Any Hope?

[crazedpuffer]

I've done 100+% water changes before my fish were fine. I'd empty a little more than 50% refill and syphon out again, but the fish were just as happy and healthy as ever.

[Agnate]

Indeed. Not to hop on the bandwagon, but from what I've understood, none of the beneficial bacteria builds up in the water itself (at least, not a substantial amount). Doing a 100% water change is ONLY risky if you have a different pH in your tap water, or if your tap water contains toxins (ie. ammonia, nitrite, nitrate), which is more of a general worry than it is a worry for your fish. If you replace a 100% of the water while they're still in the tank and there's a drastic change in pH/toxins, you might cause potential problems, but otherwise, there's no worries about it.

Just make sure you use a dechlorinator (Prime seems to be the best for this), and your tap should be fine for water changes.

[mikeosoft]

Sorry to hear about the bad advice you got, I hope the fish pulls though. As everyone said, DP's have no tolerance for salt.

With that said, most suppliers prefer to ship when it's cold. It's much easier to keep a package warm and insulated from the cold than it is to keep it from overheating in the hot months. I live in the Detroit area and it seems to be "Puffer season" at the LFS's around here as the stores are getting a lot of unusual puffers in.

[Username?]

Just to give an update my puffer is still alive and he deffinatly has his color back but hes still not eating or moving too much yet.

And that makes no sense then if shippers prefer to ship when its cold cuz im michigan too but both fish stores in my area told me thered be few puffers until spring cuz its been too cold. Though it had been negative temps the couple weeks before so maybe negative goes into being too cold to ship?

[groovitudedude]

Glad to hear he's still alive. Maybe I'm just a little off because my tap water is extremely hard.

[Agnate]

Yeah, it's not to say that you're wrong Groovitude, it's just that you weren't really explaining the whole story behind it. Like we mentioned, it all depends on the water itself and how sensitive the fish are.

That's good to hear that his colour is back... now if you can only get him eating. Have you done any water changes since you switched from brackish? If you didn't remove the rocks or anything, there's a chance that there's still a bit of salt water in there. You might want to consider doing a couple 50% water changes over the next week to try to get salt concentration even lower. The minute amount in there *shouldn't* really bother him, though. He might just be scared after the episode. Hopefully he'll get hungry enough to start eating!

[groovitudedude]

Puffers generally don't do too well with drastic changes. They rather hard fish to take care of. You should always research a puffer before purchasing it. Hope it's doing okay.

[Agnate]

Yeah, the part I hate most is that you trust the fish store to give you appropriate information, and then you only get the right information after everything goes sour.

I feel bad for a lot of people that go to some PetSmarts... Although some of their staff is really knowledgeable about fish, a lot of them aren't, and it's kinda sad when they're giving advice to people. I've asked a person where they kept their Hydrometers, as I needed one to measure the salt in my brackish tank, and she proceeded to explain that brackish is the same as freshwater...

Like I said before, my suggestion would be just to inform the store that they shouldn't suggest keeping them in brackish, so that someone else won't get the same information.

[groovitudedude]

POTPFHPNFTPFAIOPBWUAYLFS


People from The Puffer Forum helping People not from The Puffer Forum attain Information on Puffers By working undercover at your local fish stores

[mikeosoft]

Where in Michigan do you live? If it's anywhere near the Detroit area I could suggest some great stores that carry puffers. I was at a store yesterday that had at least 8 species in stock, both FW and SW. You can send me a PM if you wish.

[Username?]

My puffer got his color back and ate a small peice of bloodworm last night but by the time i woke up today he was dead =( ..I emptyed the tank and made sure absolutly all the salt was off of everything in it (last time i didnt rinse the gravel or decorations cuz i didnt want what good bacteria was there to be completley gone) and im letting it cycle again and maybe now that i know more about Dwarf Puffers and have this site as a resource ill have more luck w/ my next one. Thanks for your help =)

and to mikeosoft: im wayy up north in the UP so unfortunatly detroit fish stores wouldnt help much =/ thanks anyway though =)

[groovitudedude]

Sorry about the puffer

Now that you know the requirements, maybe you could start over and get another one after doing a little more research. Never give up in fish keeping! Or you could try a hardier species (eg Zebra Danios, etc.)

[mikeosoft]

I could see shipping to the UP being a problem during the winter. The main thing with winter shipping is that you need to make sure the package arrives within 24 hours (before the heat packs wear off). Since I could see heavy snow delaying a shipment, that could be a reason why they don't want to ship this time of year.

[crazedpuffer]

Sorry about your puffer. I hope next time things go better (and I'm sure they will!)

[zombiefetus]

I feel bad for a lot of people that go to some PetSmarts... Although some of their staff is really knowledgeable about fish, a lot of them aren't, and it's kinda sad when they're giving advice to people. I've asked a person where they kept their Hydrometers, as I needed one to measure the salt in my brackish tank, and she proceeded to explain that brackish is the same as freshwater...

aw. I work at Petsmart. (I'm captain of the Fish, or something, lol, it's a dumb title that means if someone else messes up, it's my fault, ha.)
I'll just assume I'm in the "Although some of their staff is really knowledgeable about fish" part of that statement.


And sorry to hear about your puffer. Definitely make a trip to the LFS and make sure they know DPs are not Brackish.