How to prevent bloat?

Are there any ways to prevent bloat? I've had 3 saulosi die from it already, and a fourth looks suspect today. My water parameters are all fine, I haven't seen any aggression, and I feed them spirulina flakes only. What could be causing it, and how can I prevent it?

A parasite caused 25 of my Malawi fish to die about a year ago. I ended up taking down the tank when this happened. Never figured out what it was, but I treated the tank with something that saved all of the others. I got the advice from calling Dave at davesfish.com.


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I know that the other 3 died of bloat. The other thing is that one looks sick about every 3-4 weeks.

Use a food with less protein and or feed smaller meals twice a day instead of one large one. Don't feed herbivores meat based foods.

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I've only fed them spirulina flakes twice a day.

Never heard of spirulina flakes causing bloat change your food to a different brand
I agree to use food with less protein
Also I have a fish that had bloat and did not eat for a week
I almost gave up on him and decide to treat him with Epsom salt to my surprise he starting to eat again

The spirulina that I'm using has the lowest protein I could find.

Bloat is a disease but no one knows much about it most of the time swim bladder issues come with it. Bloating is a symptom of several diseases most are parasitic whether its the shear number of parasites causing the bloating or a clog in the digestive system is unknown to me. Bloat kills fish in a matter of hours and the only other symptom I've seen is swim bladder malfunction. By the time you notice this the fish is as good as dead. The only thing I've ever heard actually working is clout but I've never had a chance to test this. I switched food and never had it happen again.

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cichlidaddicted said:

Bloat is a disease but no one knows much about it most of the time swim bladder issues come with it. Bloating is a symptom of several diseases most are parasitic whether its the shear number of parasites causing the bloating or a clog in the digestive system is unknown to me. Bloat kills fish in a matter of hours and the only other symptom I've seen is swim bladder malfunction. By the time you notice this the fish is as good as dead. The only thing I've ever heard actually working is clout but I've never had a chance to test this. I switched food and never had it happen again.

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I agree it could be a number of things causing the bloat.

Vegetable/ algae prob could cause it if there is already digestive issues...do you feed anything else? I've kept a few variety of foods and switching them around also give them a day or two of no food a (lean days,) week that might help too.


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... Anyone ever had bloat with "xtreme" branded foods? Just curious


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Bloat/dropsy is normally bacterial or parasitic. Try treating your tank. You won't save the fish that's already bloated, but it might knock out whatever is in the tank that's causing it.

It's often the end stage of liver failure. Maybe try something broad-range like paraguard. If you want to limit the staining it causes, dissolve it in a cup of water and then pour it in the center of the tank. If there's powder left at the bottom of the cup, add more water, stir again, repeat.

Food being the source of bloat is IMO mostly overdone. As long as you are feeding something generally suitable for cichlids...

We have had good success treating with Metronidazole and using the Cichlid-forum recipe of relatively high Metro doses and 50% daily water changes for about a week.

I think its food, never seen it be contageous usually one fish gets it and the rest are fine. Normally its the biggest fattest pig who hogs all the food. It seems to be untreatable and uncontageous which makes me think its not parasitic. Parasites can cause bloating as a symptom and in that case it is treatable with metro or prazipro and contageous. Tough to tell the difference other than the swim bladder problems and almost immediate death brought on by bloat.

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I feed nls grow to the smaller guys and spectrum to the larger ones and never had a problem with bloat. When I first started this I used to feed a tetra spirunila flakes once a day and lost several fish. Mostly demasoni. I don't believe what the ingredients say on a lot of stuff and wouldn't be surprised if the filler they put in doesn't cause it. As many people here have already said, the bloating may be a symptom or after effect of something else. but if you think it is bloat csused from food, Switch to nls or any other tried and tested brand.

olzkool said:

I feed nls grow to the smaller guys and spectrum to the larger ones and never had a problem with bloat. When I first started this I used to feed a tetra spirunila flakes once a day and lost several fish. Mostly demasoni. I don't believe what the ingredients say on a lot of stuff and wouldn't be surprised if the filler they put in doesn't cause it. As many people here have already said, the bloating may be a symptom or after effect of something else. but if you think it is bloat csused from food, Switch to nls or any other tried and tested brand.

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If its food based change it up I also feed spinach and shredded carrots(actually blended frozen carrots pure I make for my daughter) - not all items in the pic. I feed the homemade food every now and then. And spirulina and kens. Rotate between really good foods you won't have any issues - I haven't had any bloat roasting between foods.


