Ok, so I am new to TPF, but my porcupine puffer I go 3 days ago has been laying down, not eating and heavily breathing! All my other fish are fine too as ill list them rn.
Dogface Puffer - 1 month since added to tank (4 inches)
Cleaner Wrasse - 3 days since added (1 inch)
Green Spotted Puffer - 4 months since added (1 1/2 inches)
Anastasia Filefish - 1 month old (1 inch)
Talbots damsel - 3 weeks old (1 inch)
PJ cardinal - 3 weeks old (2 inches) SOON TO BE SOLD!
Water Quality:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
pH: It was 7.5 yesterday and uppered it to 8.4 in 10 minutes after the testing.
There was no airator either as i added one yesterday for the meantime.
The temp was at 83 and I lowwered it to 78.
He swims around for like 3 minutes every now and then, but will lay back down later.
For the first 2 days I had him, he would swim around like normal.
Please help him!! Thank you!
Porcupine Laying at bottom breathing heavy!
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.
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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DoggoThePuffer
- Puffer Fry
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Pufferpunk
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C valentini
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Re: Porcupine Laying at bottom breathing heavy!
How large is the tank? What are you using for filtration? How much live rock is in there?
Please answer ALL the questions above, in red.
I highly suggest against combining those species (or ANY puffer species), It never ends well... Are you absolutely sure the puffer isn't being picked on?
Please answer ALL the questions above, in red.
I highly suggest against combining those species (or ANY puffer species), It never ends well... Are you absolutely sure the puffer isn't being picked on?
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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hadla
- Mbu Puffer
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- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: 2 gsps and a big Stars and stripes
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- Location: Sacramento, CA
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Re: Porcupine Laying at bottom breathing heavy!
Yeah what size tank? I have 2 gsps, a porky, and a striped dogface in a 225 and luckily they seem to get along. They’re all under 2 inches though and I know I’ll have to move one or two out eventually. Lots of live rock to break up the space and for filtration.
Also forgot to mention, porkies seem to be the most shy of any of the saltwater species so it might be getting pushed around by the gsps. Before I put mine into the big tank, I took olive out who is my oldest gsp and about the same size and put them both into my 55 for a while so they would get along in neutral territory before putting them both into the 225
Also forgot to mention, porkies seem to be the most shy of any of the saltwater species so it might be getting pushed around by the gsps. Before I put mine into the big tank, I took olive out who is my oldest gsp and about the same size and put them both into my 55 for a while so they would get along in neutral territory before putting them both into the 225
Never trust big puffers. The fingers you save may be your own. -RTR