Confusing reoccurring problem, DPF
Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 3:10 pm
Hello Everyone -
I keep dwarf puffers and seem to have a reoccurring issue with them. Everything seems fine and stable and then (seemingly) all of a one of the fish will start to act off. It will start to not really eat much, then it will start to hide more often, hover stationary, at first in the lower third or the tank, then middle third, and then at the top third of the water column. Coloration starts to change, becoming darker and higher contrast (spots darker and more defined). Often breathing a bit more labored. No apparent wounds. No apparent bacterial infection and other DPs in the tank are not affected. No apparent presence or indication of parasites, that I can tell. This lasts on the short end for 3 - 4 days, but seems to always be a week or less and they die.
I was going to write up this question as preventative knowledge, but I have one right now that is on its second day of not eating and it starting to hover right near the surface in some vegetation (odd behavior, especially for this specific fish).
Any thoughts?
Tank details:
Parameters (at least as close as my dipsticks get): pH - about 7.5, GH - seems to be between 60 and 120 (always struck me as a huge categorical change between those!), KH - around/between 40 - 80, nitrite - 0, nitrate - 20.
Tank info: 10 gallon, 1 bristlenose pleco, 3 dwarf puffers, 1 amano shrimp, 3 - 4 ghost shrimp that have avoided getting eaten, MTS in the substrate. Heavily planted (peacock moss, Italian corkscrew val, java fern, anubius nano). Internal overflow filter with mechanical and bio filtration, and a pump moving about 100 gal/hour with a diffuser on the return.
Feeding, water, etc: There are ramshorn snails in there that they eat at and each day or so I break open one or two of them so they get more. Every week or bi-weekly they get frozen blood worms. They eat snail eggs around the tank and the baby snails that make it and they find. When I am gone for more than a day or two they get ghost shrimp that they chase down and eat more slowly over time. I change about 45-ish% of the water weekly-bi-weekly. I do maybe once or twice a month put a dose of Flourish in there.
Changes: Only things I can think of is I took one of the larger ghost shrimp out and added the Amano instead. I put Flourish in the other day, but same dose and not more often than I have.
History: Running for maybe 5 or so months. I used a bottle of fast-start bacteria, old media from another tank, and after a week or so added fish.
I keep dwarf puffers and seem to have a reoccurring issue with them. Everything seems fine and stable and then (seemingly) all of a one of the fish will start to act off. It will start to not really eat much, then it will start to hide more often, hover stationary, at first in the lower third or the tank, then middle third, and then at the top third of the water column. Coloration starts to change, becoming darker and higher contrast (spots darker and more defined). Often breathing a bit more labored. No apparent wounds. No apparent bacterial infection and other DPs in the tank are not affected. No apparent presence or indication of parasites, that I can tell. This lasts on the short end for 3 - 4 days, but seems to always be a week or less and they die.
I was going to write up this question as preventative knowledge, but I have one right now that is on its second day of not eating and it starting to hover right near the surface in some vegetation (odd behavior, especially for this specific fish).
Any thoughts?
Tank details:
Parameters (at least as close as my dipsticks get): pH - about 7.5, GH - seems to be between 60 and 120 (always struck me as a huge categorical change between those!), KH - around/between 40 - 80, nitrite - 0, nitrate - 20.
Tank info: 10 gallon, 1 bristlenose pleco, 3 dwarf puffers, 1 amano shrimp, 3 - 4 ghost shrimp that have avoided getting eaten, MTS in the substrate. Heavily planted (peacock moss, Italian corkscrew val, java fern, anubius nano). Internal overflow filter with mechanical and bio filtration, and a pump moving about 100 gal/hour with a diffuser on the return.
Feeding, water, etc: There are ramshorn snails in there that they eat at and each day or so I break open one or two of them so they get more. Every week or bi-weekly they get frozen blood worms. They eat snail eggs around the tank and the baby snails that make it and they find. When I am gone for more than a day or two they get ghost shrimp that they chase down and eat more slowly over time. I change about 45-ish% of the water weekly-bi-weekly. I do maybe once or twice a month put a dose of Flourish in there.
Changes: Only things I can think of is I took one of the larger ghost shrimp out and added the Amano instead. I put Flourish in the other day, but same dose and not more often than I have.
History: Running for maybe 5 or so months. I used a bottle of fast-start bacteria, old media from another tank, and after a week or so added fish.