Help my Puffer does not move his tail

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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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PuffhatesSpongebob
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2021 1:00 pm
Location (country): Germany Frankfurt

Help my Puffer does not move his tail

Post by PuffhatesSpongebob »

Hello dear Pufferfriends,
my Puffer has those weird spots on his tail. I looked a lot in the internet but could not find anything helpful what these are. So i would be happy if you could help my puffer.

i will try to explain what happened the last 5 days. I woke up and saw my puffer swimming vertical, he had a big bubble under his skin, as can be seen in the attached picture. I tried to burp the bubble out of him, but at first it did not work.So I made a waterchange ~50%. In the time i made the change and had called a fish doctor , the bubble disapeared somehow, i can not explain this. The bubble was all the Time in such a bad Position and always putting the puffer vertical, but i was relieved and left him for a few hours. At this time he was Swimming and breathing completely normal. But then suddenly he always tried to bend his tail all the time and only use his fins for swimming. Now 5 days have passed and he is still not using his tail, he does not eat and has those weird spots.If anyone can help please dont hesistate:)

pH=7,6,KH=12,NO3=30,NO2=0,5

Tank size =400Liters

others inhabitants=0

Feeding crabs,mussels,shrimps

What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference = None

How long the aquarium has been set up= 1,5 years (since the puffer lives)and no problems yet
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Help my Puffer does not move his tail

Post by Pufferpunk »

I've never seen an air bubble like that! Good thing it got out. What spots on the tail?
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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