Please help

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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dazydolittle
Puffer Fry
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 19, 2018 2:33 am
Location (country): United Kingdom

Please help

Post by dazydolittle »

My baby 3 inch faharka puffer has suddenly taken ill, he has been in this large tank over 3 months and he was tiny when I got him, a few days ago I noticed the tank looked like it needed a good scrub due to algae on glass ect, even thought I did weekly 20% water changes, no ammonia no nitrites ect, anyway I decided to pop in a large bristlenose Plec to clean all the ornaments , I popped a a large lobworm to fill up my puffer thinking this might help him leave the Plec alone, next day I noticed the Pleco was dead, since then my puffer hasn’t eaten is swimming strangely, going round in circles, I’m so confused what it could be, was it the lob worm, that killed the Pleco and has now made the puffer sick? I wasn’t impressed with the substrate the lobworms were in , like a moss and chopped up coloured newspaper, I did some water tests yesterday and all is good, did a 20%water change, any ideas?
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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
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Re: Please help

Post by Pufferpunk »

How large was this worm? Does it look like the puffer ate all or some of it? Where did the pleco come from? How large is the tank?
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!"
dazydolittle
Puffer Fry
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 19, 2018 2:33 am
Location (country): United Kingdom

Re: Please help

Post by dazydolittle »

He ate only half the worm. The pleco was from another tank of mine. The tank is 50 gallon
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: Please help

Post by Pufferpunk »

It doesn't make a lot of sense, that's for sure! Did you remove the other half of the worm? Maybe he ate too much? No idea why the pleco died... :(
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!"
dazydolittle
Puffer Fry
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 19, 2018 2:33 am
Location (country): United Kingdom

Re: Please help

Post by dazydolittle »

Bad news shrimpy died yesterday, all I can think of him n the Plec had a fight, and the trauma took the Plec first, swimming happily in there now is some rosy barbs and all is well nothing wrong with water , I’m thinking of replacing him with a spotted Congo puffer as I really miss shrimpy, thanks for your help x
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: Please help

Post by Pufferpunk »

:rip: I'm so sorry... Since you don't really know for sure the reason behind these deaths, I suggest leaving the tank fallow for a month. Continue feeding it ammonia, to keep it cycled.
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!"
dazydolittle
Puffer Fry
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 19, 2018 2:33 am
Location (country): United Kingdom

Re: Please help

Post by dazydolittle »

Good advice thanks x
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