Nandopsis haitiensis bloat prevention program

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does anyone think premedicating the water before any sign of bloat would be a bad thing? I also would like a specific fish food brand used. Even if some of you think it isnt diet, I want to cover all possibilities. This will be my 3rd attemp and I really dont want to kill em.
 
I used feed mine spirulina pellets/wafers. It worked for me, the bloating stopped. But keep in mind I started doing massive waterchanges when I switched their diet. I personally think that salt in the water is important. Get a good quality aquarium salt that is meant is for freshwater fish. Most have you add 2-3 tablespoons per 10 gallons of water.
 
GTS;3474338; said:
I used feed mine spirulina pellets/wafers. It worked for me, the bloating stopped. But keep in mind I started doing massive waterchanges when I switched their diet. I personally think that salt in the water is important. Get a good quality aquarium salt that is meant is for freshwater fish. Most have you add 2-3 tablespoons per 10 gallons of water.
I been putting 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons. Plus I put 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons epsome salt. The warmer temp is to increase metabolism so their intestinal tract keeps moving. Yet all this has not kept my nasties alive more than a few months
 
John Rambo;3474435; said:
I been putting 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons. Plus I put 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons epsome salt. The warmer temp is to increase metabolism so their intestinal tract keeps moving. Yet all this has not kept my nasties alive more than a few months


I never kept my haits in such high temps. Doing so might keep their digestion moving along but it will also decrease oxygen levels and increase the pace at which they foul up the water.

If you dont overfeed, and keep your water parameters staple (with salt added) you should be just fine. The root of this problem likely lies in water parameters. As I stated earlier even rapps feeds his commercial grade channel catfish feed. That is a very high protien food.
 
GTS;3474049; said:
It has been a good while since I have kept odo's, but I treated them like beani. Very high aeration, if you think you have enough add more. Very staple water parameters, you could do this by not using gravel or using a very small layer of sand. Add salt to the water, I would say to point that you create quasi-brackish conditions. Feed vegetable based pellets that do not contain very high amounts of protein. The salt is important, Chris over at the cichlidscene raised a very large male odo. The whole time he added salt to the water. He stopped and the fish got sick, he was unable to save it. I have had similar things happen.


I have never heard of the 86 degree thing before. It seems irrational, higher temps equal higher metabolic rates which increases the amount of ammonia expelled from the fish. They also cause oxygen to be consumed at a higher rate which causes stress. Both are odo killers. When I kept haits (maybe 10 years ago) I kept the tanks at normal temps.


Just be careful to not overfeed. Once the digestive problems start, odo's get the long stringy feces. Once this happens it is all over.

Good post.

www.fishbase.org (from Baensch, H.A. and R. Riehl 1997 Aquarien Atlas, Band 5. Mergus Verlag, Melle, Germany. 1148 p.) has 24C - 27C as the natural temperatures this fish is found at. That's 75 - 80 degrees F, which is quite a bit different than 86 degrees.

The biggest thing is environmental stress. And higher than optimal temperatures would be a constant stress.

What if you did everything the same, but kept two tanks of fry, one at say 76-78 and one at 86. Would be very interesting to observe what happened.

I also forgot to mention that these fish in the wild are rarely found in groups. Growing out 6-8 in the same tank means again, constant environmental stress.
 
I fed mines (like all of my fish besides my Jaguars) a rotating mix of insects, vegetarian, shellfish and a spairingly given portion of beefheart (B.H. untill they are 4.5 inches) flakes and pellets and blood worms, he was no exception, constant weekly water changes 25-30% a week, but his tank was in a high traffic area(which i do understand is a BIG no-no and a basic rule in fish keeping, but it was the only place left for a tank) he died of bloat, after reading alot of threads like this one, i think mines was lost because of the high traffic location.
 
I have heard two theories about the food to choose, both seem logical. The first one says that you should get the best quality food that can be efficiently processed by the fish's intestinal tract, leaving the least amount of waste. The other says that lower grade foods with lots of filler (fibre) are better because the fillers move thru the intestines and "clean out" the bacteria or what ever it is that acutally causes the "bloat".

I personally feed ALL of my fish either NLS or Xtreme, they get live or frozen only when it comes time to condition them to spawn and that isn't really needed in most cases.
 
well, i'll try a regular temp and my normal cichlid pellets. I guess Ill just change water couple times a week and add lots of fake plants to decrease stress. I cant believe no one is adding to the high temp theory. Many members swear by it.
 
If you read some old collection data " Oh Island in the Sun. Dominican Republic." by Alf Stalsberg 1994. or "Some Observations on the Natural History of the Odo in Haiti" by Dr Paul Loiselle". The collection temps range mid 80s to 90. The lowest 78'F.
My adults seem to tolerate much lower temps than the young.
I have also found that when I raised a youngster in a planted sump, with only much smaller non aggressive tankmates (livebearers) this hait grew fine and did not bloat, until I put it in a community cichlid tank, within 24-48 hours it bloated and died.
I attribute this to the stress of the equal pecking order, and take no crapp tank mates. Because it was the tank that fed the sump it grew up in , meaning same water perameters, including temps. I use protein skimmers, so the water is overly oxygenated.
I feed my adult pair and a youngster koi pellets and peas.
My adult male is @ 14" and the female 11-12".
But I claim no magic answera each time I think I have a handle on the bloat issue, bloat again rears it's ugly head and I loose 50 fry.
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