1) Your water parameters?
pH- 7.6-7.6
Ammonia-0ppm
Nitrite- 0ppm
Nitrates-40ppm
salinity (if appropriate)- added aquarium salt
Temp-82
2) Tank size is 30g and ALL it inhabitants: two figure 8's, two green spotted puffers, two golden algae eaters, one mystery snail, one African land crab. I have fake plants and 3 ornaments in the tank
3) Feeding twice a day, brine shrimp in the morning and blood worms at night. water change schedule about every 2 weeks and I am doing one tomorrow to try and lower the nitrate levels. Im not sure what products my boyfriend adds to my tank i know something for stress, and i have put 3 tablespoons of aquarium salt in my tank.
4) I had feeder guppies in my tank but i just took them out after being in the tank for over a week without being eaten. Yesterday we added a small crab to my tank but he is missing and i believe the puffers ate him. No chemicals have been added recently, besides stuff to cure ick.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up? For 2-3 months. How did you cycle it? Im not sure i let my boyfriend handle all the important matters. I did just have to treat my tank for ick about a month ago, i did 2 water changes since.
My problem is that i woke up this morning to find one of my figures acting strange. He was just floating through the water, not really moving his fins much. He was running in to the glass and other objects, like he has no control over were he goes. Seems like his eyes are not really moving much and are not as big as the other figure 8 i have in my tank. His fins are a little ripped and his anal fin and back fin have some what of a tent of red. He just seems weak and barely hanging on to life. Also it looks as if his skin is starting to come off on the top of his body, i cant tell if its his slime coat. What could this be and what should I do? I moved him to a different tank away from the other puffers and hope its not a disease.
Please look at my pictures i have attached below. Thanks, Jennifer
Sick figure 8
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.
-
TWISTEDCHICK1432
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:31 pm
- My Puffers: I have Bonnie and Clyde(aka-Fatties)- my baby spotted puffers.
In the same tank I also have two figure 8's named Thelma & Louise. - Location: VA
- Contact:
Sick figure 8
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yunachin
- Former Staff Member
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- My Puffers: 1x A. Meleagris (Golden)
2x Tetraodon nigroviridis
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9x Tetraodon biocellatus
1x Canthigaster solandri
1x Diodon Holocanthus
2x A. nigropunctatus
1x Tetraodon miurus
1x Irrubesco - Location (country): USA
- Location: SC
Re: Sick figure 8
Firstly, the tank you have is WAY too small to house all of the fish you have in it. A GSP needs 30 gallons by itself! That is the reason why those nitrates are too high. There is way too much waste being produced and it is doing a number on the fish. You need to get a bigger tank asap or see if you can split them up into different tanks. Or even take them back to the LFS. If not, eventually they will all perish and all the things you do will be in vain.
E.Ridgeway
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
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T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
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Re: Sick figure 8
Start today, by doing a lot more water changes, until you can figure out what you're going to do with all those fish. Both puffer species require very different SG. You must use marine salt, not aquarium salt to make brackish water. Add Melafix for the sore fin.
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!"
-
t1gerbee
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 831
- Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:10 am
- My Puffers: 1 x Ceylon + 1 x GSP + 1 x stars and stripes (juv) -Marine
(Non puffs-)
4 x clowns
1 x Oscar-Tropical
3 x Convicts-Tropical
1 x Map Turtle-tropical
2 x Plecs-Tropical
2 x goldfish - Location: london
Re: Sick figure 8
looks like your puff has a white belly still so that's a good sign...
get the nitrates down in the original tank, and watch the nitrates in your quarentine tank, they will shoot up with the extra load and it might kill him before he has chance to heal. Use melafix as suggested.
maybe puffs just getting picked on by the others... GSP's get really aggressive as they get older... it maybe stressing him.
You will need to start cycling a second tank so you can split the fish. You can then begin raising your water to the right salinity using MARINE salt.
Fig8's need low brackish and your GSP's need higher brackish. (read in learn-pufferpedia)
I'm sorry to tell you but they will all die if you leave them all together in that tank....
ps.. they need crunchy food... crab/mussels/cockles/shrimp good, guppies bad... live fish can also carry bugs into your tank you don't want there. Good luck. x
get the nitrates down in the original tank, and watch the nitrates in your quarentine tank, they will shoot up with the extra load and it might kill him before he has chance to heal. Use melafix as suggested.
maybe puffs just getting picked on by the others... GSP's get really aggressive as they get older... it maybe stressing him.
You will need to start cycling a second tank so you can split the fish. You can then begin raising your water to the right salinity using MARINE salt.
Fig8's need low brackish and your GSP's need higher brackish. (read in learn-pufferpedia)
I'm sorry to tell you but they will all die if you leave them all together in that tank....
ps.. they need crunchy food... crab/mussels/cockles/shrimp good, guppies bad... live fish can also carry bugs into your tank you don't want there. Good luck. x
1 x 90G Juv stars and stripes puffer, Ceylon Puffer + GSP + 2 black clowns
1 x 30G LPS Reef
1 x 30G 1 x Blind goldfish
1 x 30G LPS Reef
1 x 30G 1 x Blind goldfish
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TWISTEDCHICK1432
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:31 pm
- My Puffers: I have Bonnie and Clyde(aka-Fatties)- my baby spotted puffers.
