Too much protein?

[Binge]

So I have two wild caught red hump geophagus 1 male one female I grabbed em abou 10- 12 weeks ago have noticed zero problems until yesterday the female seems to be developing a bit of bloat. It is not bad yet but I do not want to let it get that way.

She is in my in my 75 gallon community tank all other occupants seem fine and I have had no issues with the tank. Has been set up for a couple of years now in one aspect or another.

last water change 4 days ago ( I do two 50% water changes a week do not check parameters often since tanks have been stable)

tank is set around 76 degrees If I recall have not adjusted it in a long time
filters are 1 aqueon 55/75 and a sponge filter meant to be used on a 125g tank according to sizeing charts from the company

Other occupants of tank
4 mollies
3 bolivian rams
8 corys
3 kribs
1 BN plec
1 clown plec
1 polypterus delhzi (growing out)
1 gold dust poly (growing out)

I feed the tank a small amount of flakes, Some Api bottom feeder pellets. And since I added the first poly 8 or so weeks ago crumbled up massivore.

She is one of the fish that pecks at the massivore a lot. could the high protien in the massivore be causing her to bloat? I know some fish with too much protien can develope problems...Or could she have a had a parasite that lay dormant this long?

Only other thing I can think of is that the male harasses her a lot and perhaps she is haveing a stress induced problem...

 

[Hendre]

Could be, also is she a glutton at feeding? that may be an issue

 

[Binge]

No more a glutton than any fish is. But she does tend to gravitate to the massivore...if she gets worse I will move her and do some epson salt.

 

[Wailua Boy]

Realistically it could a few different causes from bacterial infections to dietary issues, to name a few.

 

[Binge]

She is still bloating and I lost a mollie (no bloat maybe aggression couldnt find any marks, But I broke out the test kit is an ApI master test kit.

nitrite -0
nitrate-0 (hurray for pothos)
Ammonia-1 ppm (I am a day late on their second weekly water change so makes sense. roughly every 4 days.)

I would like to treat the tank with epson salt just for piece of mind but have never used epson salt before so.
do I remove carbon?
Do I change water change schedule?
I assume you dissolve in bucket than add to tank?


My city also put out a high nitrate warning about 2 days ago. I have not water changed at all since they did its why I am a day late. they say its at 10.6ppm coming out of the tap would the spike to 10.6 from 0 be dangerous till the pothos can knock it back down?

 

[Hendre]

A nitrate spike should not be too bad and 1ppm ammonia might be a cause. Just remove carbon and add salt to be safe

 

[jaws7777]

Odd that you have 0 nitrare even with the pothos. I would soak pellets in epsom salt

 

[Binge]

Think I have this figured out.
Turns out my filter did not restart immediately after a power blink when I was not home the other day... like 3 hours of not running. Mother in law said it made a grinding noise when it started....maybe something in the impeller... any way 3 hours means a loss of BB. So thats the ammonia ( taught it weird it jumped to one ppm with skipping a day...)

As for my girl I think that ammonia combined with the stress of being the sole female in the tank being harassed constantly by my male. Also something snagged her fin... by the looks of it. All those stresses could play hell on any fish. (the molly I lost was close to 3 years old so may have just been time... probably didn't help the ammonia)

Did a 10% water change and checked my water parameters again and no nitrates so either my set is screwing up or I am outside the nitrate warning (we were on the edge of it) so I did a 50% water change. I also added a second pseudo established (was in a grow out tank so some bacteria not lots) aqueon 55/75 to the tank and shifted some decor to break the current up a bit extra. Figured the extra filter will not hurt once established since the tank is over stocked. I grabbed some vals and slapped em in the tank just to help soak up any nitrates that they can (every little bit helps)

Girl is swimming ok just avoiding higher current areas and hiding a bit. She still looks a bit bloated but she is eating. Set up a hospital tank for her just in case.

Would it hurt the others in the tank if I fed em all epson salted food? Like just feed the whole tank that way then do a water change a while later? (would think feeding a laxative to that many fish would be messy)

 

[Jenrn22]

I have same problem