The Puffer Forum

Is he floating at the surface? Or unusually buoyant? If so, then air is the issue, and I don't see how Epsom salt will help.

Do read Ebert's discussions on un-inflating puffers in the Aqualog book.

Cheers, Neale

I'm going to channel Bob Fenner here and express my complete disbelief that anything new agey like "Therapy" will have any effect at all. Fish get better because their immune system perks up thanks to better water quality management and diet, or else because of serious, lab-tested, scienti...

I'd be treating this fish with a combination of Metronidazole and Nitrofuranace. That's the combination of choice for these Hexamita-like infections on cichlids, as well as pop-eye, bloating, and other environment-induced infections. I'd be surprised if Erythromycin had the least effect! RTR, assumi...

Difficult to say without a photo. But Costia infections seem common with this genus, and left untreated these will turn from grey patches of slime to bloody patches of sore skin. Easily treated in various ways; primarily with formalin-based medications, but I've found seawater dips especially useful...

Greetings, Your water is a bit soft, and swelling can easily be caused by problems with osmoregulation. Yes, these puffers come from soft water. But it's important to remember two things. Firstly, filter bacteria prefer hard, basic water. They work less and less well as hardness and pH drop; below p...

55 gallons for just two specimens is overkill, but yes, they need space. Make sure the tank measures at least 100 cm from left to right and, say, 50 cm from front to back. A 55 gallon tank could house 6 or 8 of them without the least bother, perhaps more, depending on how well it was filtered. They'...

Ancistrus and Otocinclus will be fine, but Corydoras are SAP food. Nip, nip, nip. Don't do it!

Cheers, Neale

FahakaPufferFreak wrote:Hi
The cleanup crew would be a bristlnose pleco, 4-5 Otto cats, and 4-6 corydoras.

Sorry to hear he didn't make it. It wasn't my fault was it? I was trying so hard Difficult to say. Most fish die prematurely because of the wrong environmental conditions, and most of the time the environment is wrong because the aquarist didn't plan things out carefully. Contrary to popular belief,...

You can change more water if you want, even 50%, but you do need to be careful not to expose the fish to dramatic changes in water chemistry and temperature. This won't be a big deal if you have city water that is hard and basic; such water is usually extremely consistent, and provided you add appro...

0.4 what? The units matter. Test kits here in the UK are usually in mg/l, which is roughly the same thing as parts per million. For what it's worth, European Union regulations set the safe upper limit at 2 mg/l, though normal tap water supplies are usually far below this. You actually can't state pr...

Jeni asked me to chime in here, but forgive me for not reading all seven pages of this thread. So if I say something someone else has already said, I apologise. To start with, if all else fails, concentrate on performing small, daily water changes that don't alter the pH or hardness substantially. I...

I usually did this too. But in doing so, you lose one of the prime features of undergravel filters: good water quality, with minimal water current. A properly maintained undergravel filter is perfect for those fish that need/prefer still water conditions. The "blow" from a powerhead can be...

Doesn't the mulm wind up under the plates too? I always considered it like sweeping the dirt under the rug. Yes and no. Mulm accumulates and impairs the functioning of other filters too. External canister filters have long hoses that gradually become clogged, and you need to clear those out every y...

I disagree. Yes, organic matter is pulled into the gravel. But with a canister filter it's pulled into the sponges or ceramic noodles. The issue is how easy is it clean the media. If you neglect either an undergravel filter or a canister filter you'll end up with clogged media. The great advantage t...

Undergravel filters can work very well. The reasons they aren't used are to do with aquascaping and planting, and not really anything to with their effectiveness. On the plus side: Tremendous surface area for bacteria; very good water quality easily obtained. Low cost; filter media never needs repla...