Pair of dwarf puffers very sick after large wc

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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Zeroboard
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Pair of dwarf puffers very sick after large wc

Post by Zeroboard »

In a rush to post this as I've been on my phone/computer trying to figure out what went wrong. Had a large (probably about 80%) water change today in the do tank. It had been too long since last wc so I took my time and got it pristine. Same protocol as usual, tap with conditioner, good water temp. Minutes after completing, the pair both have been displaying bad swim bladder symptoms like: barrel rolling, not having direction, floating upside down at the bottom. Can this happen with large water changes? I thought large changes prevent swim bladder. Or could it be something entirely different, maybe stress related with a large change? Its been about an hour, both are still doing it, not moving much, color slightly dull. Any help is very appreciated!
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pufferjw
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Re: Pair of dwarf puffers very sick after large wc

Post by pufferjw »

If I had to guess, it's stress related. Try carefully observing them without disturbing them for a little bit to see if they exhibit normal behavior. Also, what are the water parameters?
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Zeroboard
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Re: Pair of dwarf puffers very sick after large wc

Post by Zeroboard »

I hope its stress related...although they've never been shy with my hands and the siphon in the tank. The way they were rolling and floating was like an astronaut in space who lost control floating around. I regularly go to my lfs for water tests that are 99% of the time stable so I might have to do a check on that again. The tank is well established too, for background purposes, probably around 6 months established.
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Re: Pair of dwarf puffers very sick after large wc

Post by Pufferpunk »

Water changes must be done REGULARLY!
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... roments-2/
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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