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What would be a good mixture of foods? Im thinking some kens spirulina and super veggie, plus some homemade foods.

npbarca said:

What would be a good mixture of foods? Im thinking some kens spirulina and super veggie, plus some homemade foods.

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That sounds awesome, just time them when you feed them. I give my guys as much as they can eat in 2-3 min.
They are little pigs I also lightly tap the rim and that's the sign food is coming. What are you planning for homemade? I want to find marigold leaves it helps with red type colors and spirulina helps with blue type colors. But dep on the fish the colors are usually naturally occurring due to the endocrine system but the foods help with bringing out colors.


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Try examining the...um...anuses of the fish. A common parasite that causes bloat like symptoms and random deaths is the calamus worm. It can manifest as a very tiny pointy red spike poking out from the anus. It is barely noticeable on brightly colored fish. I am currently treating a pale silver blue angel for it now with levamisole flake food.

Well, there's the direct parasitic cause, generally spironucleus vortens, and then there's the cause in terms of what's happening in your tank. I kept and bred Malawis for years, raised several thousands of them, and I reduced incidents of bloat to virtually nil after I figured out the following two things:

Number 1--

cichlidaddicted said:

Normally its the biggest fattest pig who hogs all the food.

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Exactly. It's a common issue with Malawi cichlids, certain individuals are pigs and will overeat-- even when the tank is not overfed overall. Especially true of peacocks and mbuna ime. Any individuals that I saw that were getting fat I'd separate to another tank where I could put them on a diet until they got slim.

Some took more than one or two such rehabs before they'd get over their greedy feeding, but often they'd eventually eat more normal. If not, I'd just keep them in a tank that didn't get fed enough for them to overeat.

Another thing that can help is using flakes or smaller pellets (though you're already using flakes), so everyone gets their fair share but it's harder for any one fish to overeat. Overall, though, with Malawis it's better to underfeed somewhat than overfeed... and a lot of people overfeed relative to what they actually need.

Number 2-- Aggression. Don't think because you don't see it it's not happening. It often takes place at night or when you're not in the room. A fish gets bullied, or squares off with another individual and loses; this causes stress, which makes them much more susceptible to bloat. Once I learned to identify not just the more obvious signs of bullying or fighting taking place when I wasn't looking (such as damaged fins, etc.), but also more subtle posturing and body language, and started separating bullies or separating combatants from one another I further eliminated cases of bloat.

Just doing these two things (assuming an already appropriate quality diet) and I virtually eliminated bloat. In fact, while I no longer keep Malawis, I'd gone years without a single case while I was still keeping them. (no cases of bloat with my kapampa, either, but then fronts are not especially prone to it in the first place)

...Also, a fish that's started to bloat is not always a lost cause with this treatment.

neut said:

Well, there's the direct parasitic cause, generally spironucleus vortens, and then there's the cause in terms of what's happening in your tank. I kept and bred Malawis for years, raised several thousands of them, and I reduced incidents of bloat to virtually nil after I figured out the following two things:

Number 1-- Exactly. It's a common issue with Malawi cichlids, certain individuals are pigs and will overeat-- even when the tank is not overfed overall. Especially true of peacocks and mbuna ime. Any individuals that I saw that were getting fat I'd separate to another tank where I could put them on a diet until they got slim.

Some took more than one or two such rehabs before they'd get over their greedy feeding, but often they'd eventually eat more normal. If not, I'd just keep them in a tank that didn't get fed enough for them to overeat.

Another thing that helps is using flakes or smaller pellets, so everyone gets their fair share but it's harder for any one fish to overeat. Overall, though, with Malawis, it's better to underfeed somewhat than overfeed.

Number 2-- Aggression. Don't think because you don't see it it's not happening. It often takes place at night or when you're not in the room. Fish gets bullied or squares off with another individual and gets beat, this causes stress, which makes them much more susceptible to bloat. Once I learned to identify not just the more obvious signs of bullying or fighting taking place when I wasn't looking, but also more subtle posturing and body language, and started separating bullies or separating combatants from one another I further eliminated cases of bloat.

Just these two things (assuming an already appropriate quality diet) and I virtually eliminated bloat. In fact, while I no longer keep Malawis, I'd gone something like six years without a single case while I was still keeping them. (no cases of bloat with my kapampa, either, but then fronts are not especially prone to it in the first place)

...Also, a fish that's started to bloat is not always a lost cause with this treatment.

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Thanks for the info. The only cases of bloat have been on my Saulosi tank, and they are definitely greedy feeders.