I've had a Fahaka (Merl) in a 46 gal tank for 5 months.
Salinity-1.005
Ammonia-Zero
I'll test the rest later accurately.
He's been fine, eating frozen clam and krill. He occasionally turned darker or lighter, but seemed fine. Darker is bad, correct?
Since I've had him he has had this yellow round dot on his tail fin, I've read of this before, what is it?
A week ago the water was cloudy and white. Bacterial bloom?
Then Merl got redness around his mouth and fins and cloudy eyes. I have been treating with Maracyn for a few weeks by now. Last night he started swimming upside down all disorientated. Then he started panting. I used Marifix..?, I forgot what's it's called it's in the "sticky" of this forum. I surely thought he would die last night but he is alive and kicking today. What should I do? Large water change? Continue to treat him?
Bacterial infection on Fahaka
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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sarah'sfahaka
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2005 4:50 pm
Large water change NEVER hurts, and is always recommended first and foremost, provided you match temperature and dechlorinate.
IMHO melafix is akin to a bandaid for fish, and maracyn is a stronger med. If you have been using all of that and not changing the water, that might be an issue too.
Do a massive 50-75% water change and see what happens.
IMHO melafix is akin to a bandaid for fish, and maracyn is a stronger med. If you have been using all of that and not changing the water, that might be an issue too.
Do a massive 50-75% water change and see what happens.
The rare and elusive SteelGeek has been known to cause great damage to his environs...
Fhaka puffers are FRESHWATER they don't need salt. Your cloudy water is probably due to poor water quality. His infections are also probably from poor water. Try to fix the thing that is causeing the bacterial infections. If you only treat the infection and not the cause, it will just come back. Fahaka puffers need over filtration because they are messy eaters and big poopers. He will also need a larger tank (at least 125g). I have mine in a 150g 5' x 2' x 2' and he seems to like that.
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Jager
maybe so but you are being fairly blunt and not offering anything really helpful at this point. While yes a fahaka is a FW puffer, there is little evidence that supports the fact that beign in 1.005 salinity right now has anything to do with the water quality being poor, which is our main concern.toofazt wrote:Fhaka puffers are FRESHWATER they don't need salt. Your cloudy water is probably due to poor water quality. His infections are also probably from poor water. Try to fix the thing that is causeing the bacterial infections. If you only treat the infection and not the cause, it will just come back. Fahaka puffers need over filtration because they are messy eaters and big poopers. He will also need a larger tank (at least 125g). I have mine in a 150g 5' x 2' x 2' and he seems to like that.
please rephrase your post to be a bit gentler and breaking things apart makes them easier to read.
Sarah what is the size of the fahaka as well as what are those other parameters. My LFS gets cloudy water from prefectly clean tanks sometimes as it is a bloom from the excess nutrients in the makeup water.
Als try an antibiotic that is more liely to help at this point. Jungle products makes one called fungus eliminator. it has 2 meds in it, a antibiotic and a sterilizer to kill bateria. try using that if you can get it and as SG said doing more water changes never hurt the fish.
As you do them, please do not add salt and let it go back down to FW. should help the fish a little and also should help you not spend money on salt you do not really need at the moment.
any other questions please let us know. we are glad to help as we can.
I don't think I'm talking to a 6yr oldplease rephrase your post to be a bit gentler and breaking things apart makes them easier to read.
I like it when people are blunt and get straight to the point. I don't think I was rude at all. Honestly a puffer like the Fahaka isn't a puffer someone should own if they haven't already researched enough to know that they are a freshwater fish. IMO lots of people who own Fahakas & Mbus (just to name two) don't house them properly and don't realize that they need such a large tank. And lot of times they need the tank all to themselves and most people don't want to dedicated a large tank to 1 fish. Sure you can keep them in a smaller tank, poor water quality, and not feed them properly. Just like you can keep a dog in a small cage and it will live...
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Jager
All you said in there is mostly true, however being new here as sarah is we try to give quite alot of slack. By asking the relevent questions now we can help her decide what to do and then work through tanks sizes filtration etc. one step at a time.toofazt wrote: I don't think I'm talking to a 6yr old
I like it when people are blunt and get straight to the point. I don't think I was rude at all. Honestly a puffer like the Fahaka isn't a puffer someone should own if they haven't already researched enough to know that they are a freshwater fish. IMO lots of people who own Fahakas & Mbus (just to name two) don't house them properly and don't realize that they need such a large tank. And lot of times they need the tank all to themselves and most people don't want to dedicated a large tank to 1 fish. Sure you can keep them in a smaller tank, poor water quality, and not feed them properly. Just like you can keep a dog in a small cage and it will live...
I dont think sarah is a 6 year old, but you are acting a quite bit like one. If you prefer blunt then I can be as blunt as anyone else, so I am sorry if the above post wasnt clear, but you are not helping here.
Sarah is trying to do right by her animal. so we are trying to help her. She is asking questions and your actions are not helping her at all, simply flaming her.
If you actually had something relevent that helped her at this point then I wouldnt mind. But otherwise please leave this alone. We like to give all our new ppl quite alot of play before we get upset, but flaming against a persons percieved inadaqueticies or past mistakes that they are trying to fix is not acceptable.
Whether you think your being rude or not, your typing is all we read, and it does come across as rude.
Please treat others as you would like to be treated as we are fostering a community.
Some call it a product of a mis-spent youth, I call it Rock n Roll ! 
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sarah'sfahaka
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2005 4:50 pm
Update on Merl
Simmer down, I can handle the abuse. I'm 20, not 6.
Just so you all know the puffer is my boyfriends. I have a saltwater tank, so I took it upon myself to try to figure out what's going on.
Merl is 2.5-3" long.
He feeds too much, 2 full cubes of frozen krill a day. I feed a 1/4 of frozen mysis to my reef every other day. I realise the importance of controlling feedings.
Anyway, he told me Merl is doing good. He has a 90 and 75 gal for when Merl gets larger.
I tested his water and Nitrite was 0, Nitrate was 5ppm, PH-I forgot but it was normal, and Ammonia was zero. I'm thinking this cloudy water is from all the nutrients from the krill. Phosphates are probably sky high. Melafix (the bandaid) seems to be working, therefore, he's going to continue using it, and if needed then he'll try Maracyn Two.
Just so you all know the puffer is my boyfriends. I have a saltwater tank, so I took it upon myself to try to figure out what's going on.
Merl is 2.5-3" long.
He feeds too much, 2 full cubes of frozen krill a day. I feed a 1/4 of frozen mysis to my reef every other day. I realise the importance of controlling feedings.
Anyway, he told me Merl is doing good. He has a 90 and 75 gal for when Merl gets larger.
I tested his water and Nitrite was 0, Nitrate was 5ppm, PH-I forgot but it was normal, and Ammonia was zero. I'm thinking this cloudy water is from all the nutrients from the krill. Phosphates are probably sky high. Melafix (the bandaid) seems to be working, therefore, he's going to continue using it, and if needed then he'll try Maracyn Two.
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Jager
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