Hi,

This morning I found my male Bristlenose (7 years) lying on the substrate in full view and light, which is itself very unusual. When I looked close I realised he was very swollen all over. It looks kinda like when you get a leg infection or something and it swells up, except his whole body is swollen, and he appears very pink. He's almost twice his normal size.

Of course I'm going on holiday tomorrow morning so it's the worst possible time!

I've never seens anything like it. Does any one have experience of anything similar or any advice on what to treat with?

I have some antibiotic food for my Goldies, so I'm wondering about putting that in and hoping that either he'll eat some, or it will dissolve in the water and have some beneficial effect.

It looks like a bacterial infection to me, but he lives with some neons, and i'm wondering if maybe he's picked up neon tetra disease or something awful like that.

The only other thing I can think of is that I put some new plants in the tank a week or so ago, which were pre dipped in potassium permanganate. I rinsed them of thoroughly, but I'm wondering if some of it got in the water and have affected him. All the other fish seem fine though.

Greatful for any help.

Damien

Sounds like a serious case of bloat to me, ive just recently lost my male common to this awfull disease...
I had to plecs with the same problem and i managed to cure one but lost the other....
Any treatment for internal bacterial infection's should do the trick but to be honest if he is double the size he should be then its going to be hard work trying to save him....
I used ESHA2000 a did 2 courses of treatment's....
I quick fix would be go and buy some Melafix from your Local fish shop..but if your going away then you can only do 2 doses and i dont think he will be alive when you get back...you need to do the treatment a.s.a.p....
Also do a 40% water change but before you do test your water for any spikes.....

Good Luck mate... :|

im sorry to say this mate but if its bloat hes a gonner at this stage.
bloat is a hard one to treat and needs to be caught in the early stages of the desiese or the survival rate is slim,
only treatment that as ever worked for me is octazin.
good luck mate

Thanks very much for your replies.

I started an internal bacteria treatment, along with the addition of salt, and a water change ,but sadly it was to late and spike died shortly afterwards.

I'd had him for seven years, and frankly I'm totally gutted, especially as he died in such an awful way, and I'd just set him and his partner up in a habitat tank.

He was a gentle giant, and I'm really going to miss him.

Thanks for trying to help him.

Damien

Gutted,,............

So So Sorry for your loss, Hugz :cry:

Damn, sorry to hear he moved on

Always hard when you loose such a long lived fish

Sorry you have lost Spike.

sorry to hear of yor loss,

as many of us have learnt from experience it is hard when you lose any fish you
have cared for so many years, even worse to lose it to such a hard to treat disease.

big hugs, take care....

LJ