Pufferfish acting VERY unusually
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.
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Lil' Swimz$
- Mbu Puffer
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Re: Pufferfish acting VERY unusually
I think I may have confused you, justkeepswimming (did you get that from Nemo? Just keeping swimming, just keeping swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..) The non-iodized salt is for aquarium salt (or, I guess iodized as PP said). You'll need marine salt to turn it BW (brackish water).
Ha ha, he he! DAncE whEn yoU're HAPpppy! He he he! DAnce, danCE, DANCe!
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Lil' Swimz$
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Re: Pufferfish acting VERY unusually
But you shouldn't worry/add any salt yet until you get the bigger tank, get it cycled, and whatnot.
Ha ha, he he! DAncE whEn yoU're HAPpppy! He he he! DAnce, danCE, DANCe!
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Pufferfish acting VERY unusually
Of course, everyone should do reasearch before buying a pet but these were given as a gift (really bad idea!) & he was just coming here to try & save them. If we chase thim away, then where is he gonna go for advise--the LFS? 
Even a newbie who didn't get their puffer as a gift has come here for help.
Even a newbie who didn't get their puffer as a gift has come here for help.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!"
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pufferpuggirl
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Re: Pufferfish acting VERY unusually
All I can do is apologise for my obviously insensitive comments, so I'm very sorry. Everyone, I think, has opened their mouth when they shouldn't have .... and I admit that this is one of those times for me.
I suppose I don't have anything valuable to add to the forum, so perhaps I should just bow out altogether.
I suppose I don't have anything valuable to add to the forum, so perhaps I should just bow out altogether.
Last edited by pufferpuggirl on Fri Sep 04, 2009 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Puffer .... man's best friend?"
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Myaj
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Re: Pufferfish acting VERY unusually
I'm coming in late here but everyone's pretty much covered it for you..
The larger tank will be a big thing you'll need to focus on, but if the puffer is small doing daily water changes will keep it healthy while you find a tank. What you need to watch for though is keeping that water clean.. don't overfeed, don't add more fish (most likely the bumping/weird behavior was due to an ammonia spike from him killing the feeder fish, the salt helped detoxify that a bit maybe). If there's uneaten food, clean it up asap.
I skimmed the posts quick, but if no one has mentioned it, two quick and easy foods that are healthy for a GSP are earthworms and thawed out, raw shrimp (yes, the kind people eat that you can get a the grocery store). Just be sure the earthworms aren't from a garden treated with any pesticides or fertilizers, and the shrimp is most healthy if it is raw. Cut off a small piece to thaw it out and feed that.. one shrimp will feed a young gsp for a few weeks, hehe. But yes, snails are probably THE best food for them in the long run.
For the boredom, pick up some fake plants, lots of them, or even throw in some of those gerbil critter tubes for him to swim through and explore. Puffers are all about exploring because exploring means hunting and puffers LOVE to eat... If you can get some live snails (pond or ramshorn, NOT the little ones that look like ice cream cones), throw those in there for him to hunt down and search for (since they won't die unless he kills them, they shouldn't pollute the water much at all, not enough to worry about).
Tankmates.. don't worry about that for now. Puffers are kind of best alone, they are agressive and will kill peaceful tankmates, but they aren't very good at escaping or defending themselves against aggressive tankmates (those fat bodies and short fins can move fast, but only in spurts). If you really decide you like this little guy a lot, you could consider getting another of the same species, but then you're looking at a 60 gallon or larger tank (always remember to research a fish's ADULT size, not the baby size at the store).
Also, since GSP's go full marine eventually (sooner or later, its best for them), you'd probably have to wait until you are at full marine to get tankmates anyways. And don't let the word "marine" scare you, its not complicated unless you want to keep corals.
Speaking of salt.. as was said, don't worry too much about that right now.. it can be complicated but we'll try to keep it as easy as possible for you. You can do more harm by adding too much, so right now just stay with freshwater and keep doing those water changes to keep pollutants down to a minimum.
BTW, you're sure its a GSP right? Just wanted to check that its not a Figure 8 or anything like that
The larger tank will be a big thing you'll need to focus on, but if the puffer is small doing daily water changes will keep it healthy while you find a tank. What you need to watch for though is keeping that water clean.. don't overfeed, don't add more fish (most likely the bumping/weird behavior was due to an ammonia spike from him killing the feeder fish, the salt helped detoxify that a bit maybe). If there's uneaten food, clean it up asap.
I skimmed the posts quick, but if no one has mentioned it, two quick and easy foods that are healthy for a GSP are earthworms and thawed out, raw shrimp (yes, the kind people eat that you can get a the grocery store). Just be sure the earthworms aren't from a garden treated with any pesticides or fertilizers, and the shrimp is most healthy if it is raw. Cut off a small piece to thaw it out and feed that.. one shrimp will feed a young gsp for a few weeks, hehe. But yes, snails are probably THE best food for them in the long run.
