Unhappy female puffer?

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Welly Puff
Puffer Fry
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 6:28 am
Location (country): New Zealand

Unhappy female puffer?

Post by Welly Puff »

Hi, so this is my first post and first tank (other than a stint with a foster goldfish lol) will give back ground of where fish have come from and future intentions, then current issue.

These Puffers have been housed together for about a year started with 12 and whittled their way down to this group of 5. At some stage had 12 Ottos not sure if they were all in with Puffers, but 1 left getting on fine and 8 Bumblebee Gobies again getting on fine but unsure exactly how long they have been housed with Puffers. These fish were housed in a 54 litre tank I bought them off a lady and took them home this week.
The PH at their previous home was 7.2 and she had them at 24 degrees celsuis my water out of the tap is 7.6 so I am adjusting water to slowly acclimatize them to my PH of 7.6.

I eventually intend to move the Gobies to a brackish tank with a Figure 8 Puffer and up the number of Ottos in with the Dwarfs.

120 litre (lightly planted) tank
24.5 degrees celsius
4 male 1 female Dwarf puffers
8 Bumblebee Gobies
1 Otto
Water parameters this morning after 70 litre water change...
PH 7.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 1-2
Nitrate 5

I thought I had cycled my tank did it over 2 weeks with pure Ammonia. Was converting Ammonia to Nitrites then Nitrates but Nitrite levels never lowered right down with out water changes, and big ones at that. I was away from home for 2 days collecting the fish and had my brother testing, and Ammoinia dosing my tank to keep it going.

When I got home to put fish in the tank Ammonia was 0.50
Nitrite 1-2
Nitrate 80
I did a 90% waterchange but the nitrites were still high, so I changed out virtually all of that water. All this took a while and I am worried now I may have stalled my tank.

Anyway, a day and a half later now, my nitrites are still too high and I have done a 40 litre water change and this mornings 70 litre. Intend to do two 40 litre changes for next couple of days. I higher dosed my tank with Seachem Prime yesterday to hopefully detoxify the Nitrites.

Generally the tank seems happy enough Otto is not overly active but is scraping algae.

My Bumble bees are active but have not eaten their Repashy Grub pie which is their previous diet (gonna try them on some different food today, a couple of them did have a pick at the snails I feed the Puffers) Their colouring is good but 1 of the Gobies gills do look a bit red.

And Puffers all eating and males seem to be generally behaving normally (inquisitive/active) although as I say these are my first fish, so I dont really know what normal is. The males are pacing the glass a little on and off but not consistently.

I am worried about my female though, she spending alot of time in the corners of the tank pacing up and down the glass but also doing an agitated flicking swimming thing at the same time. No signs of serious bullying chasing going on anywhere just the odd chase and havent seen anyone chasing the female.

I will see if I can post a video of my female a bit later.

Hope I havent drawn it out to much just want to give as much info as possible.

Any advise will be much appreciated.

Kind Regards.

Teresa.
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Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
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
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Re: Unhappy female puffer?

Post by Pufferpunk »

Do another 90% WC & addd Tetra's Safestart to the filter.

Have you done Fishless cycling ammonia previously? As soon as your tank starts showing nitrite, you 1/2 the amount of ammonia added. After adding this 1/2 ammonia for a while, your nitrite should drop to 0 at the end of the day & your nitrite will rise. After a few days of 0 ammonia/nitrite, you do a 90% WC & add fish.
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!"
Welly Puff
Puffer Fry
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 6:28 am
Location (country): New Zealand

Re: Unhappy female puffer?

Post by Welly Puff »

Will do on the 90% water change and have now ordered-on line-Tetra safe start, so may be a couple of days to get here (none of my LFS stock this, it is harder to source many things in New Zealand).
No have not done this cycling method before and clearly after reading what you have said, had not completed the cycle properly as Nitrites were not dropping significantly, though they were converting to Nitrates.
Forgot to search forum about pacing before posting but have now seen can be quite normal at first. She has been in the tank 48 hours now and still pacing alot, so two more questions 1. How much time should I give her to settle before I should think of her pacing as a concern? 2. Do you think this ratio of guys and girl is ok? should I get more females? the previous owner said this combo seems to work fine and my observations so far are that this is true, but my research concluded that more females to males is advisable?
I am hopeless with technology so am not able to post my video but have included picture of tank for an opinion of if it is interesting enough, I do intend to add a few more shells etc as small caves for all critters.
Thanks again.
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User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
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: Unhappy female puffer?

Post by Pufferpunk »

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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