So I purchased my first dwarf puffer yesterday. I've never had any kind of puffer before, i've only kept basic tropical fish. She came in the mail on Friday morning and we underwent the proper acclimatisation procedure. She is now in a 5 gallon heavily-planted tank which she shares with some baby ramshorn snails, which i intended for her to eat. The filter is a relatively large powerhead which i've strapped a sponge to the output to reduce the flow rate. I've tested the water, it has almost 0 nitrites and nitrates, 7 pH and pretty hard water. its 25-26C in there and the tank cycled for a week and a half before hand. I know that's not as long as it could have been but i used some api quickstart, have a tonne of healthy plants and a tiny bio-load so i thought it would be ok.
We're on day two in and things aren't going so well. The first thing i noticed was that all she does is surf the glass and refuses to explore her tank. She looks so nervous, it makes me sad. She has shown no interest in the ramshorn snails, nor blood worms. I know it's early days but still, but all of the fish i've purchased before have eaten by the next day. The second thing I noticed is that she has something on her eye. It's on top of her eye, you can see it when she faces you head-on. But from profile, it looks like she has one clouded eye [see attached].
Is it a fungus, bacteria, external parasite? I used a bit of silver proteinate as part of the acclimatisation procedure but i've been told dwarf puffers are sensitive to medication, so i didn't use a lot. Is this why she's not settling in? What should I do about it?
My First Dwarf Puffer has an Eye Infection
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.
My First Dwarf Puffer has an Eye Infection
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Pufferpunk
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Re: My First Dwarf Puffer has an Eye Infection
![[welcome]](./images/smilies/welcome.gif "welcome")
I'm wondering how this tank was cycled? It is possible it could just have ammonia burn from transfer. How long was she in shipping?
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!"