Really Sick Puffer

[Kolagirrrl]

Hi, new to the forum. Need help.
I have a green puffer.
He is in a 30 gal. tank by himself. Has labored breathing, upside down right now. The water WAS totally bad. The nitrates were as high as the test indicates (110). The nitrites were 0, and the PH was 8.
I admit that I have neglected him. I don't remember the last time I did a water change. (Ihave been ill, no excuse)

I did a 50% water change.

Water now: PH 7.4 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0 Ammonia 0
We have hard water. Temp. is 82.
I have not been keeping him BW as I know I should. He is appx. 3" long now. Living in FW.
Has been healthy (as far as I have noticed) up until now. Major illness very quickly.
Fed him two days ago and was acting normal and healthy.
I fed him 5 snails that I grow myself in a 5 gal. and also fed him a fish (rosie). Thought maybe the fish I gave him
was possibly ill. Though there were no signs of illness in the rosies. They are kept in with my snails, I buy 6 at a time
and he gets one a week. I did do a water change on the snails 5 days ago.

Back to puffer tank. When I noticed he was ill and went to do the water change, I then realized I didn't have any water treatment conditioner for chlorine/chloramine left. Late at night could not get any. I used all my bottled spring water hoping that it was really spring water. (not distilled) Today I got the water treatment and did the complete 50% water change again which brought all the levels to the amounts mentioned above.
Since I do not have him in BW I went to get some today to start switching him (slowly) over to BW. I cannot get any today in my hometown. Maybe tomorrow. So I did put 1 Tblsp. of sea salt (from the health store) in his 30 g. tank.

Any thing else I can do for him now? This all started last night about 10pm and it is now 6:20 pm next day. He is upside down but still breathing. I have him in a plastic colander so that he is near the top of the tank for the extra oxygen (yes the tank is oxygenated) and so I can keep an eye on him, also he doesn't have to fight to stay put in one spot. Thought it might be less stressful this way?

Help.

---------------------Still upside down, still breathing. 6:42pm-----------------

[Pufferpunk]

Look at in the article in our Library in the Hospital section, about Air-Filled puffers.

How old are your test kits & what kind are they?

[crazedpuffer]

Welcome to the forum! I'm assuming you've had him for a while? What was the ammonia originally? It was probablly the nitrate spike that did him in (or at least thats a major factor) Just keep doing the waterchanges daily and start to raise the salt and he should be fine.

[Kolagirrrl]

Will check out the article.
The tests are Nutrafin for the ph, nitrite, nitrate.
PH is good till the end of 2008 and the other two till end of 07.
Ammonia test is Tetratest, would have bought at the same time as others but do not see a exp. date on it.
Do not remember when I bought them? Last year?
My memory is shot(illness,meds). Sucks.

just checked water again
ph 8.4
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
ammonia takes a little longer as you know. don't know yet.
Tank has been set up for a few years.
Will check out article.

--------
I didn't check the ammonia originally. i was too worried and frantic at what to do for him.

I read the air filled puffer article. My puffer is not floating. He is at the bottom of the colander I put him in(in his tank).
Do you feel this is too stressful or maybe help him rest more for recovery.
He will swim if I bother him, try to get away.

Tommorrow I can't get back home until evening, so hopefully I can get some Instant Ocean and start switching to BW.
Do you think I should start switching over? or wait until he has recovered from this?
I'm going to add some more of the sea salt that I have. I've only put in 1tbls. so far.

[Pufferpunk]

My FW ammonia kit reads instantly. You should be reading some nitrates, so if it reads 0, there is probably something wrong with the kit. I'd bring the water into your LFS for testing. Keep doing daily 50% WC in the meantime. You can safely add 2 cups of sea salt to your filter (marine is better--mix it well, in a bucket of water before filling your tank--the filter will mix the rest).

[Myaj]

If your nitrates really were 110+, there is no way they are now zero after only one 50% water change. At the lowest, they would be 55. Another 50% would bring them down to 22ish, another would bring them down to 11, another down to 5. Assuming you used water with no nitrates in it.

Generally when they are that high from no water changes in a long time, the dissolved organics have lowered the pH, levels change, the fish becomes accustomed to that water. Its best to do several small water changes over a day instead of one big one, to help get the fish used to cleaner, higher pH water again. The big water change might have shocked your puffer a bit, along with the stress from the incredibly high nitrates. But now that you've already done it, continue doing the big changes to try to keep that water quality up.

That said, I can't imagine a puffer surviving nitrates that high.. mine start to show skin problems at 20 or 30. There is something wrong here and I would get a new nitrate test if I were you.

As Pufferpunk said, you can start adding a little Marine Salt when you get it. Just not too much at once, as raising the salinity over .002 over a week's time will crash your biofilter.

[crazedpuffer]

Is there a difference between marine salt and sea salt? They're both the same right?

[Nick]

See my post here:
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... 0&p=103308

[Pufferpunk]

I just said that, because It's all she had at the house.

[crazedpuffer]

Oh ok thanks!

[Kolagirrrl]

Hey everyone,
He's still sick.
Finally noticed something ON him.
Looks like his one eye has like a film over it?
Also white spots on body but they have been there for a long time.
I just assumed that they were a part of his appearance. These appeared while he was growing.
They are very uniform over his body and have not gotten any bigger or anything. ?
But the eye IS different for sure.

[Kolagirrrl]

ok, 3:37 am and he is still kickin' (thank-you)
I'm out of town today and I'll be picking up some new test kits while i'm out.

About his eye, could it be pop eye and it just looks different to me because of what their eyes look like to begin with. I mean with it looking like there is a film over it.

Maracyn Two?

[Kolagirrrl]

My puffer is actually doing better this evening.
I just checked on him and tossed in a couple snails, he didn't go for the snails but he did show interest in me, was able to swim upright and stay that way. He's at the bottom but still upright!
Got new test kits and will do that right away and post the results for you.
About his eye again.
Got a better look at his eye today, the one eye definitely has a white cottony puffy growth on it. Nowhere else on his body is there anything like this growing, just his eye. It does not look to be bulging.

I could really use a tip on what type of med. to use for this eye growth!

[Kolagirrrl]

Hi, Hootie is doing much better.
Swimming much better. Staying upright all the time now.

Water parameters:
PH 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10

I'm going ahead with another water change and add more instant ocean.
I only added 3/4 c. last time to 30gal. tank.
So no salinity even measures.

I'm going to add 2 c. this time to replace the 3/4 basically and to add more slowly.
Sound good? Sound good.

How come I can't find any info on a cottonlike growth on the eye? Just the mouth.
No ich on the body, no fungus on mouth. Just this one eye.
What can I use that is safe for my smooth skin puffer?
I don't want to hurt him anymore than I already have!

[Kolagirrrl]

Guess I'm gonna go ahead and use Melafix.
At least it's natural and safe.
Hope it works.
I'm sure the salt is helping too.
Ciao!