please help my sick mbu
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.
please help my sick mbu
I had bough a 3" mbu puffer a month ago. It start not eat any thing since last week and now it seem some scrached on one side of its stomechand swim like lost control holicoter.
-
YBeNormal
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 506
- Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 1:19 am
- Location: Northern Virginia
- Contact:
Please answer the questions in this link: http://www.thepufferforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=5. The information will help us diagnose what might be wrong.
thx for reply; the reading today as follow: amooonia is o ppm, nitrite is o, ph is 7.2
I used to feed my fish twice a day and changed water every week. now it is live with one of my flowerhorn in one side and I have another flowerhorn at the other side with the seperator in the 75g tank.( note; the flowerhorn never show aggression to him).
this tank been set up over few two years.
I used to feed my fish twice a day and changed water every week. now it is live with one of my flowerhorn in one side and I have another flowerhorn at the other side with the seperator in the 75g tank.( note; the flowerhorn never show aggression to him).
this tank been set up over few two years.
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
Since he is just a baby, try mussles or cockles without the shell. You could try ghost shrimp too (try holding them in tweezers to help him catch them).
Our mbu is slightly bigger (5inches) and is only now having foods with shells.
I dont know if this will help but good luck and I hope he gets better.
Our mbu is slightly bigger (5inches) and is only now having foods with shells.
I dont know if this will help but good luck and I hope he gets better.
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
Are you defrosting the foods 1st?
One of the most difficult aspects of keeping these special fish is their diet. All puffers are predatory fish and need hard-shelled, meaty foods to keep their teeth trimmed. Like rabbits, their teeth grow constantly and can overgrow enough to cause starvation in the fish. Puffers eat crustaceans in the wild. Foods for smaller puffers are frozen/freeze-dried krill/plankton, gut-loaded ghost shrimp, glass worms, crickets, worms and small snails (the size of their eye). Snails are an essential food to a puffer’s diet, especially when small. Many serious puffer keepers breed their own snails. As your puffer gets larger, there are many more crunchy foods for them to eat. Larger puffers will eat cut-up pieces of scallops, shrimp, crab legs, whole mussels, clams, oysters, squid, lobster and crayfish. Mine love to chase live crayfish, fiddler crabs and gut-loaded ghost shrimp. I gut-load (pre-feed) my live food with algae wafers, so my puffers get their veggies. I buy most of these foods at the fish department of my grocery store, freeze and later thaw in warm vitamin water as needed. Smaller puffers (under 2�) need to eat every day, skipping one feeding/week. Feed them until their bellies are slightly rounded. Medium sized puffers (2-4�) should be fed every other day. Larger puffers (4-6�) should be fed every 3-4 days.
One of the most difficult aspects of keeping these special fish is their diet. All puffers are predatory fish and need hard-shelled, meaty foods to keep their teeth trimmed. Like rabbits, their teeth grow constantly and can overgrow enough to cause starvation in the fish. Puffers eat crustaceans in the wild. Foods for smaller puffers are frozen/freeze-dried krill/plankton, gut-loaded ghost shrimp, glass worms, crickets, worms and small snails (the size of their eye). Snails are an essential food to a puffer’s diet, especially when small. Many serious puffer keepers breed their own snails. As your puffer gets larger, there are many more crunchy foods for them to eat. Larger puffers will eat cut-up pieces of scallops, shrimp, crab legs, whole mussels, clams, oysters, squid, lobster and crayfish. Mine love to chase live crayfish, fiddler crabs and gut-loaded ghost shrimp. I gut-load (pre-feed) my live food with algae wafers, so my puffers get their veggies. I buy most of these foods at the fish department of my grocery store, freeze and later thaw in warm vitamin water as needed. Smaller puffers (under 2�) need to eat every day, skipping one feeding/week. Feed them until their bellies are slightly rounded. Medium sized puffers (2-4�) should be fed every other day. Larger puffers (4-6�) should be fed every 3-4 days.
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!"
We currently feed our 5" mbu twice a day. We try to give him as much variety as we can. So far he has had mussel, prawn, ghost shrimp, cockle (which he doesnt like) and also unsuspecting snails.
Its usually a defrosted mussel in the morning and if he hasnt caught any of the shrimp during the day, another defrosted mussel or prawn when we get home from work. We have been relying on the shrimp and snails to keep his teeth tidy.
We tend not to feed him if he has a rounded belly as he has probably caught a shrimp or a snail without us knowing.
This weekend we are going to give him his first cricket and his first mussel in a shell (cracked obviously) As I said, we are always trying something new.
I'm fairly certain he is not overfed. (we made that mistake when we got him, mainly thanks to the LFS) He is always active except at bedtime (about 8pm most nights)
Basically, after reading Pufferpunks advice, I'm now unsure as to whether we are feeding him too often. As much as it kills me to ignore his feed me dance, I dont want to kill him with kindness.
What do you reckon?
Its usually a defrosted mussel in the morning and if he hasnt caught any of the shrimp during the day, another defrosted mussel or prawn when we get home from work. We have been relying on the shrimp and snails to keep his teeth tidy.
We tend not to feed him if he has a rounded belly as he has probably caught a shrimp or a snail without us knowing.
This weekend we are going to give him his first cricket and his first mussel in a shell (cracked obviously) As I said, we are always trying something new.
I'm fairly certain he is not overfed. (we made that mistake when we got him, mainly thanks to the LFS) He is always active except at bedtime (about 8pm most nights)
Basically, after reading Pufferpunks advice, I'm now unsure as to whether we are feeding him too often. As much as it kills me to ignore his feed me dance, I dont want to kill him with kindness.
What do you reckon?
Are you certain its a bacterial infection? If so, Have you read the sticky on melafix? That might help.
We live in the UK and have limited access to antibiotics but somebody in another country, i.e the states may know the best antibiotics to use.
I'm afraid I'm no expert but there are plenty of people on this forum who are. Can you try to post a picture or maybe you could describe the wound in detail. It might help with the diagnosis.
Sorry I cant be of more help.
We live in the UK and have limited access to antibiotics but somebody in another country, i.e the states may know the best antibiotics to use.
I'm afraid I'm no expert but there are plenty of people on this forum who are. Can you try to post a picture or maybe you could describe the wound in detail. It might help with the diagnosis.
Sorry I cant be of more help.
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
Can you get him in his own (quarantine tank)? Definately treat w/Melafix & Pimafix. I'd also add 1 tbsp salt/5gal, to his tank. It you can quarantine him, that would be best. How are the other fish?
Where are you?
Where are you?
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!"