Hi All,
I had a worrying moment to such extremes that I nearly resigned my self to burying the poor little fella. I found him at the bottom of the tank sideways looking very dead. I fished him out into a plastic container and not once did he struggle. Then I saw the faintest flap of the gill. I massaged his stomach thinking maybe it was trapped wind. I put him back a for a few moments he went right back to the bottom. Ten minutes later he seemed to hqave livened up. Now his appetite is virutally nothing. What can I do ?
Figure of 8 back from the dead
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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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
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- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
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I thought the current may be a little strong. I've got an internal filter oversized as I've got a snapper turtle as well. I turned that down soon after he'd looked dead. No change since his recovery...if you can call it that. This morning he passed away..I'm heart broken. Even more so by the fact that I tried to do all I could using the amazing advice from this forum. I just wonder if I'm capable of looking after another one... 
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Jager
rather dangerous to the puffer and the turtle. one the turtle harasses the puffer to death .... two it eats a puffer and you end up wtih a dead turtle too.
neither a great thing.
one last thing while i think you can handle a f-8 most snappers prefer FW when f-8s are light brackish and turtles do pollute the water alot. I mean puffers pollute yes, but turtles make puffers look like nothing when they eat hearty
while they dont mind the filth nearly as much, it can kill puffers easy as even too high nitrates can send a puffer to the big tank in the sky. or it twas eveil the toilet bowel of flames
if you get another, try keepnig them in separate tanks. may have alot better luck.
neither a great thing.
one last thing while i think you can handle a f-8 most snappers prefer FW when f-8s are light brackish and turtles do pollute the water alot. I mean puffers pollute yes, but turtles make puffers look like nothing when they eat hearty
while they dont mind the filth nearly as much, it can kill puffers easy as even too high nitrates can send a puffer to the big tank in the sky. or it twas eveil the toilet bowel of flames
if you get another, try keepnig them in separate tanks. may have alot better luck.