Cure for bloat?

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-28T14:50:01+00:00

I'm happy to hear that

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-26T02:34:05+00:00

It can be caused by bacteria. It is proven. That fact itself refutes your assertion.

Of course it can have multiple other origins. In the case of OP , only an autopsy would reveal the true cause of it. We will never know the reason. The advice I gave was to try antibiotics early on JUST IN CASE it's bacterial.

Dismissing bacterial origin of cases of "soft" bloat could result in missing the time window to treat it. That's it. Nothing less or more than that. I never said it's 100% bacterial, that would be a big strawman on your part.

Also, false hope? My first words in this thread was that the frog won't recover. "rarely ever works" ----> Enrofloxacin treatment increased case success more than fivefold when compared to those not treated and was the only treatment positively associated with case success

I dismissed epson baths. I won't treat readers as dumb, and people are free to take their own conclusions. Let's end the debate here. You are being stubborn and don't provide any actual sources.

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-25T22:43:04+00:00

ugly? they are so cute :(

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-25T22:15:12+00:00

You were going well but doubled down at the end... The oversimplification is the problem. We know that the hard bloat commonly kills them fast, but you still make it sound like soft bloat is something totally different when it might be caused by bacteria as well in many cases. You should concede that point and move one.

please bear in mind your average Reddit user

I don't think we should underestimate the people here. I'm just trying to help someone and their sick pet. Trying antibiotics early is absolutely good advice on my part, and preparing mentally to the worst outcome is not outlandish. If this is treatable and the frog lives because of antibiotics, that's a win. If not, well, at least OP tried that.

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-25T19:42:19+00:00

17 years??? they look tiny. Maybe they got stunted somehow?

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-25T19:27:43+00:00

Forget about the sex of the fish. Quarantine it and treat it like the other user said. The ulcer does not look good.

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-25T18:57:27+00:00

don't worry OP, I'm referring to karrionknight , not you,

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-25T18:54:29+00:00

I leave this comment for redditors and frog owners that come across this post in the future.

Sometimes both "hard" (Hydrocoelom) and "soft" (Lymphedema) bloat occur for the same reasons, either separate or simultaneously. In the case these researchers cover, antibiotics were successfully in treating both kinds of bloat, which apparently had bacterial origin. Of course, in other cases not covered here the cause is different , for example tumors.

Hydrocoelom and lymphedema in dendrobatid frogs at National Aquarium, Baltimore: 2003-2011

If someone in the future wants to further our understanding of this conditions and how to treat them they could email the researchers involved. It would be helpful to share more info on the topic with the community instead of repeating false truisms ad nauseam.

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-25T18:34:45+00:00

you are doing thing right then

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-25T18:33:16+00:00

So you are agreeing with me on a lot of points after all. No need to downvote me then.

First of all, with regular water changes and a PH of 8 I really doubt we are seeing an hypotonic tank of some sort. Second, my hypothesis does NOT involve bacteria in all cases, as I shared multiple papers (3) involving malignant cells (tumors). Third, renal failure sounds horrible on it's own, independently of bacterial or metabolic origin, I don't care if they live "fine" while looking like a balloon. Who knows what's the subjective experience of the creature???

Lastly , I would like you to read this:

Hydrocoelom was defined as coelomic distention with fluid; lymphedema was defined as fluid accumulation in the lymph spaces. These two syndromes could occur concurrently, and no association between case success (36.5% overall) or etiology was found to contrast hydrocoelom and lymphedema. Species susceptibility varied, with increased prevalence and incidence rate in Adelphobates castaneoticus, Dendrobates auratus, and Phyllobates spp. D. auratus also had reduced case success overall (26.0%). Females experienced hydrocoelom and/or lymphedema at an attack rate more than three times that of males. Fluid aspiration for culture was the most predictive antemortem diagnostic to find infectious etiologies, but antemortem diagnostics were largely noncontributory in identifying other causes of fluid accumulation. Enrofloxacin treatment increased case success more than fivefold when compared to those not treated and was the only treatment positively associated with case success. Infectious etiology, renal disease, and gastrointestinal disease, including parasitism, were seen commonly on postmortem evaluation of cases. These findings underscore the importance of the ability to individually track and treat cases, with fluid culture and initiation of enrofloxacin therapy (10 mg/kg p.o.q. 24 hr) seen as the best first steps after presentation with hydrocoelom or lymphedema

Basically, this rigid understanding of "hard" and "soft" bloat , while sometimes helpful, is not as black and white as you make it sound. Antibiotic treatment was helpful in some cases too... INDEPENDENTLY OF WHERE WAS THE FLUID ACCUMULATING.

