Questions:
1: water parameters
Ph:8.3
Salinity: 1.023
Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates: unable to detect
2: 50gallon (I understand this is a bit small for a Porcupine Fish, but they’re only about 4inches so I thought it would be fine for a start) Inhabitants: Porcupine Fish, 3 Blue Legged Hermit Crabs
3: Food: Krill, Squid, Snails, Clams
Salt/water and Waterchanges: Instant Ocean for full water changes, “Real Pacific Ocean water” by Imagintarium for partial water changes which occur every week (Saturdays)
4: I shifted the rocks around a bit, but not much.
5:The aquarium has been running for a total of 3 months with a fish living in there for a month and a half. The aquarium was also started with media from a previous tank along with live rock.
*If I missed anything or have any advice to help improve my care please let me know!*
Hi! I hope you all are doing good while we’re in this Pandemic. To get to my question , I believe my Porcupine fish has a small air bubble near their posterior area near the base of their tail. I wasn’t sure of the reason but they started to puff up while they greeted me at the surface of their aquarium and I think they may have inhaled some air. They are currently able to keep their self down under the water but their tail sticks up and has a little bit of trouble swimming. I’m a bit scared for them but they seem to be acting normal (?) despite this air bubble. Does anyone have any suggestions ? Should I just wait ? From my understanding Porcupine fish can possibly take a bit of time to fully evacuate any water or air, but I also understand they really aren’t supposed to swallow air. Thank you for the help, have a great day !!
Porcupine Fish with Small Airbubble
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.
-
Nickdavey126
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 19
- Joined: Tue May 22, 2018 5:49 am
- Location (country): United States
Porcupine Fish with Small Airbubble
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32776
- 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
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Re: Porcupine Fish with Small Airbubble
library/hospital/help-my-puffer-is-air-filled/
LOL, just pick a sex, I promise you the fish won't mind!
LOL, just pick a sex, I promise you the fish won't mind!
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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Nickdavey126
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 19
- Joined: Tue May 22, 2018 5:49 am
- Location (country): United States
Re: Porcupine Fish with Small Airbubble
Thank you for that info sheet, I have tried the burping already that did not work unfortunately, I also was able to get them to Puff up with water and that didn’t seem to totally help either ? I guess my other question is , is it possible it’s something else ? I noticed that it is able to keep itself down in the water column good and it’s still eating. I also noticed that it’s caudal fin is pointed up in a way but it’s posterior end as a whole doesn’t really stick up. Is this an indicator of anything else ? Does it just need to evacuate waste possibly ? Once, again thank you for the help !
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32776
- 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: Porcupine Fish with Small Airbubble
OK, if you think it might be constipated, then add 1 TBSP Epsom salt/10g & then add the same amount again the next day.
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!"