How to apologize to an offended puffer:

Pandora114 · Post by **Pandora114** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 4:01 pm

I noticed that Bubbles wasn't settling in as smoothly as I had hoped. After a few days he still was showing stresslines, lights either on or off, so I tested the water, Amm 0 Nitrites 0 but Nitrates were at 30. So, I did a water change. He did NOT like that at all..tried to jump out and was all offended, even puffed at the siphon. Rather funny. When I was done, he was cowering in a corner looking all depressed and black...

I let him stew for an hour or so then came back to the tank and he was still all skittish but he noticed me and I swear he would have scowled. so I reached into the snail tank and grabbed a crunchy.

it was kinda big so I crushed it a little. Placed it on the rock in the tank and watched. He looked at me all apprehensively then looked at the snail, then looked at me, then looked at the snail again and NOM NOM NOM. Apology accepted.

He's now at the glass whenever I'm in the room, belly white as the snow outside.

Gonna do another %50 WC tomorrow to bring the nitrates down from 15 to 7.5 or so.

fishboytk · Post by **fishboytk** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 4:07 pm

Good thing ya had snails.

DeFishy · Post by **DeFishy** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 8:39 pm

Yea:) I sometimes have to "buy" my puffer off with either a mollusk, or clam. He also gets really upset if he has no one in the tank with him. (I know its weird for puffers, but he does seem to get depressed if he doesn't have a companion). I remember I had the same problem you did. I ended up doing an 80% water change as my little Shuo was at the surface looking half dead! EEP! I have to remember every time I give him shrimp to look for remains as he hides them away.

Post by **Pufferpunk** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:19 am

A fat, juicy nightcrawler always cheers Filbert up!

edmlfc1 · Post by **edmlfc1** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:43 am

Anytime Elvis is mad at me I get out a mussel. He goes nuts! Splashes water, goes up & down, side to side, chomps his teeth, he just can't wait for me to drop it.

pinkfloydpuffer · Post by **pinkfloydpuffer** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:31 pm

Haha, I've done that too. My gsps would get all mad at me when I do too big of a waterchange and will act like they're all sick until I give them a snail... Spoiled brats, lol

Pandora114 · Post by **Pandora114** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:52 pm

poor guy has to go through ANOTHER water change today. Gotta get those damn nitrates under control. If I had more than 3 buckets I'd be prepping more than a %50 but right now all I have is enough to prep for a %50. Figure I'll do daily %50's till they're down to 10-5 ppm.

(Ammonia and Nitrites are still 0 Just those damn nitrates creeping up there...think it's all the debris left in the substrate from the tetras that used to be in that tank previously, despite the constant vaccuming..dirty dirty fish)

andy198712 · Post by **andy198712** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 10:06 pm

i see your in BC, i love going to Gabriola (sp) island when i'm over! got family(well almost) there!

on the nirtrates, how long you leaving the food in there? thats one thought

how old is the tank? cycled wise?

cheers

Pandora114 · Post by **Pandora114** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 11:13 pm

Umm...It's been fully cycled for over a year now. Tetras were originally in it, then we moved them upstairs to a 20gal while we gradually brought the salinity up to 1.005 and kept it active with a bit of ammonia each day.

Not leaving the food in there. The tetras were dirty dirty dirty fish and when I took out the orig substrate to mix in with new to give more of a base, it kicked up so much CRAP in the water..

edmlfc1 · Post by **edmlfc1** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 9:07 am

Pandora114 wrote: The tetras were dirty dirty dirty fish and when I took out the orig substrate to mix in with new to give more of a base, it kicked up so much CRAP in the water..

I hate to say this and it sound the wrong way but here goes: I'm so glad to hear that! Now for the reason I said it: When I moved from the 125 to the 156 I added new sand in the 156 and put the old substrate that was in the 125 on top. It stirred up alot of crap for me too. My nitrates went to 40. I'm glad to know that it wasn't just me and that I'm not crazy!

But I'm sorry that you're going through the same thing I'm going through.

I have already done 3 water changes and plan to do another on sunday. Also trying to get my nitrates down and under control from the move. I feel so much better now!

I thought I was the only one that ever had this problem. Just tested my nitrates again this morning and they are between 10-20. I'm slowly getting there.

Pandora114 · Post by **Pandora114** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 6:19 pm

Still fighting the nitrates Garh

Well the lil guy kinda likes me because he will now eat from my hands! I put a piece of krill in there and waved it around and he ate it from my fingers then when he was done he swam on his merry way. So that's good that's LESS of an issue I gotta worry about (hunting down uneaten food since this puff isn't a pig)

See I need to do an %80 waterchange in my 32 gallon Brackish tank to bring down those nitrates. Now I only have 3 5 gallon Buckets. The Specific Gravity has to be at 1.005 in the tank. Now, how much of a specific gravity in Three buckets (which equal a full %50) do I need to bring the overall tank to 1.005, when another %30 of the water will be fresh.

I can't do math...

was also thinking about getting some of this:
http://www.bigalsonline.ca/StoreCatalog ... te&offset=

To see if that will help a bit.

edmlfc1 · Post by **edmlfc1** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:43 pm

I've tried that stuff before but I didn't notice any difference on the nitrates. Have you ever tried dosing the tank with pure vitamin c?
Here's the link that tells about it.
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=13501

Post by **Pufferpunk** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 11:20 pm

That was going to be my next recomendation. Can we try to keep all this in one thread? Maybe I can move the other thread over here.

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