The Puffer Forum

Water parameters are based from the current hyposalinity setup in a separate hospital tank, I’m currently bringing the salinity up*

1: water parameters
Ph:8.0
Salinity: 1.014
Ammonia:0.50, Nitrite: 1, Nitrate: 20
2: 20 gallon (I understand I should have opted for a bigger tank but this is what I had to setup for a hospital at the time, this fish is about 3.5 inches) Inhabitants: Porcupine Fish
3: Food: Squid, Snails, Clams, Cuttle Fish, Octopus, Shrimp (typically dosed with Vita Chem)
Waterchanges: occurring daily since 1/24/2021 due to Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate spike.
6. Starting to raise salinity from hypo due to complications, I am not sure if it was the right thing to do , but the fish is starting to act a little better.
5:The aquarium has been running for a few weeks, salinity was lowered to hypo conditions Saturday Jan. 16 , as of Jan 23 I started raising the salinity back to saltwater conditions due to complications.
*If I missed anything or have any advice to help improve my care please let me know!*

As the title of this forum post suggests, my fish seems to be interested in the food, chews it up a bit but then ultimately spits it out and starts frantically swimming around the aquarium for a few seconds. I don’t believe it is a teeth issue as I actually cannot physically see the fish’s teeth and there doesn’t seem to be any obstruction. I then thought it could maybe be lockjaw but the fact the fish was able to chew the food up a bit and is able seemingly open/ close its mouth led me to think that was not the case. I’m suspecting it may have something to do with the current state of the water quality. As seen from my initial answers my water quality took a major turn and I believe it’s because the beneficial bacteria may have crashed. The first few days of hypo were going so well and then everything seemed to crashs. I have tried feeding clams, shrimp and the fish’s favorite , squid but the same outcome occurs each time. I do believe the fish is still quite stressed due to what is occurring with the water , one day the fish barely moved but now it seems to be looking a bit better after raising the salinity. When the initial spike happened my Nitrites were at 3 and my ammonia was about 4.0 which was terribly shocking to me (sorry to go off topic). The fish hasn’t eaten for about 2.5 days and was eating great before, is this all due to stress due to the current situation or could something else be in play. Thank you all for the advice.

I probably wouldn't have much of an appetite if I was being poisoned by my own waste. I would drip-acclimate back to SW & add established media or live rock to get rid of the toxins. You're treating for Crypt, right?
https://hikariusa.com/water_quality_fol ... _x_sw.html

You are exactly right, I would not have an appetite either. I ended up getting the little one to feed on some clams (which is odd considering it had no interest in them before). I ended up drip acclimating it for about 4 hours so I could add it to an established aquarium. As of now it is doing quite well, I can get it to eat clams but it seems to have no interest in other food items, but it is a start ! Also thank you for the link ! I brought the Hospital tank back up to saltwater and will continue to cycle it in case the crypt shows up again, I haven’t seen any signs of it for quite sometime now , but I understand how tricky it can be and I expect it to reappear. Once again, thank you !

So happy to hear he's doing better & eating something!