Sick Green Spotted Puffer

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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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Fishmom
Puffer Fry
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2017 4:02 pm
Location (country): United States

Sick Green Spotted Puffer

Post by Fishmom »

I have a sick puffer. I have had it for a little over 4 months and I love him/her. Me and my boyfriend named it H.M Puff'n'Stuff. Puf Stuff was in a 20 gallon tank with his best friend and they were very active. They would say hi every morning and nibble on the food at the top of the tank and when he passed we decided to put Puf Stuff in a 55 gallon tropical tank we had. He was doing well for about 2 weeks they got very sluggish and wasn't as active as he was before. I started to see white spots on his fins and automatically treated all the fish for ich. They the white spots left and he was a little more active. About a week ago he started to act sluggish again but this time their were no spots. I know its normal for their bellies to change color and Pufs does. It goes from a creamy white color to grey to black.

The tank he is in got a water change every 1 week and a half to 2 weeks. When he started getting sick I changed it to a weekly thing. There are plenty of hiding spots and I spend a lot of time with my fish. The water quality also gets tested as well and the ph is at 7.5. Their is 19 fish in the tank and they all get brine shrimp, flakes algae pellets and bloodworms. We feed them twice a day. The tank is at a steady 77°. I think I'm doing everything right but he still isn't the same Puf Stuff before.

Tank levels in a 55 gallon tank.

Ph - 7.5-7.8
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- <1
Salinity- 1.025
Temp.- 77°- 80°

Tank inhabitants

Nigerian birhir X1
Pictus Catfish x2
Gorami x2
Paradise gorami x2
Ruby red scat×1
Green severum cichlid x1
Pleco x2
Purple spotted goby x1
Moon night goby ×1
Spotted green puffers x1
Opal danios x1
Turquoise rainbow fish x2

The tank was cycled 3 month before he was added into it and all the levels were fine before and after we added him. It wasn't until 3 weeks after we put him in did he develops these problems.

2 weeks ago I noticed the white specs and put in the noted amount of inch treatment.
Produce was Marineland oh treatment
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Last edited by Fishmom on Tue Oct 17, 2017 1:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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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
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Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
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Re: Sick Green Spotted Puffer

Post by Pufferpunk »

I'm moving this to the Hospital Forum, so you can answer all the questions above, in red.
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!"
Fishmom
Puffer Fry
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2017 4:02 pm
Location (country): United States

Re: Sick Green Spotted Puffer

Post by Fishmom »

Salinity is 1.006*
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: Sick Green Spotted Puffer

Post by Pufferpunk »

Most of the fish in there are not going to appreciate the salinity you have now. Many of them actually prefer the totally opposite of brackish water--soft, acid water. I'm guessing many of those fish are stressing the poor guy out, too. You've really got a mess in there to sort out!
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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