Ph 8.0, Am 0, nitrite 0, sg 1.021
55 gal
60 lbs live rock
CC substrate
1 porc puffer, 2 black stripe damsels, 2 blue and yellow damsels, 3 blue leg hermits
Feed puffer once every other day, diet is scallops, mussels, shrimp, sparingly a few flakes for the damsels. They usually get the scraps from what the puffer eats. I feed the porc just enough to give him a rounded belly. W/C 15-20 gallons once a week using tap water and prime. Have 100ml bag of purigen in a fluval 205 currently running on the tank. Octopus BH300 skimmer, just set this up last week. 2 maxijet 1200 ph's, one at each end pointing down toward the middle of the tank.
Recent changes are adding the skimmer.
Aquarium has been setup since early october. I used live rock from an established tank.
My question is what color should he be? When we first bought him he was much lighter in color. Kind of a light tan with brown spots. Now he is the darker color you see in the picture. I'm just wondering if anything with my tank stands out as bad (besides the small tank) to cause him to have the darker colors. I know the 55 is small for him but he's only 3" right now. At the end of this year we will be upgrading to a 210 gallon tank. He is currently suffering from ICH i believe. You can see it in the picture. I used kordon ich attach a few weeks ago and the spots seemed to go away. Now I realize it didn't work and they are back. Would the ich be causing the darker color? I'm assuming he's stressed but he doesn't act like it. He has a great appetite, comes out of hiding when we go up to the tank and seems happy. When we aren't by the tank he goes to his favorite spot to rest. Another thing I noticed is that he seems to have labored breathing at times. Will the parasite get so thick to block his gills? I want to use the hyposalinity treatment but I'm not sure if it will stress him out more. Sorry for so many rambling thoughts. What do you all think about the way he looks?
Dark porc color, is this normal?
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.
Dark porc color, is this normal?
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puffertt77
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Re: Dark porc color, is this normal?
I think he looks great!
Lovely little porky
I love the way their eye's are so big
Lovely little porky
I love the way their eye's are so big
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crazedpuffer
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Re: Dark porc color, is this normal?
The color is normal, Shelby is dark quite often too (especially lately)
Anyways treat with hypo, it's much safer for the fish. Also did you treat the tank with that ich medicine? If so you might have problems in the future because of it. The medicine could get absorbed by the LR and will be leeched out causing problems.
Nice puffer btw
Anyways treat with hypo, it's much safer for the fish. Also did you treat the tank with that ich medicine? If so you might have problems in the future because of it. The medicine could get absorbed by the LR and will be leeched out causing problems.
Nice puffer btw
Re: Dark porc color, is this normal?
crazedpuffer, what I used was supposed to be organic and safe for the live rock. Hopefully there are no negative effects down the road. I only treated for a week so there shouldn't be too much in the tank.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Dark porc color, is this normal?
Please read the article in our Library on threating SW "ich" & follow the directions closely. Have fun with hypo! Many folks here can talk you thru it & cheer you on.
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!"