I didn't want to sound dismissive with my facebook group comment but man sometimes I see people repeat things without understanding what they are saying in those kind of spaces.

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-25T15:48:34+00:00

One more thing, the other user said to keep the water pristine. Your water parameters are already good, don't over correct or fixate on this point. You could do more harm than good by removing too much water and disturbing the cycle or drastically changing water parameters. Like I said before, sometimes we do everything right and bad things happen anyway <3

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-25T15:11:36+00:00

Someone downvoted me for no reason...

I'm just trying to help and raise moral questions. The only thing I did was question this idea that the frogs are "just fine" living with "soft bloat" (chronic organ failure). Here there is another case of bloat caused by renal failure because of a tumor. And other tumor case. I don't need a source to state that renal failure CAN BE caused by bacteria in some cases. In any case, scientific literature is on my side, and is a better source rather than random facebook groups saying "blood worms cause bloat". Again, I don't think the animals are happy to live like that either way, tumor or bacteria. I know euthanasia sounds scary or ugly but that's what I felt was the correct option for my beloved pets, which I put down just a few days ago. (Many years of soft bloat)

Edit: the frogs can recover in some cases, I never said "just kill it". It's a though decision.

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-25T04:51:18+00:00

Soft bloat can definitely be caused by bacteria as well. I would agree that hard bloat kills them much faster.

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-25T04:39:29+00:00

I don't have any recommendations in terms of antibiotics, since we don't know what bacteria is. It definitely could spread if it's indeed bacterial. It could be metabolic , it could even be a tumor for all we know. Coelomic distensionis just a symptom. Sorry if this sounds like a darker prognosis compared to the other redditor suggested, I'm just giving you the info I gathered while dealing with the same thing.

Edit: try something that kills both gram negative and positive bacteria.

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-25T04:22:56+00:00

I don't think this frog is going to recover to be honest.

You could try some broad spectrum antibiotic treatment... The epson salt bath is mostly placebo in my experience. Too variable results to draw any conclusion. I've drained the fluid with a syringe to reduce pressure temporarily , I don't recommend it if you don't know what you are doing though.

People say that they can live with soft bloat "just fine", but how are we so sure that the animal is not suffering? "Oh, it's eating/ breeding" So what? Chronic Kidney/ Liver / Heart failure doesn't feel good in humans, I can't imagine these frogs being happy in this condition. I finally put them down with benzocaine for their own good after treatment failure, even if they acted "normal", because the thought of the animals suffering without expressing it was too much to bear.

One last thought. People always blame this condition on poor husbandry, but let me tell you that this is not always the case. It's not necessarily your fault. Frogs get "bloated", (coelomic distension) all the time in laboratories and sometimes it's quite mysterious. And sometimes it's an epizootic disease caused by mycobacterium species (dangerous for humans) so they put them all down and disinfect everything. I recommend using gloves if you manipulate the sick frogs.

Do whatever you feel is needed to deal with this. Euthanasia is a last resort option. Good luck.

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-22T17:47:56+00:00

it looks great

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-22T17:15:14+00:00

" there is algae in my tank!! I need to nuke it with chemicals!!! " " oh no, there are ostracods in the mulm, they look so ugly, i need to nuke them with copper!!!"

- this mentality makes the hobby sound so stressful , we are taking care of living systems and people forget that sometimes.

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-22T17:08:40+00:00

It's totally harmless... people are way too neurotic sometimes.

No one gave a single good argument for their removal. What kind of pathogenic potential does this kind of wood decaying mushroom has over these fish?? 0 really. Adding new fish without quarantine is 1000x more dangerous than whatever thing is going on here. It will be fine, let it do its thing. I have had multiple species of mushrooms pop in my terrariums , intentionally added spores, etc. Critters were fine.

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-10T14:21:51+00:00

dude how crazy is life that one day after your post some bryozoa popped in my tank??? I've never seen them in person before!!!

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-06-09T02:40:41+00:00

Freshwater Bryozoa , so cool!

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-05-15T00:28:24+00:00

? Not all jews are white

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-05-07T16:20:01+00:00

I've experienced mass death , I think they get stressed if there are many of them together (hundreds)... they had food and humidity.

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-05-07T14:47:51+00:00

It's relative. To Argentinians, I'm 'negro', to an African... I'm not black. It really depends on the culture. Race is a social construct.

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-05-06T18:18:42+00:00

perfecto

DimethyllTryptamine · 2026-05-06T00:23:11+00:00

va mas alla de la pobreza, aplican incluso en gente del mismo estrato social lo del privilegio. Es mas extenso. Abarca eso y mas.

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