my puffer is blind

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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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domadom
Puffer Fry
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my puffer is blind

Post by domadom »

ok i think i have figured out why my puffer is weird. he's got to be blind. he just gets excited and swims around randomly when i put food in the tank. if he hits anything ( a fake plant ) he nips at it. he only eats when i put a shrimp right in front of his face. practically in his mouth. so is he blind or what? has anyone ever seen this behavior?
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Re: my puffer is blind

Post by Pufferpunk »

This is a classic sign of high nitrite. Please try to asnwer as many Qs above, in red, especially the ones about cycling & parameters.
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!"
domadom
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Re: my puffer is blind

Post by domadom »

ph 7.5, ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrates 25 salinity 1.05 ( bringing up slowly ) tank size 50g . in it with a scat thats a baby and doing great. definitely not blind. eats like crazy. feed once every other day. have tried many different foods. he gets really excited and only bites at what happens to go right in front of his face when he's swimming in circles in the general area of the food. water changes twice a week 30% no products just a chlor out. haven't changed anything really since i've got him , he always acts this way. cycled it for over 5 weeks or so before i got him. and he'll eat a anything i put right on his beak.
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Re: my puffer is blind

Post by Nick »

It's possible he was permanently blinded by bad conditions in the shipping bag or store. I only noticed several months after having him that Shakespeare had a blind eye, it's got a golden color to the pupil rather than a inky black.
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domadom
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Re: my puffer is blind

Post by domadom »

that's what i was thinking, because i got him at 3 inches. he's really easy to catch and not scared of anything. but i was checking out his eyes they are really black in the middle. oh yea he's often on the glass going up and down too. there's lots of stuff to hide around
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Pufferpunk
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My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Greenville, SC
Contact:

Re: my puffer is blind

Post by Pufferpunk »

How long have you had him?
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!"
domadom
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Joined: Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:39 pm

Re: my puffer is blind

Post by domadom »

coming up on 3 weeks i think.
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