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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FishFan
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by FishFan »

I hope you're right. I think. ;)
A = Anne, R =Robert

There has to be a point.
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by Pufferpunk »

Yes, sorry to say, this is exactly why I plead with folks not to rescue fish. Instead of supporting a store that keeps great care of their fish, we are supporting the killers of them & encouraging them to kill more.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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t1gerbee
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by t1gerbee »

it's such a tough thing to do though.. :-(
1 x 90G Juv stars and stripes puffer, Ceylon Puffer + GSP + 2 black clowns
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by Happy_Puffer »

I am so happy that the puffer is happy and healthy!!! I was worried about him hee hee! That is super upsetting about the store but all you can do is help your friend and tell them how to take care of the two new ones and hope for the best.
*Katie*
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FishFan
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Re: Expert Advice Needed re: Very Emaciated Puffer

Post by FishFan »

Good point PufferPunk! I'm glad you brought that up. :)

For what it's worth, we refrained from calling this a rescue because we really wanted this fish to begin with. Our apprehension, and the reason for this tread was that we were afraid it would die on us. Every time we lose a fish, Anne is devastated. I get a bit bluezy when I think about it, but Anne takes it very hard.
-Robert
A = Anne, R =Robert

There has to be a point.
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