakes, homemade peas, zuchinni, cucumber, beans, brineshrimp n spirulina flakes.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Clint

[JOEY]

I have a L172B Grey Leopard that has been experiancing the bloat for six weeks now. She is about 3 inches long but fat like she swallowed a slightly squashed ping pong ball. The fish, by many accounts, behaves and acts normally. Her tank mates are all doing well ... 90 gallons size with a variety of 20 Plecos ( the largest 5 inches long) , 8 small Clown Loaches and 8 Discus. I change 20% of the water twice a week and adjust the pH to 6.8 along with Amazon conditioner. Food ranges from frozen Bloodworms & Shrimp, to green discs / tabs and Tropical Crisps. The tank temp is kept near 87F. The tank is full of rocks and logs for hiding out. Filtration is with 2 Emperor 400s,an Ehiem 2028 ,a Fluval 4 and a Penguin power head for airation.
I have been keeping Plecos for only 2 years; the one other Pleco I had get the bloat seemed to die within a week , it was intrigingly,an L172B the new one replaced (6 mo later so it surely could not have been from the same " batch" ?). My three L172As are thriving.
I am interested in the replies you receive .... sorry I couldn't help.
I would definitely like to know if the bloat can be roe, I have not seen what a roe-rich Pleco looks like. Also, of course, if anyone has a cure thank heals and not kills.
Thanks, JOEY.

[Crazie.Eddie]

Dying from being bloated, I don't think it's possible, but you're fish may also have dropsy. This is caused by bacterial infections, virus, or poor water conditions. Here's a link to a site I found while doing a search on it.

[pleco_breeder]

Hello,

I have ran into this problem more than a few times over the years. Microscopic studies of the intestine and a few thousand agar plates later, I found out that it was being caused by a strain of hexamitia AND an unidentified nematode. I stress the and because I was only able to find the hexamitia after removing a sample of liquid from the intestine with a syringe. It was diluting too much if I simply tried dripping the liquid onto a slide. A combination of garlic feedings and extended doses of Paragon seems to take care of the problem, but it normally takes over a month to really see any healing in the fish that are already showing obvious symptoms.

Larry Vires