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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Pufferpunk
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Re: help!
Moving to Hosp Forum. Describe exactly what you did during the water change. Please answer all the Qs above, in red.
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!"
Re: help!
im testless currently.
salinity is .01018
55g with only a 5" ceylon
water changes weekley.
rdid a water cahnge a few days ago and added a ac110. water was clear and clean till about a day or 2 ago when i noticed my ceylon seemed a little down. now noticing that the water seems a lil cloudy.
his colors seem better then they have been tho he is not eating like he normal. not as into the food as before,
salinity is .01018
55g with only a 5" ceylon
water changes weekley.
rdid a water cahnge a few days ago and added a ac110. water was clear and clean till about a day or 2 ago when i noticed my ceylon seemed a little down. now noticing that the water seems a lil cloudy.
his colors seem better then they have been tho he is not eating like he normal. not as into the food as before,
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32980
- 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:
Re: help!
Please read the SG again, it has to start with 1. How much salt did you add? And get yourself some test kits. 
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!"
-
pufferpuggirl
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Rainbow crab
crayfish - Location (country): Yorkshire, GB
- Location: South Yorkshire, UK
Re: help!
You didn't by chance mix the salt in the tank (instead of mixing in a container and then adding), did you? 
"Puffer .... man's best friend?"
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Myaj
- Tech Team
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Re: help!
When you added the new filter, did you throw away the old one or did you run them both together for a while so the new filter could get established bacteria in it? If you threw out the old one, you threw away a good amount of colonized bacteria.. now its not there to change your ammonia over to less toxic amounts.
Are you measuring your salinity and matching it each water change? Changing it by more than .002 can crash your biofilter, causing the tank to cycle (ammonia poisoning your fish). So if you weren't on with that last water change, that could cause a mini cycle as well.. luckily these sort of things usually resolve themselves pretty quickly (assuming you didn't over clean the tank), but you have to keep the toxic levels down in the mean time.
What to do now.. it would be best if you could answer some of the questions above but of course, water changes are always a good thing. Be sure to match temperature and salinity, and do what you can for the next few days, see if that helps your fish. Try to do at least a few gallons a day for the next couple of days, and if you have access to either Prime or Amquel (dechlorinators that also have the added bonus of detoxifying ammonia and nitrites), use that to help keep the water less harmful to the fish.
I would personally not feed for a few days, if you do have a cycle going on, adding more food (waste) to the water won't help the situation. If your puffer isn't eating, be sure you clean up any food you offer it, don't let it sit in the tank and rot. Don't clean any glass or surfaces, you want to let that bacteria survive and repopulate.
If you can get the test readings, that will really help us know where your tank is at and what kind of steps to take, okay? Some stores will do them for you for free or a small charge, find out the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates if you can (pH, hardness, etc more than likely is not a problem, but the other three are really necessary to diganose fully what is wrong).
Are you measuring your salinity and matching it each water change? Changing it by more than .002 can crash your biofilter, causing the tank to cycle (ammonia poisoning your fish). So if you weren't on with that last water change, that could cause a mini cycle as well.. luckily these sort of things usually resolve themselves pretty quickly (assuming you didn't over clean the tank), but you have to keep the toxic levels down in the mean time.
What to do now.. it would be best if you could answer some of the questions above but of course, water changes are always a good thing. Be sure to match temperature and salinity, and do what you can for the next few days, see if that helps your fish. Try to do at least a few gallons a day for the next couple of days, and if you have access to either Prime or Amquel (dechlorinators that also have the added bonus of detoxifying ammonia and nitrites), use that to help keep the water less harmful to the fish.
I would personally not feed for a few days, if you do have a cycle going on, adding more food (waste) to the water won't help the situation. If your puffer isn't eating, be sure you clean up any food you offer it, don't let it sit in the tank and rot. Don't clean any glass or surfaces, you want to let that bacteria survive and repopulate.
If you can get the test readings, that will really help us know where your tank is at and what kind of steps to take, okay? Some stores will do them for you for free or a small charge, find out the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates if you can (pH, hardness, etc more than likely is not a problem, but the other three are really necessary to diganose fully what is wrong).