For the boredom, pick up some fake plants, lots of them, or even throw in some of those gerbil critter tubes for him to swim through and explore. Puffers are all about exploring because exploring means hunting and puffers LOVE to eat... If you can get some live snails (pond or ramshorn, NOT the little ones that look like ice cream cones), throw those in there for him to hunt down and search for (since they won't die unless he kills them, they shouldn't pollute the water much at all, not enough to worry about).
Tankmates.. don't worry about that for now. Puffers are kind of best alone, they are agressive and will kill peaceful tankmates, but they aren't very good at escaping or defending themselves against aggressive tankmates (those fat bodies and short fins can move fast, but only in spurts). If you really decide you like this little guy a lot, you could consider getting another of the same species, but then you're looking at a 60 gallon or larger tank (always remember to research a fish's ADULT size, not the baby size at the store).
Also, since GSP's go full marine eventually (sooner or later, its best for them), you'd probably have to wait until you are at full marine to get tankmates anyways. And don't let the word "marine" scare you, its not complicated unless you want to keep corals.
Speaking of salt.. as was said, don't worry too much about that right now.. it can be complicated but we'll try to keep it as easy as possible for you. You can do more harm by adding too much, so right now just stay with freshwater and keep doing those water changes to keep pollutants down to a minimum.
BTW, you're sure its a GSP right? Just wanted to check that its not a Figure 8 or anything like that
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bigfatfish
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Re: Pufferfish acting VERY unusually
Don't be silly!schismy007 wrote:All I can do is apologise for my obviously insensitive comments, so I'm very sorry. Everyone, I think, has opened their mouth when they shouldn't have .... and I admit that this is one of those times for me.
I suppose I don't have anything valuable to add to the forum, so perhaps I should just bow out altogether.
Everyone who comes on this forum is able to offer their own experiences to help & advise others. Just cos you let your emotions get in the way this time (who hasn't?) doesn't mean that you can't give great advice. I, for one, would miss you, so don't go!!-
Dadof4
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Re: Pufferfish acting VERY unusually
That wasn't directed entirely at you, trust me there are others, but it was a great example of stuff that has been scaring new people off and some of the more experienced members have left because of it as well. You bring a lot to the table and have a lot to offer, leaving all together would be foolish and a huge loss for everyone. We need to remember that people come here for help....schismy007 wrote:All I can do is apologise for my obviously insensitive comments, so I'm very sorry. Everyone, I think, has opened their mouth when they shouldn't have .... and I admit that this is one of those times for me.
I suppose I don't have anything valuable to add to the forum, so perhaps I should just bow out altogether.
"Darwin swings...annnnnnd a miss. Boy Jim, Chuck's suffered at the plate tonight. He's 0 for 3 and I'm not sure he's recovered from that shoulder pull a few weeks ago. I'll bet the front office is re-thinking that contract."
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Lil' Swimz$
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Re: Pufferfish acting VERY unusually
No way, don't go!! First Dadof4, now you! People are dropping out like flies! Don't go, either of you. Please.schismy007 wrote:All I can do is apologise for my obviously insensitive comments, so I'm very sorry. Everyone, I think, has opened their mouth when they shouldn't have .... and I admit that this is one of those times for me.
I suppose I don't have anything valuable to add to the forum, so perhaps I should just bow out altogether.
Ha ha, he he! DAncE whEn yoU're HAPpppy! He he he! DAnce, danCE, DANCe!
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LilGreenPuffer
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Re: Pufferfish acting VERY unusually
I don't think Dadof4 ever said he was leaving, at least, not since the time when he thought he'd have to get rid of his fish.
Anyway...
We've got a fish to help - let's not waste any more time.
Anyway...
We've got a fish to help - let's not waste any more time.
"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him or her. Will she gain anything by it? Will it restore her to a control over her own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to freedom for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."
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Come and visit http://www.thetriopsforum.com!
I AM A DUDETTE!
NEED NITRIFYING BACTERIA FOR YOUR NEW TANK? PM ME!
Found among the papers of Mohatma Gandhi
Come and visit http://www.thetriopsforum.com!
I AM A DUDETTE!
NEED NITRIFYING BACTERIA FOR YOUR NEW TANK? PM ME!
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Lil' Swimz$
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Re: Pufferfish acting VERY unusually
Dadof4 wrote:I've had serious thoughts of not posting here anymore, as much as I love my puffers and sharing my knowledge with beginners, and this stuff is why.
Ha ha, he he! DAncE whEn yoU're HAPpppy! He he he! DAnce, danCE, DANCe!
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Pufferfish acting VERY unusually
See ther new announcement about Dadof4's upgrade to a "bigger tank"!
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!"
-
Lil' Swimz$
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Re: Pufferfish acting VERY unusually
Oh no.. Schismy007 hasn't been on lately. She left didn't she?
Ha ha, he he! DAncE whEn yoU're HAPpppy! He he he! DAnce, danCE, DANCe!
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Pufferpunk
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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: Pufferfish acting VERY unusually
Sometimes folks get grumpy & leave for a short while but not for too long--they need their pufferfix.
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!"