hey everyone,
new to the puffer scene, not to keeping fish, got some questions!
so again, newbie to puffers not to fish, but anyway - have a congo puffer, 37 gallon by herself except for a few ghost shrimp. I'm also a member of http://www.dfwfishbox.com (great site for texas people) and picked up some marbled crayfish for free.
thought, hey, lets mix up the puffers diet a bit and toss one in, sure she'll eat it no prob. Well, the crayfish did not get eaten, it actually started eating on her tail fin! man I'm an idiot. as soon as i realized it, pulled the crayfish. of course, the puffer got a fungus etc from the nibbling. treated her for 7 days with pimafix anti fungal for 7 days and completed the 25% water change and she looks great....here's the prob....she has not eaten in 5 days!
main diet consists of frozen shrimp or clam strips...not sure what else to try, i dont want to lose this girl but running out of ideas and suggestions or further questions for me to fill in details?
thanks,
matt
congo 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.
-
mattscratt
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:36 pm
- Location (country): Texas
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32987
- 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: congo help
![[welcome]](./images/smilies/welcome.gif "welcome")
Try a live earthworm. Most puffers can't resist the wriggling food!
Got some pics of your puff?
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!"
-
eieio
- Mbu Puffer
- Posts: 1033
- Joined: Sat Jun 13, 2009 11:34 am
- My Puffers: *
The Congo Puffer:
"olivia"
and.......
The DP:
"cream puff"
RIP cream puff :-( - Location (country): U.S.A.
- Location: Prescott, Arizona
Re: congo help
crickets are a big favorite here 
welcome to TPF, by the way
welcome to TPF, by the way
"I plan ahead. That way, I don't have to do anything right now!"
-
mattscratt
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:36 pm
- Location (country): Texas
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32987
- 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: congo help
LOL, gotta love that grumpy mug! Sedentary fish, like ambush predators, can go quite some time without eating. It's not like they use up a ton of energy swimming around.
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!"
-
mattscratt
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:36 pm
- Location (country): Texas
Re: congo help
thanks for the replies and the advice...sounds crazy but i just love this fish...the frown, the baked potato shape all of it...me and the kids have some much fun watching her bury in the sand and they love to put the shrimp on a string to feed her...and i'm just worried, until the fungus she ate very regularly. I live near a lake so bait shops aren't a problem...tell me about crickets....buy some at a pet store and drop one in or what? again, new to puffers but not to fish....i suffer from MTS multi tank syndrome and have seven tanks...2 37 gallons, 29 tall, two 29 long, 3 gallon eclipse shrimp tank, and a 55 in my bedroom. watching craigslist as i want more!!!! i need professional help BAD!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWYn6h8ksaI
what can i say? i love this fish and i'm a computer geek by profession.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWYn6h8ksaI
what can i say? i love this fish and i'm a computer geek by profession.
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32987
- 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: congo help
Stick around for a while--I might need you for our Tech Team! 
This board is about 7 upgrades behind...
This board is about 7 upgrades behind...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!"
-
eieio
- Mbu Puffer
- Posts: 1033
- Joined: Sat Jun 13, 2009 11:34 am
- My Puffers: *
The Congo Puffer:
"olivia"
and.......
The DP:
"cream puff"
RIP cream puff :-( - Location (country): U.S.A.
- Location: Prescott, Arizona
Re: congo help
i get my crickets (and worms) at the bait storemattscratt wrote:...tell me about crickets....buy some at a pet store and drop one in or what? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWYn6h8ksaI
what can i say? i love this fish and i'm a computer geek by profession.
they seem fresher & healthier than those at the pet shops
crickets float, so best to feed them while your puffer is up and about
very nice puffer!
"I plan ahead. That way, I don't have to do anything right now!"
-
mattscratt
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:36 pm
- Location (country): Texas
Re: congo help
no prob, I'm a very generous geek....I've been given talents that i love to share because you reap what you sew. I will say, I'm not a developer...I do more of hardware, infrastructure, networking and virtualization but would be happy to help out in any way i can when i can. Not by choice, but pretty good at application problem solving...due to the work environment....those who do this for a living can relate....you were the last one to touch it so fix it! never mind the fact that the code it all funked up - we wrote this program and you deployed it for us and now it doesn't work, must be something wrong with your hardware!Stick around for a while--I might need you for our Tech Team!
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32987
- 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: congo help
The problem is, this boards code is so seriously customized, we can't upgrade without losing all those customizations, like the drop down menus, etc.
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!"
-
mattscratt
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:36 pm
- Location (country): Texas
Re: congo help
oh boy....currently dealing with that and my company website using IBM WebSphere commerce.....fricking developers couldn't just use it out of the box and deal with it, had to be 100% customized from the launch date....did i mention i hate IBM and WebSphere? wow, this could be an interesting problem...almost sounds like it's a good time to do a full backup, then nuke it and start over on hardware etc that does what we want to do and supports it....at some point you have to draw a line in the sand and not go back but forge ahead no matter how much it hurts...thinking about future growth and not the pain now.
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32987
- 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: congo help
Yeah, I have no one that can do 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!"
-
mattscratt
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:36 pm
- Location (country): Texas
Re: congo help
well, that makes it all clear! how about we take this conversation offline, I'll pm you an email and phone #.
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32987
- 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: congo help
Sorry but this isn't going to happen anytime soon... Everything's running great so far & I'd really have to get to know/trust you better before I could entrust my long-owned form to someone new. I'm sure you'll understand?
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!"
-
mattscratt
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:36 pm
- Location (country): Texas
Re: congo help
no worrries, Im here if you need me!