constipated abei puffer
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.
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my name is mike
- Green Spotted Puffer
- Posts: 264
- Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:41 pm
- Location: chicago
Re: constipated abei puffer
Thanks everyone for all your condolences... it means a lot, and it was hard trying to explain how I felt to people who'd never owned puffers. 
Spoot, I didn't only feed him krill and bloodworms, got him a few live ghost shrimp from time to time since he loved hunting them down, and his favorite was half shell clams, but they're a bit pricier so he only got them 2, maybe 3 times a week.
To everyone else who disagrees with the shell theory, you're more than likely right to be honest with you, it was my only experience feeding a snail to my puffer so I didn't know much about it. But it was just the only reason I could see (personally), since he was doing very well both in the LFS and for the first month+ that I had him. Although if he did pick something up in transport or at the LFS, like Manutius said, then it's true that it wouldn't really show until maybe a month in. Now I fully understand my boyfriend's obsession with quarantining new fish.
Either way I want to thank you all for the help, the sympathy, and for listening to my whacky ideas. I'll be around again once I get a chance to get another puffer (after the holidays probably), because you just can't help but fall in love with these guys.
Spoot, I didn't only feed him krill and bloodworms, got him a few live ghost shrimp from time to time since he loved hunting them down, and his favorite was half shell clams, but they're a bit pricier so he only got them 2, maybe 3 times a week.
To everyone else who disagrees with the shell theory, you're more than likely right to be honest with you, it was my only experience feeding a snail to my puffer so I didn't know much about it. But it was just the only reason I could see (personally), since he was doing very well both in the LFS and for the first month+ that I had him. Although if he did pick something up in transport or at the LFS, like Manutius said, then it's true that it wouldn't really show until maybe a month in. Now I fully understand my boyfriend's obsession with quarantining new fish.
Either way I want to thank you all for the help, the sympathy, and for listening to my whacky ideas. I'll be around again once I get a chance to get another puffer (after the holidays probably), because you just can't help but fall in love with these guys.
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
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T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
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Re: constipated abei puffer
I'm glad to hear you'll be back!
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!"
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StormySkiez
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 679
- Joined: Sun Nov 11, 2007 9:00 am
- My Puffers: 55G 2- 1 3/4 inch GSP's ~Bud AKA Jaws and Puff~
- Location: USA~TN
Re: constipated abei puffer
Sorry about your loss mspatron. Very nice picture of Bowie.
Fish are all so delicate and hard to diagnose when problems arise. Even the so called hardy fish you can lose in a matter of days due to ailments because of lack of knowledge.
Fish are all so delicate and hard to diagnose when problems arise. Even the so called hardy fish you can lose in a matter of days due to ailments because of lack of knowledge.
55g-2 green spotted puffers 1 year old Nov 08!
20g-5 leopard danio,4 whiteskirt tetras, amanos, nerita snails, 2 neon tetras
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beachbum
- Dwarf Puffer
- Posts: 61
- Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2007 12:12 pm
- My Puffers: 1" Fahaka Puffer in a 125gal tank.
- Location: Raleigh, NC
Re: constipated abei puffer
This is the understatement of the month. I can relate!mspatron wrote: Either way I want to thank you all for the help, the sympathy, and for listening to my whacky ideas. I'll be around again once I get a chance to get another puffer (after the holidays probably), because you just can't help but fall in love with these guys.