Dwarf Puffer suddenly sick after year of healthy lifestyle!

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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IRNOEbot
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Dwarf Puffer suddenly sick after year of healthy lifestyle!

Post by IRNOEbot »

I have four Dwarf Puffers in a 20 gallon tank, very full with decorations and they have lived peacefully together for about a year. I feed all of them brine shrimp, keep snails in the tank for feeding and change the tank twice a week. The levels are all just as normal as they have always been and I medicated for I.P.s regularly.
A few weeks back one of my fishies (Precious) became ill and wouldn't eat, so I began a MetroPlex treatment for her in the tank, I pulled something out of her mouth that looked like a blood worm she didn't chew and after 2 or 3 days she went back to normal. The tank was fine for about a week with normal changes, feeding, etc..
Then one of my other Dwarf Puffers (Beautiful) began showing similar signs, I started another treatment and began hand feeding her as she wouldn't go after anything herself.
Two days ago I woke up to a completely sunken belly, ZERO appetite and she began the strangest swimming pattern. She would only swim "head down, tail up" and wanted nothing more than to hide in decorations with her face in the sand.
She will not touch food no matter what I do, I soaked some peas in garlic, and so me blood worms, and literally touched it to her mouth and she won't even nudge it. She sits on the sand with her fins moving and wont move. Occasionally she lays face down with her tail up. I did a prazipro treatment and started another MetroPlex treatment, with 50% changes a day.
I am running out of ideas to get this little turd to eat. I have had them for a year and don't want to lose one.
Any suggestions? The rest seem perfectly fine so far, I don't have a hospital tank, we breed our own snails, our blood worms and brine shrimp are frozen.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Dwarf Puffer suddenly sick after year of healthy lifestyle!

Post by Pufferpunk »

Do you think something came in on the snails? If she's not eating, IDK how you'd treat her for IPs. :(
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!"
IRNOEbot
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Re: Dwarf Puffer suddenly sick after year of healthy lifestyle!

Post by IRNOEbot »

Well because she wouldn't eat I just treated the water and used the medication as a bath. I was told on another forum that because they are super sensitive to medication you can usually just treat their water and they should be fine. It has worked a few times before but had I known she was going to get this bad, I would have put her in a container and fed her medicated paste.
And yeah it is always possible for something to have come in on my snails, we generally take less care of them, only changing their tank a few times a month, but we give them vitamins and feed them well. They look ok minus the small white lines some of them have from the calcium. It's just strange though, because she doesn't really eat snails, she mostly eats brine shrimp and nibbles on blood worms, and none of the other ones are showing signs of whatever she has.
I will do a few full changes of the snail tanks and keep trying to feed her. I have some medicine soaked peas and blood worms ready for her as soon as she nibbles anything again.
If she doesn't get better I may have to let her go, her current quality of life has to be miserable, even if she can't feel pain I know fish can experience depression and she is just sleeping all day and getting smaller and smaller.
I'm desperate.
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Pufferpunk
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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: Dwarf Puffer suddenly sick after year of healthy lifestyle!

Post by Pufferpunk »

Anyone who tells you to treat the water for IPs in a FW fish is a fool, as FW fish do NOT drink water.
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!"
IRNOEbot
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Re: Dwarf Puffer suddenly sick after year of healthy lifestyle!

Post by IRNOEbot »

I was told they will absorb it through their bodies because they don't have scales and that they are particularly sensitive to medication because of that.
Is that just flat out not true? There seems to be a lot of BS in various forums and I just want to care for my babies lol.
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Pufferpunk
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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: Dwarf Puffer suddenly sick after year of healthy lifestyle!

Post by Pufferpunk »

Flat out NOT TRUE, as fat as treatment for IPs.
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!"
IRNOEbot
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Re: Dwarf Puffer suddenly sick after year of healthy lifestyle!

Post by IRNOEbot »

Ok, well let's say I was treating with metroplex or prazipro, and I fed them brine shrimp and snails (When they actually eat them). How would you combine the two for a medicated food source, and using what products to do so?
My littlest one will eat nothing but snails. My fattest one will eat nothing but brine shrimp. The dumb one would eat himself if he could figure out how.
The ones who are alive won't take to blood worms and garlic doesn't seem to work (I also heard that wasn't based on evidence anyway).
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Pufferpunk
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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: Dwarf Puffer suddenly sick after year of healthy lifestyle!

Post by Pufferpunk »

Jungle Parasite Clear fizzy tabs have both metro/prazi in 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!"
IRNOEbot
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Mon Jul 31, 2017 9:39 pm
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Re: Dwarf Puffer suddenly sick after year of healthy lifestyle!

Post by IRNOEbot »

How do I give it to them? Soak it in their food?
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Pufferpunk
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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: Dwarf Puffer suddenly sick after year of healthy lifestyle!

Post by Pufferpunk »

Yes, you can use 1/4 tab in a shot glass with some frozen worms & then drain.
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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