New Member

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can 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.
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shearer1966
Puffer Fry
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2017 8:02 pm
Location (country): Woodstock, GA (USA)

New Member

Post by shearer1966 »

Hello everyone,

I have had my 60 gallon salt water tank for about 2 1/2 years now. I have had my puffer fish for about a year and the whole family adores him/her. I recently joined this forum to find out what is going on with my puffer fish. It has stopped eating and is becoming too skinny. I have read this information I have found on the hospital forum and currently working on adjusting my levels in my tank. Salinity and everything else seems to be okay but my nitrate levels are a bit high. I have always been told the solution for pollution is dilution for tanks so currently we are cycling the water more often to regain control. Anyways, I am happy to find a place dedicated to puffer fish!
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
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: New Member

Post by Pufferpunk »

[welcome]
Have you fed it any live foods at all? Any foods from the grocery store? I would treat for IPs: library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/
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!"
shearer1966
Puffer Fry
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2017 8:02 pm
Location (country): Woodstock, GA (USA)

Re: New Member

Post by shearer1966 »

Yes. I try to feed it live minnows or ghost shrimp weekly. It is not alone in the tank and the other tank mates enjoy live food too. Usually the puffer is the dominate fish during living feeding but lately it has taken a backseat. The tank mates are a lion fish, yellow tang, lagoon trigger, tomato clown, bicolored angel,pacific tailfin tang, and a sea urchin. Everything gets along well and there is very little aggression towards the tank mates. Today I brought it minnows and ghost shrimp in an attempt to get it to eat since it was seeming lethargic. It is swimming a bit more right now.
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
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: New Member

Post by Pufferpunk »

Very possible for the minnows to carry disease.
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!"
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
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: New Member

Post by Pufferpunk »

What species puffer? How do its teeth look?
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!"
shearer1966
Puffer Fry
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2017 8:02 pm
Location (country): Woodstock, GA (USA)

Re: New Member

Post by shearer1966 »

I did not know minnows carried anything beyond ick. It is a porcupine puffer. However, we found it dead when I got home from work this afternoon. :rip:
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
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: New Member

Post by Pufferpunk »

So sorry for your loss. :'(
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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