I think my figure 8 is dying! I've noticed him acting a little different the last couple of days. He hasn't been as friendly and active and he just seemed to be resting a lot more than usual. I've had him about a month and a half so I figured he was just finally starting to relax and get used to his surroundings. Well when I checked on him about an hour ago he was in the back corner with his mouth in the sand and his tail kind of floating up. When I put my finger up to the tank he started swimming a little but was all over the place and flipping over on his back and side.
Ammonia is at 0
Nitrites are at 0
He's 1 inch, in a 6 gallon (being moved to a 20 when it's ready)
We do 50% water changes weekly
My husband and I moved him into a hospital tank and did a 75% water change. I'm not even sure if he's alive right now. He isn't really moving but I don't want to poke at him and make things even worse.
I guess what my question is is if anyone else maybe knows what could have gone wrong or maybe has had the same problem? I use a sand substrate and was completely unaware that you should stir up the sand every week to release the gas. I immediately came on here and when I read that it needed to be stirred I moved him to the hospital tank and stirred it before my water change. I was shocked to see that there were a lot of bubbles in there. Is it possible that that is what caused this?
I feel horrible! I hate to think that he may have died due to my negligence. Between my husband and I we have done literally days of research in the last couple of months and I just really wasn't expecting this.
F8 seems to be dying, please help. :(
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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LadyLegacy
- Puffer Fry
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Pufferpunk
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This could very well be the problem.I use a sand substrate and was completely unaware that you should stir up the sand every week to release the gas. I immediately came on here and when I read that it needed to be stirred I moved him to the hospital tank and stirred it before my water change. I was shocked to see that there were a lot of bubbles in there. Is it possible that that is what caused this?
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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ChesapeakeSwellfish
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Before beating yourself up more, you should know that these fish sometimes come with parasites and for some of these parasites, such as somatic nematodes, there is no cure.
IMHO, the substrate should be vacuumed at every water change. And since the tank was only 6 gals, those changes should have been very frequent - maybe every 2 or 3 days. What kind of filtration did you have? Was he in brackish water?
IMHO, the substrate should be vacuumed at every water change. And since the tank was only 6 gals, those changes should have been very frequent - maybe every 2 or 3 days. What kind of filtration did you have? Was he in brackish water?
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LadyLegacy
- Puffer Fry
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He didn't make it. 
He was in an Eclipse 6 but we were looking in to replacing the filter because it just didn't seem to be doing as great of a job as it should have. He was in fresh water when I purchased him from the LFS and was worked up to 1.004-5 SG brackish water over the last month and half. I didn't realize we needed to do water changes that frequently! We also have a 40 gallon breeder mangrove swamp and were just doing our water changes together every weekend, more if we felt necessary. He seemed to be doing great and seemed so happy!
My other concern was that maybe I was feeding him too often. He was eating just about everyday, I skipped a day here or there depending on what I fed him the night before. Krill seemed to really fill him up so I sometimes skipped the day after a Krill feeding or just gave him a very small amount to keep him happy. He always knew when it was feeding time so I felt terrible turning his lights off without giving him at least a tiny something to eat. Could he have been overfed?
I forgot to mention it earlier but he was a brown color when I found him in the corner of the tank. When I got him from the LFS I picked him because he was bright. I mean his colors were beautiful! When I found him earlier he was extremely dull looking and had a brown tint all over his body.
Thanks for the help guys. I just feel sick over this.
He was in an Eclipse 6 but we were looking in to replacing the filter because it just didn't seem to be doing as great of a job as it should have. He was in fresh water when I purchased him from the LFS and was worked up to 1.004-5 SG brackish water over the last month and half. I didn't realize we needed to do water changes that frequently! We also have a 40 gallon breeder mangrove swamp and were just doing our water changes together every weekend, more if we felt necessary. He seemed to be doing great and seemed so happy!
My other concern was that maybe I was feeding him too often. He was eating just about everyday, I skipped a day here or there depending on what I fed him the night before. Krill seemed to really fill him up so I sometimes skipped the day after a Krill feeding or just gave him a very small amount to keep him happy. He always knew when it was feeding time so I felt terrible turning his lights off without giving him at least a tiny something to eat. Could he have been overfed?
I forgot to mention it earlier but he was a brown color when I found him in the corner of the tank. When I got him from the LFS I picked him because he was bright. I mean his colors were beautiful! When I found him earlier he was extremely dull looking and had a brown tint all over his body.
Thanks for the help guys. I just feel sick over this.
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ChesapeakeSwellfish
- Mentor
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Don't feel bad...puffers are difficult to get right first time...I didn't even have a goldfish before I started and I did a lot of research so I got everything right. I got three F8's last summer, and one dies after (I think) I used an ick med with copper in...I think he had a parasite as well, but I blame myself for the copper med.
Everyone here's lost a fish, so don't worry...it's a lesson learned...cycle your 20 gallon and start again.
Sorry to hear about your loss...sounds like he made an impression on you.
Pami.
Everyone here's lost a fish, so don't worry...it's a lesson learned...cycle your 20 gallon and start again.
Sorry to hear about your loss...sounds like he made an impression on you.
Pami.
Pufferpunk wrote:This could very well be the problem.I use a sand substrate and was completely unaware that you should stir up the sand every week to release the gas. I immediately came on here and when I read that it needed to be stirred I moved him to the hospital tank and stirred it before my water change. I was shocked to see that there were a lot of bubbles in there. Is it possible that that is what caused this?
I agree with this.
Some call it a product of a mis-spent youth, I call it Rock n Roll ! 
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LadyLegacy
- Puffer Fry
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Thanks guys, yes he definitely made an impression on me. I loved that little guy! <3
I have a couple of questions...
We also have sand in our 40gal mangrove swamp and like Buddy's tank, have not been stirring it up. Should we do it during a water change or is it okay for me to just do it right now? If the gases are present will they contaminate the water after stirring it and hurt the fish?
Also, I want to keep my 6gal going. I have two ghost shrimp in there that Buddy befriended rather than making a meal out of. Will they be able to keep the ammonia in the tank high enough to keep it cycled?
My wonderful husband is taking me tonight to pick up a new tank to start cycling! We found a great 37 gallon with a stand so after a nice long fishless cycle and much more research hopefully I'll be ready to try the world of puffers again.
Again, thanks for all your help guys!
I have a couple of questions...
We also have sand in our 40gal mangrove swamp and like Buddy's tank, have not been stirring it up. Should we do it during a water change or is it okay for me to just do it right now? If the gases are present will they contaminate the water after stirring it and hurt the fish?
Also, I want to keep my 6gal going. I have two ghost shrimp in there that Buddy befriended rather than making a meal out of. Will they be able to keep the ammonia in the tank high enough to keep it cycled?
My wonderful husband is taking me tonight to pick up a new tank to start cycling! We found a great 37 gallon with a stand so after a nice long fishless cycle and much more research hopefully I'll be ready to try the world of puffers again.
Again, thanks for all your help guys!
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
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:
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ChesapeakeSwellfish
- Mentor
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LadyLegacy
- Puffer Fry
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That's actually the plan. I have a little 2.5 gallon with 5 shrimp in there and a little chinese algae eater that my dad asked me to take a while ago. I'm just going to re-cycle the 6 gallon for them. That's been the plan for awhile, move Buddy to the 20gal and the algae eater and shrimp to the 6gal.ChesapeakeSwellfish wrote:Have you considered using the 6 gal tank for shrimp alone ? It could support more shrimp. FWIW, I find the shrimp to be interesting.
I find the shrimp interesting as well. I love watching the little scavengers eat.
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ChesapeakeSwellfish
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