40 Gallon Tank German ram keeps getting bloated please help

I noticed the other day one of my German blue rams was looking very bloated and big in the belly. I figured maybe he was just eating too much so I cut feeding down to once a day and there were even a few days in between those once a day feedings where I did not feed them at all. I'm worried something could be wrong with him and im not sure if I should treat him with medication or not.

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 46.3 u.s. gallons
How long has the tank been running? Since September 2021
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 82 degrees
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)
2 german blue rams
2 gold rams
2 cory catfish
Maintenance
How often do you change the water? As needed usually every 2 weeks im due
How much of the water do you change? Around 50 percent. If it get a Nitrate spike I do a little more
What do you use to treat your water? API water conditioner
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? I do both when needed

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes I did
What do you use to test the water? Api master test kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite:0ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm but starting to get a little higher towards 20 ppm
pH: 6.8 or 7.0 kind of hard for me to tell the difference

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Twice a day buy cut down to once a day
How much do you feed your fish? A few pinches of flakes in the morning and some brine shrimp in the evening. 1 cube.
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Top fin tropical flakes and San Francisco Bay frozen brine shrimp
Do you feed frozen? Yes
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? No

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? Since the end of December 2021
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? Earlier this week.
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Looks very large and bloated
Have you started any treatment for the illness? No
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? He's usually pretty aggressive. The most out of all of them but he hasn't been that way at all this week. He's just kind of swimming around here and there or hanging out around his favorite spot by the filter

Explain your emergency situation in detail.
(Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now)

 

Could do an epsom salt dip/treat the tank. I'm not an expert on doing this, but I have done it with success in the past. I'm sure if you do some searching on here you can find plenty of info on this treatment.

My first thought as far as cause would be food, specifically the Top Fin flake. I'm not super familiar with that brand, but if I'm not mistaken its the PetSmart brand. Maybe I'm a snob, but I would probably switch to a higher quality dry food like Xtreme, Hikari, or Sera. I could be wrong on this though.

 

You might try feeding New Life Spectrum Thera +A. It's a small sinking pellet food heavily laced with garlic.

 

Could do an epsom salt dip/treat the tank. I'm not an expert on doing this, but I have done it with success in the past. I'm sure if you do some searching on here you can find plenty of info on this treatment.

My first thought as far as cause would be food, specifically the Top Fin flake. I'm not super familiar with that brand, but if I'm not mistaken its the PetSmart brand. Maybe I'm a snob, but I would probably switch to a higher quality dry food like Xtreme, Hikari, or Sera. I could be wrong on this though.

I have some Hikari pellets but I haven't fed them to my fish because my gold rams are still a bit small and I feel the pellets will be too big for them. Though I may go and see if I can get some smaller ones today

 

NLS Thera +A pellets are very small. The garlic is good for clearing out the fish's gut.

 

NLS Thera +A pellets are very small. The garlic is good for clearing out the fish's gut.

Any advice on where I can find it? Or is it an online buy? We have few lfs in the area so it's mostly get your things from petsmart or order online and wait

 

I buy Thera +A at Petco.

 

I buy Thera +A at Petco.

Thanks I went and picked some up. He seemed to like it and ate a decent amount. I'm hoping it will help.

 

Hope things get better soon.

 

Hope things get better soon.

He died . He was fine last night but when I got home this evening I noticed I didn't see him out. So I went looking for him and he was in a little hiding rock dead. Now I'm worried if he had something contagious to my other fish

 

I doubt this was a contagious situation.

 

I doubt this was a contagious situation.

Thinking on it for awhile I realize he was always real pushy with Feeding and he always made sure he got more than the others. So I'm thinking maybe it's a case of he over ate to the point it killed him.

 

Overeating can cause a condition known as "Bloat". Once a blockage occurs in the digestive tract, the compacted environment becomes ripe for a bacteral infection, which can eventually kill the fish.