Puffer acting strange after high nitrates

[sarina23]

1) ph - 7.8 or so, am - 0, nitrite - 0, nitrates (NOW) 40, and 1.0012 or so .
2) 29g with two GSPs , one knight goby
3) Feed frozen food, brine, mussels etc, water change usually every week with cycle, stress zyme
4) ugh read below
5) I've had the aquarium for over 2 years and never problems until...

Okay so I used to have two Mono fish, two gobies and two GSPs in my tank...and I was planning to upgrade to a much larger tank soon. Anyway, I tested the water and found out my nitrates where WAY too high and I decided to do tank changes much more, every other day until it got lower. Anyway, the next day, my big mono died suddenly...didn't look ill. Then the next day, the smaller mono died too! Shortly after, one of the knight gobies who didn't look well anyway, died. I was in shock and I was terrified for my puffers... they still looked fine but I noticed they wouldn't eat. Anyway the nitrates where still way too high. I think I was overfeeding them which led to that not sure. So I read about doing a large tank change and the nitrates going down, so I did that and got the nitrates down to 40. OH and I started using Melafix just in case it is something else.

Okay so puffy is doing okay, but still not eating. The other one, puffalicious... is the strangest puffer I have ever seen. After doing the water changes I noticed he kept going up to the top and gulping air and floating there, almost looking passed out or playing dead... and I had to "burp" him to get him to swim around again. I did this a bunch of times and then thought "well maybe he is puffing up, so I will leave him alone and maybe he will stop." Well this morning I found him rounder than ever, with his mouth up at the top of the tank, not even in the water, and just sitting there. I could have SWORN he was dead. So I stood there for 5 minutes holding him under water and gently massaging him and finally after seriously contemplating that he is done, he burped up a bunch of air and swam away!!

So...I have no clue what to do now. He is still at the top of the tank, wont eat and keeps "gulping air" and floating there. Puffy seems to be better, but still not eating. I am SO sad! I guess life got in the way and I didn't do enough water changes...or fed them too much, I don't know. I've had them for 2 years and it was hard to see the monos go, but the puffers are my little babies and it would be terrible if they went too!! waaah..... any help would be much appreciated!

[Pufferpunk]

STOP adding the Stresszyme & Cycle. You are only adding dead bacteria (nitrate) to your tank. That stuff is junk! Keep doing WC in there, until you get the nitrate down & ONLY add dechlorinator (mos of us use Prime).

[sarina23]

Okay, I also have prime but haven't been using it. I guess I should. I'm worried to do another tank change today since I did it yesterday and he keeps gulping air...I thought maybe he was shocked or something...

Should I just do another tank change anyway?

[edmlfc1]

Add airstones, sounds like they need oxygen. Also keep doing the water changes to get the nitrates down.

[Dadof4]

Definitely do another big water change, use the prime to declorinate and treat the water. You may want to think about adding an air stone to get some better oxygen transfer going in the tank. What's you water temp?

[sarina23]

My water temp is about 80-81. I will do that, thanks for all your help ...hopefully they recover!

[Agnate]

I know around here that water chemistry from out taps can change drastically when spring rolls around (snow starts to melt into the sewers, so we have to change the amount/kinds of chemicals that go into the water). Usually, in the winter, they pump in tons of oxygen (or something) into the water, which can actually be detrimental to fish (think of breathing pure oxygen which makes you high as a kite).

As such, sometimes when you perform large water changes, you get a series of unexpected deaths, especially if you haven't done a water change in a long time. It's usually better to start off with slow water changes after a long period of no changes, and then slowly increase to larger ones.

If I had to guess, I would say that it was the sudden massive water change that did it. Now that you've been doing water changes, keep up with the large changes until things settle down.

I'm definitely sorry to hear about your losses, though.

[LilGreenPuffer]

Aw, man. That's too bad. Keep us posted on how they're doing.

[sarina23]

Okay! So... I did another large water change yesterday and now the nitrates are down to 20! I also rechecked PH and it seems like it is about 8, so hopefully thats better. Puffalicious is STILL doing the gulping air thing, but not as bad. I noticed his eyes a little sunk in yesterday, and he didn't look well at all, but today he is much better. His eyes aren't so sunk in and he is swimming around a lot more, but still gulping air! After he gulps, he burps up a big bubble. I really don't know what to think about it.

Anyway... Puffy is doing amazing, he ate today and looks like his old normal self. The only thing I noticed is that he pooped and it came out white and stringy, but dissolved in the water quickly. Does that some like parasites?! He seems perfectly fine now. Its only puffalicious who isn't eating/gulping air. I am still adding Melafix but contemplating something else since I saw that stringy white stuff.

Thanks so much for all the care and concern!

[edmlfc1]

Yes stringy white pooh is a sign of IP's. If you can find gel-tek ultra cure px, get it. You just defrost their food add 5 drops per fish, let it soak and feed it to them for 3 days. I'm doing more than 3 days only because my puffer was very infested. If you want to read about my experiece go to the hospital section and look for Annabelle (IP's). I've been dealing with this for over a month now. I updated the post often. Puffer's will eat food soaked in gel-tek and it does work.
Hope this helps. Keep us posted.

[sarina23]

Thanks! I will go read about your posts now. Hope Annabelle is doing well.

But what do I do if they do not eat? Well puffy eats, but puffalicious wont touch food...yet.

[LilGreenPuffer]

I think Jungle's Parasite Clear is added to the water, rather than to the food. Right?

[edmlfc1]

When I first treated Annabelle she was not eating. I used prazipro to treat the tank.

[Agnate]

You can use Jungle's in either the tank water or food. Food works better, but if they're not eating, then treat the water.

[Nick]

I usually double-whammy IP issues, in the food and in the water. Partially, because I think when it's in the water, they're more likely to eat a gross tasting IP med soaked piece of food... for instance, when treating just food, my F8 wouldn't touch it(was using jungle fizz tabs, my fish never have a problem taking geltek) but the same soaked food was eaten just fine when it was also in his water, I guess because he didn't notice the bad tastes because it was already "in his nose."