bloated common

sharn · Post by **sharn** » 02 Feb 2006, 10:47

hello all, signed up here because you people are the best catfish people on the net and i need some urgent help!!

just today when doing a water change on my 360L (housing a oscar, small sev, bicolour and the plec) i noticed how extremly large she was

now im talking her whole torso is swollen and she cant even lie flat on the bottom, her tummy gets in the way and her mouth is approx 1cm off the ground. all params are fine with a ph of 7, temp is 27C steady. the water changes are done weekly, approx 30%. shes on a large gravel, she cant get that in her mouth very easily. filtration is 3000lph by internals. the only furnishings are a piece of driftwood, a resin log and some fake plants-theyre the newest deocration but were throughly cleaned first and she doesnt chew on them that ive seen. the tanks been set up a good year and a half at least and the last new fish added was a good 6 months or so ago. the only foods that go into the tank are bugs (for frank, no leftovers and chemical free ie not sprayed), cichlid pellets, the odd shrimp pellet, beefheart recipie and algae wafers.

my first thought was obesity, she gets 1-2 pieces of my oscars beefheart a week along with a few algae tabs now and then, too much? second thought was shes got a tumour or something but its not localised swelling its just her whole body basically minus head and tail. third was constipation, i havent seen much poops around but dont normally anyway because they are similar colour to the gravel, dont see her eating much though because she feeds after i go to bed but its all gone in the morning. fourth thought was eggs, i tried to do a search on here for plecos with eggs, also did a google search of preggie plecos, nothing came up

shes also been surfacing for air alot too, a couple of times an hour, which she never used to do.

im not sure what she is, shes either a common or a sailfin (i have trouble distingiushing them from pics as they look so similar

) shes approx 30cm long and ive had her for just over a year so far, she was around 10cm or so when i got her.

i put some shelled peas in the tank and it semms theyre all gone, hopefully it wasnt the Sev having a tasty snack! shes sitting by where i put the peas in (approx 10 or so).

sorry this is such a long post! any info would be greatly appreciated, i dont want to lose her!

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 02 Feb 2006, 11:04

I would suggest that you:
1. Stop feeding her intentionally with beef-heart [some people say that you shouldn't feed any fish with beef-heart, but that's a different matter]. These fish are herbivores, and although they will happily eat meaty products, they should have very small amounts of it.
2. Start feeding some courgette/zucchini or similar. It's got a lot of fibre as well as being more suitably for the pleco's diet.

I think it can be either singly or a combination of fatness (from the wrong diet) and/or constipation caused by too little fibre and too much protein.

Unfortunately, I'm a little bit worried that you may be too late - but I hope you're not.

--
Mats

sharn · Post by **sharn** » 02 Feb 2006, 11:11

thankyou very much for your quick replie, i had heard these plecos prefer meat to vegies as they get older... she never used to touch the zhuchinni i put in

the beefheart contains beefheart,chicken hearts, ox liver, shrimp, garlic and shelled peas. heres the link to the base recipie http://www.theoscarspot.com/smf/index.p ... 062.0.html

hopefully im not too late, any foods that could flush her quickly if shes constipated? she doesnt look too uncomfortable so i will just keep offering her peas and cucumber.. how often and how much?

ive got my fingers crossed and hopefully shes a fighter! do you have any links i could read up about their correct diets? also for bristlnose as well, so many places say they prefer meat! shrimp pellets ok? i use them as a treat sometimes (makes the water stink). thanks again, you could be a life saver!

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 02 Feb 2006, 11:17

Ok, so if your kids prefer McDonalds, does that mean that McDonalds produces good food - or just food that suits the palet of kids [and many adults]? Shane Linder ("Shane" on this forum) calls the selection of meaty foods for plecos "The McDonalds effect" - they eat it because it's tasty, not because it's good for them.

I've written an article about feeding plecos, here. Your fish is a herbivore, so it should be MAINLY fed on vegetable matter.

--
Mats

sharn · Post by **sharn** » 02 Feb 2006, 11:20

sorry... i just want to help my pleco! i will be reading that article now and will be looking for more things like it on this site

Phathead6669 · Post by **Phathead6669** » 02 Feb 2006, 16:03

Zuchinni will make you pl*co crap. You can tell the difference between there regular crap verses the zuchinni crap. If this doesn't make him/her crap than she must be constipated(IMO) and you should give it exlaxs(just kidding).

