My f8 puffer died suddenly? :(

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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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rowdy
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My f8 puffer died suddenly? :(

Post by rowdy »

So I found my f8 dead this morning. I am pretty bummed out and kind of puzzled why he died. I

had him in the tank for about a month. I had increased the salinity of the water to 1.002, and was due to bump it up to 1.004 this last Tuesday but I have been really sick so I put it off. I also put off the daily water changes I have been doing to get the parameters under control. The last time I did a water change was about a week ago and I was really close to having my nitrates under control.

After finding him dead this morning I tested my water. The perameters were :
Temp - 79 degrees (according to my lcd thermometer)
SG - 1.002
pH - 7.4 ( it was 7.8 the last time I checked a week ago)
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 40 ( had them down to 20 last week before I got sick and put off my tank maintenance)

I know my parameters were not the greatest, is this the reason for his sudden death? Last night he seemed to he acting fine, but I thought something was fishy when I crushed a Ramshorn snail for him and he waited about 20 mins before he ate it. When usually he dive bombs them as soon as I drop them in the tank.

As far as his diet went, I fed him freeze dried brine shrimp once every day, a ramshorn snail 2 or 3 times a week, and occasionally I would substitute a snail for a shrimp tail. I would just rip off the tip of the tail that has the shell on the outside and give him that bit to chew on and eat.

I want to get another, but I want to know what I did wrong so I can correct the problem and have a healthy environment before I buy another one.
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Iliveinazoo
Fahaka Puffer
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Re: My f8 puffer died suddenly? :(

Post by Iliveinazoo »

It was probably the high ammonia and nitrite levels in the past, there are normally more signs like excessive resting on the bottom and/or being pushed around by the filter outflow but I would think that the damage was done early on.

Keep the tank cycling with an ammonia source and make sure the tank is fully cycled before buying another. They are a lovely fish and long lived in good, stable water conditions so don't be too put off by this - most of us start this way...
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Re: My f8 puffer died suddenly? :(

Post by Pufferpunk »

Ammonia/nitrite burns, eyes, skin & gills, doing permanent damage to them.
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!"
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