Any Hope?

[Username?]

I bought a Dwarf Puffer earlier this week. He was very healthy looking when i bought him and i was told by the pet store that he was brackish and needed salt in his tank. I set his tank up ahead of time before i bought him and cycled it. When i put him into the tank he became very pale and went from swimming all over n being very happy to just sitting on the bottom of the tank and not moving. I was worried so i researched them and learned that the pet store was wrong and he needed a freshwater tank so i refilled his tank w/ some water from my freshwater tank. Hes been in fresh water now for about 2 1/2 days but hes not looking even slightly better and he still wont eat. Ive tried everything i could find that ive heard theyll eat n he wont even look at any of it. Is there anything else i can do?

[groovitudedude]

He will probably die. Sorry for the bad news, but DPs are not very hardy unless they are extremely healthy. Your best bet is to do the best you can to help it, but expect the worst. Sitting on the bottom and color changes are both signs of unhealthy puffers with the exception of a few puffers, not including DPs. He could be unhealthy for many reasons

Unhealthy from pet store
Probably drastic changes in salinity of the water
100% Water changes are very stressful to all fish (unless your tap water is completely cycled and the right temperature w/ the right levels of all aquarium components)
or
What tank mates?

[yunachin]

Did you test the water parameters since you put the water in? Did you drip him into the brackish and then back into fresh? If not just moving him between the two could have put him into shock. Wait it out and see if his stress level goes down a bit.

[groovitudedude]

Or you could wait it out. The shock probably did it.

[Username?]

I hope hes just in shock and recovers =( i dont want my stupid beginner mistake to cost a poor fish his life. And if he does die itll be a while before i can get a new puffer as hes the last one left in the area until it warms up in the spring cuz its apparently too cold to ship them up here =/ Maybe i should keep keep a couple freshwater fish in my small tank until then and just transfer them to my bigger tank when more puffers are available around here so i know for sure itll be in a fully cycled fresh water tank?

[groovitudedude]

Seems like you know more about fish than the typical new person on The Puffer Forum. I assume you have more experience than you are letting on? What size are your tanks? How's the DP? Hope it gets better....

[Username?]

I do have some experience w/ fish but not puffers. I wanted to get one cuz i thought hed be a good fish to take to college w/ me in the fall since itd be littttle difficult to take my 29 gal to my dorm. I only have a 29 gal n a 5 gal right now hopefully more/bigger soon im a bit of a geek when it comes to fish though still young and obviously a bit inexperienced =/

My puffers still not lookin so good but he does look like hes been gettin his color back since i put him in fresh water...i think that might just be me being a little too hopefull though

[groovitudedude]

Uh, there's no such thing as a geek when it comes to fish. We have people on this forum who have more than one tank over two hundred gallons. Fish nerds are an oxymoron; they simply don't exist. It's way up there with smart blonde, Jumbo Shrimp, and women's rights!

No, I kid all the ladies out there

[Pufferpunk]

Probably drastic changes in salinity of the water
100% Water changes are very stressful to all fish (unless your tap water is completely cycled and the right temperature w/ the right levels of all aquarium components)

Not true. Large WC do not have to be made with cycled water, just a close temp match of your tap water & Prime. How much salt was added? Was it cycled as a BW tank? Did you use marine salt?

[Jase]

Uh, there's no such thing as a geek when it comes to fish. We have people on this forum who have more than one tank over two hundred gallons. Fish nerds are an oxymoron; they simply don't exist. It's way up there with smart blonde, Jumbo Shrimp, and women's rights!

No, I kid all the ladies out there

says the he who's know as "the fish kid" at school. jk

[Agnate]

Well, since you put him back into freshwater, your brackish filter that you cycled (I assumed) is going to be useless for a bit. If you have 2 filters on your 28 gallon, I'd suggest finding a way to put some media from it into the 5 gallon's filter, or simply putting one of the filters from the 28g onto the 5g temporarily (and put the 5g's filter onto your 28 gallon). If the water in the 5 gallon isn't being filtered with healthy bacteria, the build up of ammonia and nitrites will make it harder for your DP (dwarf puffer) from recovering.

Don't be angry with yourself from lack of puffer experience. I've been noticing that a LOT of pet stores don't know much about puffers, and you're not the first person on this forum to be told that dwarf puffers are brackish! >_<

One thing to do would be to call the store and let them know that they aren't brackish fish. That way they won't give out the wrong information to people the next time they get them in. You might even want to direct them to this forum so that they can do a little bit of research on new puffers they get in so that they know how to keep them. Just be polite about it and tell them there's lots of good information here that can help them out for free!

[groovitudedude]

Probably drastic changes in salinity of the water
100% Water changes are very stressful to all fish (unless your tap water is completely cycled and the right temperature w/ the right levels of all aquarium components)

Not true. Large WC do not have to be made with cycled water, just a close temp match of your tap water & Prime. How much salt was added? Was it cycled as a BW tank? Did you use marine salt?

Okay, okay. Not necessarily cycled, but w/ all the bacteria and good stuff in there.

And yes, /r/ing tank specifics

[Pufferpunk]

Again, more mis-information. "All the bacteria and good stuff in there" (not sure what you mean by "good stuff"), lives on surfaces, not in the water column. Plain tap water, conditioned by Prime, is all you need.

[groovitudedude]

I didn't say large water changes.... I said 100% water changes. Even tap water conditioned so there's no bad stuff (no jk) aka chlorine, chloramine, nitrate, etc. will not be able to support the bioload of multiple fish. But yes, you are right, PufferPunk, wc's as large as maybe 90% conditioned will still be okay for certain fish. But 95% is pushing it IMO.

[Pufferpunk]

Nope, I accidently did a 100% WC on my discus tank Tuesday (got onto a longer than expected phone call). The fish were laying on gravel, when I humg up. I filled it right up & dechlored with Prime. Other than the 2 cardinals I found in the basement sink today , everyone's fine. I keep telling you, discus breeders do 100-200% WC on all their tanks daily.