My pl*cos will already be crapping out zuchinni before they have finished eating it.

zenyfish · Post by **zenyfish** » 02 Feb 2006, 17:36

Some epsom salt in the water may help with constipation.

sharn · Post by **sharn** » 05 Feb 2006, 03:23

yip, already planned to do epsom salts, just waiting for them to arrive since we have none (using friends). have a look at this link http://www.theoscarspot.com/smf/index.p ... 455.0.html its some pics i took of her but cant seem to load them onto here. her eyes also look like theyre starting to pop out! can see sort of silvery stuff around the base... im so scared for her and she still hasnt eaten since the other night (a few peas). dropsy you think? or just extremely severe constipation

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 05 Feb 2006, 22:23

Unfortunately with the swollen eyes, it does look like a bacterial infection.

I hope i'm wrong, but every fish i've seen with this condition was beyond treatment.

By all means try though.

Adding salt to the water may help the osmotic balance, and reduce organ stress, but this is probably best done in a quarantine tank to avoid harming the other fish.

taksan · Post by **taksan** » 06 Feb 2006, 09:41

This fish has a nasty internal bacterial infection (proberbly diet related) and the only way I know of that MIGHT cure it is massive doses of Metronidazole in a hospital tank and treat with Epsom salts at the same time. That said ... I think its a long shot.

sharn · Post by **sharn** » 06 Feb 2006, 22:24

moved her out to my water change bin (40L/10gal), got the right amount of epsom salts and am also doing a double dose of furan2, i was advised to do this by some catfish experts. she seems to be more comfortable, not coming up for air and i still think shes got some life in her yet!

smiffertins · Post by **smiffertins** » 07 Feb 2006, 19:25

OUCH! Ok, so I hate to be a trouble maker, but I do have a big mouth... Did anyone click on Sharn's link for her pic? If so, did you read through that thread? She said,(and I quote), in reference to this thread here on PC: "i was extremly unimpressed and was cotemplating saying something about how un-friendly their forums were!"

Hmmm, Sharn... nice of you to express your appreciation for, wait, what was it you called them, oh yeah, "the best catfish people on the net"

sharn · Post by **sharn** » 07 Feb 2006, 22:40

i was unimpressed because i got absolutly nailed! forums are for people to ask for advice not to get jumped on! im one of the major posters on that site and on another and even though we get dorks coming through sometimes that do things insanely wrong we correct them as nicely as possible, it didnt feel a very inviting place at all. i came to you guys because alot of people reccomended you, but after corresponding with another lady i got more help there.

im sure alot of people have received invaluable information on here but well... this site aint for me

smiffertins · Post by **smiffertins** » 07 Feb 2006, 23:45

sharn wrote:well... this site aint for me

Well, that is your choice... and IMO, your loss. Im sorry you didnt feel people responded kindly enough to you. Out of curiosity, have you ever noticed that there is no tone in written words (especially typed words) only the tone you choose to read it with?

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 08 Feb 2006, 06:56

Sharn, I can vouch that Mats takes a lot of time out to help people, and always in a very thorough, generous and courteous manner. You will see this if you read through some of his posts.

However, the problem is that often when I am posting (and probably many others) I am at work, and therefore should be working, not "wasting" time on the internet!

As a result, sometimes posts may seem a bit hurried, blunt or rude. This is because I may not have enough time to properly read through them.

Also, sometimes people are just in a bit of a bad mood, or the reader gets the wrong impression from the words. It's easily done!

I hope you are not put off posting here again, as this is a very rewarding forum.

sharn · Post by **sharn** » 08 Feb 2006, 09:25

thankyou racoll, and i see your point. i also agree that you do make the tone for written words but it seemed a bit blunt thats all. i make a effort in all of my 'helping posts' to unclude lots of smiley, humour etc etc just so people feel more welcome/not like were 'yelling' at them for doing something detriemntal to a fishes health so i suppose i am not used to it

however i do thank you mat for drumming it into me about how they need more vegies, my remaining one will now have a 3/4 vegies, 1/4 meat diet. thanks

Phathead6669 · Post by **Phathead6669** » 08 Feb 2006, 15:07

This post seems to be getting off topic a bit. So I will help it get more off topic.

Go here if you want to see hate and idiotist at its greatest.

http://forums.undergroundhiphop.com/for ... hichpage=1