Poor Puffer :(

[Agnate]

So, I began cycling my tank a month ago with the hopes of getting a green spotted puffer. Went to the LFS two days ago to get my water tested and potentially pick up my puffer. Tank tested perfect for all the tests (ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate), and pH was acceptable (about 7.8ish) and stable. So I take home a Green Spotted that caught my interest most (although there were only about 3 to choose from). I get him home and started the dripping process to get him adapted to my salinity and pH (the LFS was about 1.008, and mine was 1.007). At first he was kinda sluggish and sat on a leaf for a while. Then about 30 minutes later he started to tour around and check things out, and seemed happy overall. I tried feeding him a couple snails, but he didn't seem them, so I figured he just wasn't that hungry... well, today, he's been inverted in one of the plants, just sitting there and breathing, and looking rather sick. I'm sad, because I'm not sure where I went wrong, and why he's doing terribly. He won't even look at food, so I can't even feed him to help him out.

Currently, I have a 28 gallon bow-front that's fairly decorated with some tall fake plants, some coral rocks (to try and keep the pH a little higher), and some other little decorations. Like I said, the tank was cycled and was fine, so I don't know why he's not doing well. It looks like he probably won't make it, either.

This really has dampened my spirit, as killing fish isn't something I enjoy doing. It's possible that he was sick when I got him, but he seemed fine when I bought him.

[crazedpuffer]

It could have been the stress of shipping. How long did your pet store have them?
I hope he pulls through.

[Agnate]

He didn't. Puffer passed away about 45 minutes ago.

Turns out they had the puffers at the store for about 45+ days, so they might have been on their last breath to begin with. Doesn't make it any less sad, though.

I'm going to see if I can get Bumblebee Gobbies and keep them in the tank for a month or two, and then maybe try my luck with a Figure 8 puffer instead.

[yunachin]

I am sorry for your loss.

[Pufferpunk]

Please explain exactly how you cycled the tank & what the parameters tested at when you bought him.

Turns out they had the puffers at the store for about 45+ days, so they might have been on their last breath to begin with.

What do you mean? If htey lived that longat the LFS tI would think they were doing quite well.

[manutius]

Firstly I am really sorry to hear that

I have to agree with PP on that though, if they have been alive that long in a crowded LFS tank, any signs of disease or IP's would have finished them off by now. It seems very strange, if the tank was cylced as you say then I can't understand what the problem was

[Agnate]

Tank: 28 gallon bow-front
Filter: 30 gallon rear-hanging filter system (not a Bio wheel)
Heater: something sufficient, keeps my temp at a stable 80.3 F
Decorations of importance: couple pieces of Coral rock to keep the pH at a stable 7.8

Well, at the time of cycling, I was going by what they told me at the store (which might be the problem). I purchased some Zebra Danios and cycled the tank in freshwater. I performed 10-15% water changes every 2-3 days, dechlorinating the water before it was put into the tank (usually let it sit for about 10 minutes or so to make sure the heavy metals and such were gone). I read that some puffers (ie. GSP) are brackish water fish, so I asked the LFS at the two week period (when I got a water test done to see how the cycling was coming along) that they kept their GSPs in brackish water, but said it "wasn't very high", and didn't actually have a hydrometer to test it with. At that point, my ammonia was still a bit high, so I decided I'd keep cycling my tank a bit longer (plus all my projects and exams were coming up, so I figured it wouldn't hurt). I suppose what went wrong (after reading a bunch of articles now) was that changing the salinity of the water too quickly crashes the bacteria in the filter, and that brackish water actually has different bacteria than freshwater does. However, the Zebra Danios were taken out a day before it was converted to brackish (implying that they left minimal ammonia in the tank itself). I swapped to brackish too quickly (brought it up to 1.008 in about 1 hour's time), waited for the salt to distribute in the tank for an hour or so (I mixed the salt with a gallon of water from the tank, stirred it up until the salt was dissolved, them poured it back into the tank), and then started the dripping process for the puffer. At the LFS, I brought my own hydrometer and had the water tested so I could emulate that salinity level. They had theirs at 1.008, so I put mine at the same amount. I dripped the puffer for about 1.5 hours (just to make sure they adapted to a possibly different pH, as I completely forgot to have them test theirs), and then released the puffer into the tank.