In the same tank I also have two figure 8's named Thelma & Louise. - Location: VA
- Contact:
Re: Sick figure 8
Well.... bad news i woke up for work this morning and my fig 8 was upside down stuck to the filter. He died.
I think what I might do is take my other figure 8 back to the fish store, and just keep my GSP and turn the tank brackish water, how much salt do i need to add to a 30gal? Do I need to add salt all at once or slowly get the salinaty level up? To make it good enough for my puffers to stay healthy and grow big. Do you think my golden alge eaters will be ok in brackish water?
I do feed my puffers ghost shrimp from time to time and snails, so it will help with their teeth. They are all juvinial right now but once they get bigger I will upgrade my tank to bigger, right now I cant afford that. Me and my boyfriend have 4 tanks going right now and we just started a saltwater a month ago, which was expensive.
I am going to do a 50% water change today, in hopes I will get the nitrate level down. Is there a way to tell the sex of GSP?
Also one of my GSP his tummy is white most the time, but some times when he eats and gets all fat, his belly gets black all over but still has white also is that normal? He has done that ever since I have had him.. About 2-3months. All my puffers always go to one side of my tank and go up and down over and over again. Is that normal?
Sorry for all the questions, Im just concerned about my babys:)
Thanks, Jennifer
I think what I might do is take my other figure 8 back to the fish store, and just keep my GSP and turn the tank brackish water, how much salt do i need to add to a 30gal? Do I need to add salt all at once or slowly get the salinaty level up? To make it good enough for my puffers to stay healthy and grow big. Do you think my golden alge eaters will be ok in brackish water?
I do feed my puffers ghost shrimp from time to time and snails, so it will help with their teeth. They are all juvinial right now but once they get bigger I will upgrade my tank to bigger, right now I cant afford that. Me and my boyfriend have 4 tanks going right now and we just started a saltwater a month ago, which was expensive.
I am going to do a 50% water change today, in hopes I will get the nitrate level down. Is there a way to tell the sex of GSP?
Also one of my GSP his tummy is white most the time, but some times when he eats and gets all fat, his belly gets black all over but still has white also is that normal? He has done that ever since I have had him.. About 2-3months. All my puffers always go to one side of my tank and go up and down over and over again. Is that normal?
Sorry for all the questions, Im just concerned about my babys:)
Thanks, Jennifer-
t1gerbee
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 831
- Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:10 am
- My Puffers: 1 x Ceylon + 1 x GSP + 1 x stars and stripes (juv) -Marine
(Non puffs-)
4 x clowns
1 x Oscar-Tropical
3 x Convicts-Tropical
1 x Map Turtle-tropical
2 x Plecs-Tropical
2 x goldfish - Location: london
Re: Sick figure 8
sorry to hear about your puff. Maybe we can save the others!
Taking the fig8 back seems like a good idea, then you can concentrate on the others. As far as i know there are no brackish algae eaters, but maybe if you have 4 tanks they can re-locate to one of the other freshwater ones?
You need to very slowly raise the salinity over several weeks so as not to kill the good bacteria in the tank, do you have a hydrometer?
Water change is good, do another one in a day or two, get those nitrates right down.. as they'll just go up again. As far as I know there is no way of sexing GSP's, and they can get violent towards each other so beware.
When my puff eats he sometimes gets a dark belly, i've seen people refer to this as hunting colours... kind of like they're hiding as they would in the wild when stalking. As long as its only when they're eating then i think it's ok. Their bellies will get round from food so just feed til they get a nice rounded belly, not too big like they swallowed a mini basketball.
Pacing the tank is normal behaviour whilst they settle in, but it's also a sign of bordem so fill their tank with fun things to explore and re-arrange it all every so often.
Get that water quality right up, scaleless fish have no tolerance for bad water... then think about beginning to slowly raise the salinity once the non brackish fish have been moved.
:0)
Taking the fig8 back seems like a good idea, then you can concentrate on the others. As far as i know there are no brackish algae eaters, but maybe if you have 4 tanks they can re-locate to one of the other freshwater ones?
You need to very slowly raise the salinity over several weeks so as not to kill the good bacteria in the tank, do you have a hydrometer?
Water change is good, do another one in a day or two, get those nitrates right down.. as they'll just go up again. As far as I know there is no way of sexing GSP's, and they can get violent towards each other so beware.
When my puff eats he sometimes gets a dark belly, i've seen people refer to this as hunting colours... kind of like they're hiding as they would in the wild when stalking. As long as its only when they're eating then i think it's ok. Their bellies will get round from food so just feed til they get a nice rounded belly, not too big like they swallowed a mini basketball.
Pacing the tank is normal behaviour whilst they settle in, but it's also a sign of bordem so fill their tank with fun things to explore and re-arrange it all every so often.
