Brackish Water Puffer HELP!! 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.
Brackish Water Puffer HELP!! PLEASE HELP!
HEY GUYS! I have never ever had puffers before. I currently have 6 puffers in my 55 gallon tank. I have 2 figure 8 and 4 green spotted puffers. Currently the figure 8 puffers are bigger than the GSPs. My GSPs seem to keep getting sick and getting very very dark in color and after eating they just lay at the bottom of the tank breathing very very heavily. My tank is very well filtered and I have fed them feeder guppies, snails, and they LOVE crayfish. The water is brackish...I have it at a basic gravity at about 1.004! Can anyone tell me why my puffers are getting sick. I actually had two of them die within the first 2 weeks. HELP ME PLEASE!!!
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32976
- 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:
Please answer all the questions in the top thread of this forum, so we can help your puffers. Reading the articles in our Library on the species you have, is also an excellent idea.
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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Phaedrus
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 1402
- Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:34 pm
- Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
- Contact:
This probably belongs in the hospital forum.
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that this is a new tank that has not been cycled with these fish just added recently.
This sounds a lot like ammonia/nitrite poisoning and probably agression stress.
Your tank has many serious problems:
1. Too many fish
2. Incompatible fish
3. Fish that should be alone
Here are some questions for you to answer for us:
1. How did you cycle the tank?
2. How long has it been up and running?
3. How long have the fish been in there?
4. How often do you change water?
5. How much water do you change?
6. What kind of salt are you using?
7. What are your water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)
8. What kind of filtration do you have?
9. How big are the fish?
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that this is a new tank that has not been cycled with these fish just added recently.
This sounds a lot like ammonia/nitrite poisoning and probably agression stress.
Your tank has many serious problems:
1. Too many fish
2. Incompatible fish
3. Fish that should be alone
Here are some questions for you to answer for us:
1. How did you cycle the tank?
2. How long has it been up and running?
3. How long have the fish been in there?
4. How often do you change water?
5. How much water do you change?
6. What kind of salt are you using?
7. What are your water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)
8. What kind of filtration do you have?
9. How big are the fish?
It was cycled
The tank was cycled well...It actually had cichlid fish living in it very healthy for about 6 months before I put the puffers in. The fish are tiny and there is pleanty of room for them right now and I have read a lot of information about Figure 8s and GSPs together and that they can get along quite well...The Nitrite, Nitrate, and Ammonia levels were all at 0 and the SG was 1.007
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Phaedrus
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 1402
- Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:34 pm
- Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
- Contact:
Try and keep the discussion limited to a single thread. You've started a new topic here: http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... highlight=
Please answer all the questions I asked in my last post above.
As I say in your other thread, your tank is massively over stocked. The fish are small now, but they will need MUCH larger accomodations and SOON.
Please answer all the questions I asked in my last post above.
As I say in your other thread, your tank is massively over stocked. The fish are small now, but they will need MUCH larger accomodations and SOON.
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32976
- 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:
Unless that tank is full of live plants, there should be some nitrates. How old are the test kits & what kind are you using? Your puffers are showing symptoms of ammonia/nitrite poisoning. Are you using marine salt? What is your water change schedule?
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!"