My stars and stripes puffer, Jules, has been bloated and hiding under a rock all morning. He did eat yesterday morning but not this morning or yesterday afternoon. He is currently hiding under one of my rocks and has gone a mottled color, kind of a mixture of olive green and a lighter green. His belly is bloated out to the sides and he hasn't moved all day. I think he might of eaten too much yesterday morning, I didnt feed him my day did, I had to work early. He was fed about half a piece of thawed frozen shrimp, but apparently my dad didnt cut the pieces as small as I normally do. Has anyone had this happen before, Im really worried about him. I also added a 6-line wrasse and a yellow watchman goby yesterday afternoon, before he was acting strange.
Tank Parameters are:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 20 did a PWC and they are now 10 - 20
Ph - 8.2
Salinity - 1.025
Been doing some more research and I think he could be constipated, what do you guys think?
Stars and Stripes puffer bloated and sluggish
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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Gubernaculum86
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 8:21 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: Jules - Stars and Stripes Puffer
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Dadof4
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- Location (country): United States
- Location: North Wisconsin
Re: Stars and Stripes puffer bloated and sluggish
Have you seen him poop lately? Wondering if it's constipation.
"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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Pufferpunk
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Re: Stars and Stripes puffer bloated and sluggish
How big is he? Maybe he's just digesting. Possibly overfed?
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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Gubernaculum86
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 8:21 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: Jules - Stars and Stripes Puffer
- Location (country): USA, Florida
- Location: S. Florida
Re: Stars and Stripes puffer bloated and sluggish
He's about 2 1/2 to 3 inches
and hes doing much better this morning, probably was just overfed. Ill have to make sure I give better instructions next time I'm not the one feeding him.
and hes doing much better this morning, probably was just overfed. Ill have to make sure I give better instructions next time I'm not the one feeding him.