Get that water quality right up, scaleless fish have no tolerance for bad water... then think about beginning to slowly raise the salinity once the non brackish fish have been moved.
:0)
1 x 90G Juv stars and stripes puffer, Ceylon Puffer + GSP + 2 black clowns
1 x 30G LPS Reef
1 x 30G 1 x Blind goldfish
1 x 30G LPS Reef
1 x 30G 1 x Blind goldfish
-
TWISTEDCHICK1432
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:31 pm
- My Puffers: I have Bonnie and Clyde(aka-Fatties)- my baby spotted puffers.
In the same tank I also have two figure 8's named Thelma & Louise. - Location: VA
- Contact:
Re: Sick figure 8
I think we have a hydrometer if that its used to read the salt level in a salt water tank then we have that. It reads with a needle thing.
I am going to return that figure 8 puffer, I don’t want to but I have thought about it, and now he doesn’t have his own kind in the tank and im sure my GSP will bullie him. Still I don’t know how much salt to add to the water, how much a week and for how many weeks?
My golden alge eaters might have to be taken back to the store also. The other tanks we have are a 75gal with pirhnias and a 20gal with another pirhina, then we have our saltwater tank. Is a lion fish part of the puffer family? Because we have a drawf lion. Thanks, Jennifer
I am going to return that figure 8 puffer, I don’t want to but I have thought about it, and now he doesn’t have his own kind in the tank and im sure my GSP will bullie him. Still I don’t know how much salt to add to the water, how much a week and for how many weeks?
My golden alge eaters might have to be taken back to the store also. The other tanks we have are a 75gal with pirhnias and a 20gal with another pirhina, then we have our saltwater tank. Is a lion fish part of the puffer family? Because we have a drawf lion. Thanks, Jennifer
-
t1gerbee
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 831
- Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:10 am
- My Puffers: 1 x Ceylon + 1 x GSP + 1 x stars and stripes (juv) -Marine
(Non puffs-)
4 x clowns
1 x Oscar-Tropical
3 x Convicts-Tropical
1 x Map Turtle-tropical
2 x Plecs-Tropical
2 x goldfish - Location: london
Re: Sick figure 8
ok, so maybe the pirranha tank wouldn't be the best place for your algae eaters!
here's an article on brackish...
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/brackish/brackish.html
I think you can to raise the salinity by 0.002 a week, but i can't quite remember and haven't got time to search for it now.. i've seen it stated on here several times so just search through to brackish forums and find out...
A drawf lion is not part of the puffer family as far as I know, but that is beyond my realm really.. so can't help.
When GSP get big, they can be taken to full marine... so there might be a possiblity of some full amrine tankmates eventually, but they need to be alot bigger.
:0)
here's an article on brackish...
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/brackish/brackish.html
I think you can to raise the salinity by 0.002 a week, but i can't quite remember and haven't got time to search for it now.. i've seen it stated on here several times so just search through to brackish forums and find out...
A drawf lion is not part of the puffer family as far as I know, but that is beyond my realm really.. so can't help.
When GSP get big, they can be taken to full marine... so there might be a possiblity of some full amrine tankmates eventually, but they need to be alot bigger.
:0)
1 x 90G Juv stars and stripes puffer, Ceylon Puffer + GSP + 2 black clowns
1 x 30G LPS Reef
1 x 30G 1 x Blind goldfish
1 x 30G LPS Reef
1 x 30G 1 x Blind goldfish
-
TWISTEDCHICK1432
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:31 pm
- My Puffers: I have Bonnie and Clyde(aka-Fatties)- my baby spotted puffers.
In the same tank I also have two figure 8's named Thelma & Louise. - Location: VA
- Contact:
Re: Sick figure 8
Great thank you for your help, and if anyone els has input please give me everything you know.... Jennifer
-
TWISTEDCHICK1432
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:31 pm
- My Puffers: I have Bonnie and Clyde(aka-Fatties)- my baby spotted puffers.
In the same tank I also have two figure 8's named Thelma & Louise. - Location: VA
- Contact:
Re: Sick figure 8
Is it bad to have gravel or rocks on the bottom of my tank rather than sand?
-
yunachin
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 1753
- Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2007 1:33 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: 1x A. Meleagris (Golden)
2x Tetraodon nigroviridis
1x Tetraodon lineatus
1x A. hispidus
2x Takifugu Ocellatus
9x Tetraodon biocellatus
1x Canthigaster solandri
1x Diodon Holocanthus
2x A. nigropunctatus
1x Tetraodon miurus
1x Irrubesco - Location (country): USA
- Location: SC
-
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:
Re: Sick figure 8
Have you read the GSP article in our Library?
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!"
-
TWISTEDCHICK1432
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:31 pm
- My Puffers: I have Bonnie and Clyde(aka-Fatties)- my baby spotted puffers.
In the same tank I also have two figure 8's named Thelma & Louise. - Location: VA
- Contact:
Re: Sick figure 8
Yea i read it. I am going to turn my tank in to brackish.