Hi
I have a 20G brackish tank which has been established for about 3 years ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 10 sg 1.004, temperature 27'c it was home to two little F8's which we have had for 15 months, no aggression, both feeding and growing well, no changes to the tank for about a year.They have been fed on snails, shrimp,mussell,bloodworm and a few brine shrimp for treats.
4 or 5 days ago, the larger and slightly more dominant of the two changed her base in the tank and appeared to be more friendly than usual, the next day she was swimming near the top of the tank so i checked the water parameters, moved the filter outlet to point to the surface to add extra oxygen. the next day she appeared to be drifting more than swimming and wasn't eating but remained plump and colouful, i did a extra 50% water change but the next morning i found her dead. i examined her body, no marks or lumps visible on her. Her tank mate seemed well and was feeding well, if anything he seemed more colouful than usual and was exploring more. unfortunately today he also seems listless and is sometimes swimming, sometimes drifting near the top of the tank, he is also plump and colouful but I haven't seen him eat despite putting a few brine shrimp in the tank. I am so scared we are going to lose him too. I have done another 50% waterchange which seemed to make him worse not better and have turned off the tank lights. To add to the problem, we are going away on sunday and i just can't imagine what can be wrong and what i can do.Please help if you have any ideas at all
Thanks
Sue
sick F8
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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t1gerbee
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Re: sick F8
that's really odd...
any poisons that could have got in the water? hand moisturiser? air sprays...
have you changed anything at all in your water change procedure? is the heater working?
any poisons that could have got in the water? hand moisturiser? air sprays...
have you changed anything at all in your water change procedure? is the heater working?
1 x 90G Juv stars and stripes puffer, Ceylon Puffer + GSP + 2 black clowns
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1 x 30G LPS Reef
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susiejames101
- Figure 8 Puffer
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Re: sick F8
The heater is working fine,and I am manic about hand washing when I feed the fish or put my hands in the tank. I don't use any aerosols near the fish tanks either, the only thing I have done is change the light bulb about 2 weeks ago and I did a water change, exactly as normal , about 3 or 4 days before the first fish became ill. I have two other puffer tanks which alos had water changes about the same time and both are fine. I am really confused and upset, things don't look good for my little puffer tonight 
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susiejames101
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 100
- Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2005 3:44 pm
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Re: sick F8
sadly he died and just like his sister, not a mark on him, its been a very sad week
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Pufferpunk
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Re: sick F8
Sorry for your loss. I whsh I had an answer for you.
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"