pea puffer starving to death

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.
Post Reply
maddiehayes247
Puffer Fry
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:51 pm
Location (country): america

pea puffer starving to death

Post by maddiehayes247 »

one of three of my pea puffers is no longer eating or swimming. (she swims every once in a while but it’s not often and it’s for 3-10 seconds at a time)) the others are doing perfect on frozen bloodworms but this one refuses frozen. i resorted to mosquito larvae, which worked for a day, but she is no longer eating anything.

the only change in the tank is that i dosed my 20 gallon tank with general cure, but since they’re puffers i only used half the dose recommended.

i’m tempted to set up a hospital 2 gal and hope for the best. is there anything i can do for her? any products i should buy and treat her with?


water levels are
ammon- 0
nitrite- 0
nitrate - 10 ish ?
temp is at around 76-78
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: pea puffer starving to death

Post by Pufferpunk »

May I ask why you dosed the tank with General Cure? What symptoms were they showing? Puffers are VERY sensitive to meds, even at half doses. It sounds like the poor thing is very far gone at this point. Please answer ALL the Qs 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!"
BabyBloat
Puffer Fry
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2018 8:34 pm
Location (country): United States of America

Re: pea puffer starving to death

Post by BabyBloat »

I experienced this with 2 out of 5 of my pea puffers. Sadly, they both died soon after they showed signs. Pea puffers are incredibly famous for internal parasites, especially if you are feeding live food’s (mainly snails)
User avatar
eieio
Mbu Puffer
Posts: 1033
Joined: Sat Jun 13, 2009 11:34 am
My Puffers: *
The Congo Puffer:
"olivia"
and.......
The DP:
"cream puff"
RIP cream puff :-(
Location (country): U.S.A.
Location: Prescott, Arizona

Re: pea puffer starving to death

Post by eieio »

based upon personal experience and many years of activity in this forum, it seems that many (if not most) dwarf puffers have IPs when purchased.
the amount of time it takes them to succumb to IPs has a lot to do with catching/distribution time & conditions/shipping/stress/water conditions.
some are captive bred, and probably the most likely to survive.
it's a shame that people don't often have this knowledge before buying them.
"I plan ahead. That way, I don't have to do anything right now!"
Post Reply