Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by FishFan »

We couldn't resist one more update:

April 16th (Day of purchase)
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April 20th
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April 25th
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April 28th
skinny-4-28.jpg
We had no idea a fish could recover this much this quickly! :shock: Looks like he's about ready to leave qt and go into the big tank. :D
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by Nick »

YAY! You saved the poofer!
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by t1gerbee »

WOW.. that's amazing...

I would keep him in Quarentine for longer.. he may yet show other signs .. like ich.. or other bacterial nasties and transfer them to the main tank...

....and in the main tank he'll have to compete for food...

another couple of weeks with no competition.. then he will be super strong and ready for the big bad world.

well done guys, you should be very proud!
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by StormySkiez »

OMG He is Looking Good! I can't wait to see pics of him in the bigger tank.
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by Pufferpunk »

I agree--don't jump the gun--give him some more time. Are there other fish in the main tank?
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by FishFan »

In this case, the big tank is in storage and not even set up yet so it will be a while. The live rock for the tank is still "cooking" at 95F in quarantine with another two weeks to go too.
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by CoreyK »

Heehee, I love how big his fins are.
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by jimi »

yeah when he was all sickly his fins looked huge they still do but not as much
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by Happy_Puffer »

He looks amazing! I am so happy that he is better! I can't wait till he gets into his new home and ahs lots of space to have fun! Good job you saved him from death!
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by FishFan »

To be fair the employees of the fish store, they took him the first mile. They said they had been feeding him Ghost Shrimp and other foods the store owner said they didn't even sell in the store. If he had not improved from our first visit to the store a month earlier than our purchase date, we wouldn't have considered him worth the risk. In this case, the store employees went above and beyond what the owner allowed and in a month took this fish from oblivious and not eating to attentive and not eating well. That was when we entered the picture.

At the point in time that we purchased this fish, he was terribly starved, but he probably would have been dead had the store employees not given him a bit of TLC the store owner didn't allow for.

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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by t1gerbee »

nice to see multiple people cared for this little guy... not a common tale with LFS's..

didn't realise 'big tank' meant new, none inhabited tank....

sounds great, your little guy is going to shine! :-)
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by edmlfc1 »

He is so adorable! And he is looking better and better all the time. You did a great job! :supercool: You give me hope with my baby girl. :D Keep up the great work and he will be one very happy puffer.
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by Happy_Puffer »

How is the puffer doing? I have been think about the sick/puffers getting better so I thought I would ask about your puffer.
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by FishFan »

Thanks to everyone for their help and support with this cute little guy. He's become a typical glutinous puffer and he'll eat just about anything that will fit in his mouth.

WARNING - If you don't like feeling angry, please don't read any further.

We contacted the store where we got this fish and asked if they had any new puffers. Their answer included two more Striped Burrfish just like the one we bought from them. We visited the store and sure enough, the :censored: store bought two more Striped Burrfish. They were almost exactly the same size and in the same condition s the one the sold us. They couldn't take care of the one we bought, so why in the :censored: did they buy two more?

As best we can tell they bought this fish in mid-February, and we bought it two months later in mid-April in a severely undernourished condition. The store discounted the price to 30% to get the sale because the fish looked like it was on death's door.

We did the best we could to help assure that the store knew how to treat and feed their two new Burrfish. The store owner was very interested in what we did to save the Burrfish they sold us, but we're not sure he'll be willing to put in the effort. With the one we bought it was the employees acting beyond the scope of their job's that kept this fish alive. We're very frustrated because buying the first Burrfish from the store seems to have been taken by the owner as a vote to get more.

Well, all we can say at this point is :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: !

Robert and Anne
A = Anne, R =Robert

There has to be a point.
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t1gerbee
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3 x Convicts-Tropical
1 x Map Turtle-tropical
2 x Plecs-Tropical
2 x goldfish
Location: london

Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by t1gerbee »

oh dear...

guess that's always the risk with 'rescuing' fish... that the store will just replace like with like...


but you can only do what you can, and you saved one individual who will now have a happy, healthy life... you should be proud..


maybe the other two won't sell due to their condition, and the store will learn not to buy more in... :-)
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 :-)
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