pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
Yeah I'm thinking about looking into that. Since it was visible to the naked eye, it has to be a tapeworm of some kind. Metronidazole and praziquantel won't effect any kind of nematode, to my knowledge at least. I'll do some research and see what I come up with.
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
I went to dinner and came back home and she was on top of this rock structure and she was completely curled in and dark and breathing hard and rapidly. 0/0/20 Amm/ITE/ATE temp 80.9. I am assuming it is from the dying worms but is there anything I can do to help her?
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32773
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
Nitrate of 20 might be a little stressful. Is she in BW?
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
Yes, the sg says 1.003 as of right now but I'm not entirely sure I trust it to be honest. It seems very finicky. But regardless that's what is says
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
And all of the pet stores are closed so I can't go check it anywhere tonight
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
She looks like she is wasting away. She won't eat anything except bloodworms, and even then she is really picky about them. She is having really jerky movements and sleeping all of the time. I'm really at a loss for what to do at this point
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32773
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
Sometimes they are just too far gone to save. 
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
I think I am going to try tube feeding her. I am going to have to use clove oil to sedate her though, that's the only thing I have access to right now. For some reason the search function won't work for the forum, it keeps saying some error. I know it's probably posted somewhere else on here but what dose should I use?
I am very stubborn, so I am not giving up until I have exhausted all options. Caring for sick animals is what I do for a living. What should I feed her though? Something more nutritious than bloodworms I would assume. And since she will be sedated I can use anything I guess.
I am very stubborn, so I am not giving up until I have exhausted all options. Caring for sick animals is what I do for a living. What should I feed her though? Something more nutritious than bloodworms I would assume. And since she will be sedated I can use anything I guess.
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32773
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
I absolutely would NOT use clove oil on a sickly fish.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
What exactly should I do then?
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
She died yesterday
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32773
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
Sorry to say I am not surprised. 
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
I wish I knew what happened though. everyone else is fine, water is fine.
-
Welch4
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 698
- Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:22 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: 1 GSP
- Location (country): USA
- Location: Abington,MA
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
Sorry for your loss. Its hard especially when these little guys have so much personality. Do you plan on getting another F8?
Forget other advice about puffers you don't hear here - Pufferpunk
Re: pale f8, lethargic, help please!!
I've thought about it, the problem is that the ones that I got were really tiny, and I ordered them offline because none of the stores around me had any. Of course now they have them, but they are at least 5 times the size of the one that I have. I got them from thatpetplace.com and they still have some in stock and I can call tomorrow to see what size they are, but then I will have to pay to have them shipped again. When I originally ordered them, I only ordered 2 and they sent me 3 because they were so small and weren't the size advertised on the website. And now I only have 1 left, the first one died the night I got it probably from sepsis, and then this last one died yesterday after all efforts to save her. I talked to all my Lfs and they called the suppliers and they don't have any small figure 8's. And I don't want to pay for shipping again, it's expensive