One of my 2 F8s died last night after being sick for a week.
At the beginng of February I had to trim his teeth because he was having trouble eating and was getting skinny. Afterwards, he was eating very well and got back his normal shape and was generally looking much healthier. Last weekend he started refusing food, but I figured maybe I was just feeding him too often (1/8 of a mussel cube every evening) and didn't feed him for a couple of days. Then he became listless so for the last 3 days I did 50% water changes every day (normally every weekend) in case it was the water quality. He was in a 10g by himself. The day before yesterday, I noticed the tip of his fins were slightly white and ragged, so I tried Pimafix and Melafix, but it didn't work. His fins were very white and ragged when I found him this morning. Unfortunately, I don't know what his water parameters were because the test kit was old and it got thrown away at the beginning of the year and I hadn't gotten a new one.
Does anyone know what this might have been? It advanced really fast from the time I noticed the white on his fins at first. It's like he was becoming paralyzed.
Also, do you think it's safe to bury him in a pot of edible herbs? That's all I have right now, before I get some purely decorative plants.
RIP Bittypuff (June 04 - Feb 08)
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.
- StormySkiez
- Fahaka Puffer
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Re: RIP Bittypuff (June 04 - Feb 08)
I don't know what it was but ragged fins sounds like a bacterial thing like fin rot. No Idea about burying him with your herbs.
I'm sorry for your loss.
I'm sorry for your loss.

55g-2 green spotted puffers 1 year old Nov 08!
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crazedpuffer
- Former Staff Member
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Re: RIP Bittypuff (June 04 - Feb 08)
Sorry for your loss. At least he had a good life!
- Troender
- Former Staff Member
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Re: RIP Bittypuff (June 04 - Feb 08)
Awww! Sorry for your loss! 
Inger Anne
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Just think how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of them are even stupider! -George Carlin

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Just think how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of them are even stupider! -George Carlin

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