Amazon puffer fish sick

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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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Db83
Puffer Fry
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2020 2:16 pm
Location (country): England

Amazon puffer fish sick

Post by Db83 »

Help please.
Iv just bought 2 South American puffers and put them in a tank on there own (90l) when I put them in there were fine swimming and wanted food. Very active all through the night and when I woke this morning one of the puffers is breathing but lead on the bottom and every now and then he will move to a different place in the tank and lay there. I’m so worried if there’s any help out there I beg for it.
Thanks in advance.
User avatar
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: Amazon puffer fish sick

Post by Pufferpunk »

Welcome! Please answer ALL the questions above, in red.

library/puffers-in-focus/sap/
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!"
Db83
Puffer Fry
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2020 2:16 pm
Location (country): England

Re: Amazon puffer fish sick

Post by Db83 »

Db83 wrote: Sat Nov 07, 2020 4:59 am Help please.
Iv just bought 2 South American puffers and put them in a tank on there own (90l) when I put them in there were fine swimming and wanted food. Very active all through the night and when I woke this morning one of the puffers is breathing but lead on the bottom and every now and then he will move to a different place in the tank and lay there. I’m so worried if there’s any help out there I beg for it.
Thanks in advance.
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ph 7.0
Kh 180

90 litre tank. Fed on live shrimp, blood worm, small rams horn.

Only fish in the tank. And I put them in the tank yesterday Iv also noticed that it’s got white spots on one so started a white spot treatment today. The tank has been set up for a week and a half.
User avatar
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: Amazon puffer fish sick

Post by Pufferpunk »

Ammonia? How long has the tank been set up? How EXACTLY was it cycled? An established bacteria bed should be showing nitrate. What are you using for treatment?
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!"
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