The Puffer Forum

She looks like she's suffering very badly..
I don't know what's wrong.. everything was fine..
She was eating and having great appetite...
her last meal was last night.. and I found her acting weird this morning..
She's gasping and her body is slightly bloated and her color changed a bit..

Here's the info..

1) water param: ph - 6.5, ammonia - 0, nitrite - 0, nitrate - 5, temperature: 78.5F
2) 30 gal
3) Diet: Fed every other day.. shrimp, scallop, mussel.
4) Water change 50% once a week. Tank is well cycled; didn't make any changes to the tank.
5) tank is 2 months old. but all media, wood, sand are from another established tank.

anything I can do to help her...?

I am doing a 20% water change as we speak.. what else can I do for her?

Could you post a vid? Is it poss she got some air in her? If thats a possibility try burping. Grab by the tail get her head up and give a shake. Anything else that might help us diagnose?

Here's her earlier this morning
http://youtu.be/PO6hcmJdke8

Here's her right after the water change
http://youtu.be/z9n5jH5ICn4

Not looking good.. also her eyes look diff.. like.. I don't know how to describe but she's def suffering...

I also turned the filter current down a bit...

How long have you had her? I had one that only lasted 6 weeks before it died. When I opened him up, his liver was yellow & hard. Probably from being fed feeders before I got him.

could there may be something coming out the tap? activated carbon can help remove stuff out of the water, kind of a shot in the dark.

I had her for 2 months.. She only had one owner before me and he's a very knowledgable guy. So I am sure that he wont feed her anything that she shouldnt be fed.

I doubted it's the tap water either.. As the last time I changed water ( before this morning 20% change) was last Saturday... everything was normal till this morning...

I am out right now.. hopefully I wont find her dead when I get home...

I just got home..
she looks even worst than this morning..
I found that she spitted out some of the scallop from last night..
maybe the scallop was the problem?
She sometimes swims around.. more like darting around..then will try to fit herself in a tight space and hang there...
Not looking good at all ....


I added an airstone.. hope this can make her feel better...

I dont feed my Congo, nothing but live earthworms, rollie pollies, and small crayfish. My fahaka eats, raw market shrimp, large crayfish, earthworms and night crawlers. Only the raw market shrimp is not alive and well frozen and never fresh food. I believe that you could get bad food with its fresh. Frozen or alive is the way I feed mine. Just wanted to point that out. And it could have been a piece of bad food. Another think, mine acts like that when he is fed abit more then he should and get all lazy until he finally digests his meal. So it is either yors is being lazy and needing that time to digest or bad food.

Pufferpunk wrote:How long have you had her? I had one that only lasted 6 weeks before it died. When I opened him up, his liver was yellow & hard. Probably from being fed feeders before I got him.

Was that congo from me?

No, Tatertot is still alive & well but still only eats earthworms.

Pufferpunk wrote:No, Tatertot is still alive & well but still only eats earthworms.

He's lucky too have you

FADE2BLACK_1973 wrote:I dont feed my Congo, nothing but live earthworms, rollie pollies, and small crayfish. My fahaka eats, raw market shrimp, large crayfish, earthworms and night crawlers. Only the raw market shrimp is not alive and well frozen and never fresh food. I believe that you could get bad food with its fresh. Frozen or alive is the way I feed mine. Just wanted to point that out. And it could have been a piece of bad food. Another think, mine acts like that when he is fed abit more then he should and get all lazy until he finally digests his meal. So it is either yors is being lazy and needing that time to digest or bad food.

Frozen or alive that's what I fed mine too...
She passed away last night...

I am so sorry for your loss.

very sorry