I've noticed recently that Puffy is knocking his head against the rocks, shells, and walls of his tank..It seems specifically as if he's trying to bring hard objects into contact with the right side of his face under his eye. Almost like an itch that needs to be scratched. Does anyone know what could be causing this? It seems to have gotten worse within the last 2 days. Today I added some Melafix in case it was a sore of sorts, and vacuumed his gravel as well as performing a 50% water change. The only thing new I've added to his tank in the past week is the addition of a large sea shell which I rinsed off first and which Puffy has been banging his head on, as well as the other decor. I've been feeding him snails, shrimp, crickets (sparingly), and earthworms.
ph=8, ammonia=slightly over 0 (less than 0.5), nitrite=0, nitrate=20ppm, salinity=1.005
tank size=10 gal, no tank buddies except an (as yet) uneaten ghost shrimp
the tank has only been running for 2 weeks now, but was cycled by using an old dirty filter.
eye itch?
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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Nick
- Former Staff Member
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- Location: Middletown, CT
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Re: eye itch?
Do large water changes daily until ammonia is zero all the time, you're almost there, and ammonia will definately irritate his scaleless skin. He possibly has an external parasite of some sort, if not ich, there are other kinds, "General Cure" from API would work for a fluke or other worm type external parasite simply used according to the package directions.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
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seacowz
- Puffer Fry
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- My Puffers: Puffy, my little baby GSP! <3
Re: eye itch?
i bought some general cure and put it in Puffy's tank but i had a question about the instructions. it says to wait 48 hours, then redose, and then after another 48 hours do a 25% water change. ive been doing water changes almost daily to keep down ammonia levels...so would it be safe then (since im assuming the effective concentration of meds is dependent on not changing water and dilluting it) to not do water changes for 4 days and just put in prime to keep levels from becoming toxic? or could i wait the 48 hours and then do a water change before redosing?
-
Nick
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 3231
- Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:47 pm
- My Puffers: Mine:
GSPs - Shakespeare and Jillybean
F8 - Velvet
My fiance:
DP - Emma Goldman
Narrow Lined Puffer - Ulrike - Location (country): Northeastern USA
- Location: Middletown, CT
- Contact:
Re: eye itch?
If you replace the half of the medicine you take out with each water change, you'll be OK, though it will waste more medicine.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.