Puffer acting strange after high nitrates

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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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sarina23
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Re: Puffer acting strange after high nitrates

Post by sarina23 »

Sadly, puffalicious died last night. He was doing better but then got a lot worse. I am still confused at what he was doing. He just kept gulping air....non stop. His eyes were terribly sunk in. I tried to get some pictures but it was really hard. Eventually he started breathing really hard and passed...poor guy.

Anyway, Puffy is doing fine, bright white belly and eating. I'm still not sure they are IPS because the poo dissolved quickly into the water, wouldn't IPS have a string that stays in the water? Not sure... I guess treating for IPS doesn't hurt right?

Thanks so much for all the help...
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sarina23
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Re: Puffer acting strange after high nitrates

Post by sarina23 »

Image
Image

Here he is a few hours before he passed away... He was doing this for about 3 days. His head was almost completely out of the water.
Sarina
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Re: Puffer acting strange after high nitrates

Post by Jase »

That's so strange... sorry for your loss :(
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Re: Puffer acting strange after high nitrates

Post by edmlfc1 »

Poor little thing. I've never seen that before. Sorry for your loss. Glad to hear the other one is doing well.
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Re: Puffer acting strange after high nitrates

Post by LilGreenPuffer »

That is strange, with the eyes. A little disturbing-looking... Well, that's awful. I'm so sorry.
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Re: Puffer acting strange after high nitrates

Post by sarina23 »

Yes it was very disturbing... I just wanted him to stay in the water! I kept trying to burp him and it definately helped when I did...but he would go straight back to the top... very strange.

Thanks again for your help guys.
Sarina
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Re: Puffer acting strange after high nitrates

Post by Agnate »

Sorry for your loss. I've also never seen or heard anything like that, so I don't think there's much any of us could have done. :(
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