dwarf puffer acting very sick

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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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alancwork
Puffer Fry
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2018 6:16 pm
Location (country): Canada

dwarf puffer acting very sick

Post by alancwork »

Help! Forgive me if this is very terse, but i want to get the info out so hopefully someone can process and help.

Noticed that one of my dwarf puffers was not hungry during feeding time so did a water change. When she didnt come back out after the water change, it became very clear that she was sick. I observed her and noticed that she was not swimming well, the water current would push her down. Noticed that her rear end, where the butt and back fin is, was bloated and very white, one spot was reddish.

photos:

Code: Select all

https://imgur.com/a/wcDEB02
Red spot is on the other side, she doesnt want to face me with the red side.

water params: I did not think to measure before water change. Here are the params after the water change.
ph: 7.4 - 7.6
NO2 - 0ppm
NO3 - O to 5 ppm
NH3 / NH4 - 0 to 0.25 PPM

20 gallon tank, 1 pacific blue eye, 1 albino bristlenose, 3 dwarf puffers

feeding schedule:
MO - FRI: 1 ramshorn snail shared amongst the 3 puffers, cobalt flakes for pacific blue eye, 1/3rd kelp walfer for bristlenose
water change: ranges between weekly to bi-weekly. Recently, last 4 changes edged closer to bi-weekly.

setup:
this aquarium has been setup for more than 2 years, and these inhabitants were in the tank for at least 2 years (there were more before, but they unfortunately died).
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Pufferpunk
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Re: dwarf puffer acting very sick

Post by Pufferpunk »

If she looks bloated, you could add Epsom salt, 1 tbsp/10g. WC should be done weekly.
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!"
alancwork
Puffer Fry
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2018 6:16 pm
Location (country): Canada

Re: dwarf puffer acting very sick

Post by alancwork »

hey thanks for the help, found her dead in the morning...

Surprised it happened so fast, she went from being a bit timid one day and still eating, to not eating the next day, and dying the next morning. Are there any more ideas on why it happened so quickly?
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