For the first few hours (as I did it around 7:30pm-ish) he seemed to be fine, swimming around and investigating things. I turned off the light and went to bed. He seemed okay in the morning, but was swimming kind of sluggishly. I tried to feed him some snails, but he didn't even look twice at them. He proceeded to swim to a plant where he parked and just sat there breathing heavily (by the looks of it). I left to run some errands, as there wasn't much I knew how to do, and came back a couple hours later. He was still sitting in the same place. I checked on him every 20 minutes-ish to see if he was swimming around so I could hopefully feed him something (picked up some frozen brine shrimp while I was out). But, after a few hours of being home, he passed away.

Although I'm assuming I crashed the filter, I can't imagine that would have killed him, as he was only about 1 1/4 inches in a 28 gallon tank, so he wouldn't have made a big enough mess to kill himself.

To the comment about how the fish would have been fine from the LFS if he lasted that long, it was probably my choice of puffer that did him in. There were only 4 puffers left: 1 was laying on a leaf (similar to my puffer near the end), one was incredibly skinny and had a very damaged area of his fin, the puffer I chose (who seemed active enough), and another that was almost an inch larger than the one I chose. I'm guessing that mine was tiny because he was getting sick, or not eating enough, or because I did something terribly wrong. Either way, I'm very hesitant to even get another puffer for fear of killing it. I'm going to likely pick up some BB Gobbies (assuming they aren't a nearly as sensitive as puffers), and keep them in the brackish tank for a bit (1-2 months or something) to establish it before trying my luck at a F8 puffer.

[crazedpuffer]

It could have been the recycle that did it. All that bacteria in your tank completely died off causing huge nitrite spikes. The fact the puffer wasn't healthy in the first place didn't help much.
Sorry about your loss.

[Agnate]

As am I. However, I'm going to avenge them. I purchased 5 BBGs today, and they appear to be doing well (had the same salinity level as the LFS). I've got some food for them, and I intend to keep them in the tank permanently. After it has stabilized (in about 2 months, I imagine), I'll consider picking up a F8 puffer, especially since they don't get as large as GSP do.

With death comes rebirth.

On a positive note, as I was letting the gobbies adapt to my water temperature, I noticed about 15 BABIES swimming around in my brackish tank. They looked a lot like the Zebra Danios I had in there not too long ago (which are now downstairs in a fancy 47 gallon tall tank). So, that cheered me up a little.

[Pufferpunk]

Nothing in your post says anything about the results of testing your water parameters. It sounds as though you tried your best for the puffer but I wouldn't have bought any fish out of a tank with seemingly sickly puffers in there. It just had a bad start. I also would assume the LFS probably had a pinch of table salt in their "BW" tanks & would have left your tank as FW & raised the SG slowly over time. The fact that they don't even have a hydrometer is a big hint in that direction.

Now you can look around for some knight gobies & some nice-colored mollies to complete your tank.

[Agnate]

Oh, whoops, forgot to add that (was on the way out when I posted). On my test before getting the puffers, I had 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate (or so they told me), pH ~7.8 (which is what I had measured and they confirmed).

[Pufferpunk]

With 0 nitrates, I'm sorry to say your tank was not cycled then.
How many zebras did you use, how long were they in there?
Was there an ammonia/nitrite spike?
Was the tank without any fish in there for any time?

[Agnate]

I had about 10 Zebra Danios in there for 4 weeks. There was an ammonia and nitrite spike at the two week point when I had my water first tested. The tank was only without fish when I removed the Danios to swap it to Brackish (which I know now that I did incorrectly). Is it possible that my nitrates were low because I was doing frequent water changes (10-15% every 2 days-ish)? Or maybe I had some nitrates and they decided not to tell me, who knows.