I have an 8 inch Fahaka in a 55 gallon corner tank. He is in there with 2 Tanganyikan cichlids. The tank has been set up and running with no issues for over a year.
A few weeks ago I introduced some Buenos Aires tetras to the tank. They looked fine and showed no sign of disease. a week ago I did a 50 % water change / gravel vac. A few days after that, the Buenos Aires tetras got ich. I started treating with ich attack right away and they are showing improvement, but now my Fahaka is sick! I don't see any white dots on him like I did with the tetras but he looks washed out, his fins look damaged liked they have been chewed on, one of his eyes are cloudy and he is swimming around the surface gasping. I assume he has ich but it is affecting him differently because he is scaleless...?
Tonight I did a 25% water change, turned up my heater to 86 (it hasn't heated up yet), added salt, and increased aeration. The puffer is acting like he is not getting enough oxygen, but all other fish are swimming around fine. The 2 Tanganyikans seem to be completely unaffected and are happy as can be.
What do I do and what is the deal with the puffer swimming around the surface? Is this a normal behavior when a puffer is sick? Is he not getting enough oxygen? Any info would be much appreciated.
Sick Fahaka - Help!
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.
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Re: Sick Fahaka - Help!
ANY ich meds are very toxic to a puffer! Do a 90% WC & put fresh carbon in your filter. Add Melafix & an air stone, after a week of filtering the remaining meds out.
For future reference: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=28113
Also, your puffer is stunted. It needs a MUCH bigger tank.
ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Freshwater/T_Lineatus/
For future reference: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=28113
Also, your puffer is stunted. It needs a MUCH bigger tank.
ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Freshwater/T_Lineatus/
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: Sick Fahaka - Help!
Thanks punk. He's still hanging in there. I've been doing a 20% water change every day, so most of the ich attach should be gone by now. I've also been using "prime" which i had never heard of before visiting this forum. All of the b.a tetras are fine now.
The puffer is still acting the same, but he looks a little worse. One of his fins now has red streaks in it and is kind of clamped to his side. He is not using it. Is that related to the ich too, or does he have something else on top of the ich? He has also stopped eating...
Is it okay to use the melafix along side the prime? I assume so, but just thought i'd ask your opinion.
Thank you!
The puffer is still acting the same, but he looks a little worse. One of his fins now has red streaks in it and is kind of clamped to his side. He is not using it. Is that related to the ich too, or does he have something else on top of the ich? He has also stopped eating...
Is it okay to use the melafix along side the prime? I assume so, but just thought i'd ask your opinion.
Thank you!
Re: Sick Fahaka - Help!
Well he made it! He's back to normal. That was pretty scary. Ill continue to keep the salt and heat up for the remainder of the 10 days. Thanks again.