911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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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goldielocke76
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911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by goldielocke76 »

need help to burp puffer asap please help or link or email PP please!!!
Last edited by goldielocke76 on Tue Oct 25, 2011 5:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
5.5g: Pond snails
5.5g: Red Cherry Shrimp and Rams
10g: PZ the Pee Wee (DP), Ghost shrimp, Otos x3
36g: Luau the F8, Zebra nerites x8, sometimes a herd of ghost shrimp for food
60g: Perches the starry blenny, 1 watchman goby Snaps the l.c. hermit, 2 emerald crabs, 1 red crab, 2 turbos, 7 asteas, 2 nerites, 2 clown gobies and 2 firefish gobies (upgrading to a 90 gallon reef)

RIP Yoshi, you are dearly missed <3
jus85411
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Re: 911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by jus85411 »

grab your net and put the puff in it. use the net around the puff while you hold it and while still submerged, point its face up towards the surface and rub its belly. sorry to hear, hopefully it recovers
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goldielocke76
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Re: 911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by goldielocke76 »

jus85411 wrote:grab your net and put the puff in it. use the net around the puff while you hold it and while still submerged, point its face up towards the surface and rub its belly. sorry to hear, hopefully it recovers

Me too, thank you. He was shipped to me today and his container was empty =( he looked like he kinda puffed, but I don't know how long he's been without water. He looks better, a little bruised maybe from my lack of experience, but he's trying. We will see how he does. he did expel a couple of bubbles
5.5g: Pond snails
5.5g: Red Cherry Shrimp and Rams
10g: PZ the Pee Wee (DP), Ghost shrimp, Otos x3
36g: Luau the F8, Zebra nerites x8, sometimes a herd of ghost shrimp for food
60g: Perches the starry blenny, 1 watchman goby Snaps the l.c. hermit, 2 emerald crabs, 1 red crab, 2 turbos, 7 asteas, 2 nerites, 2 clown gobies and 2 firefish gobies (upgrading to a 90 gallon reef)

RIP Yoshi, you are dearly missed <3
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goldielocke76
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Re: 911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by goldielocke76 »

Any other suggestions on what I should do for him to give him a better chance at recovery? I had to put him immediately into the 20 gallon tank...but it does have an HOB Aquaclear 70 on it. Is this too strong for him at this point in time? Should I move him into a smaller bucket with an airstone? Should i just leave him alone to minimize the stress since he's been thru enough already? Sorry guys, I am out of my league and I need immediate help. I want to do everything I can to save him
5.5g: Pond snails
5.5g: Red Cherry Shrimp and Rams
10g: PZ the Pee Wee (DP), Ghost shrimp, Otos x3
36g: Luau the F8, Zebra nerites x8, sometimes a herd of ghost shrimp for food
60g: Perches the starry blenny, 1 watchman goby Snaps the l.c. hermit, 2 emerald crabs, 1 red crab, 2 turbos, 7 asteas, 2 nerites, 2 clown gobies and 2 firefish gobies (upgrading to a 90 gallon reef)

RIP Yoshi, you are dearly missed <3
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Re: 911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by Flutter »

Leave him alone and decrease the flow on the filter. If that still seems to be too much you can use a filter sponge or floss to diffuse the flow. I'd toss in the airstone as well and add some Melafix. Try and keep lighting to a minimum as well.
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Re: 911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by J-P »

goldielocke76 wrote:He was shipped to me today and his container was empty =(
What do you mean empty? There was NO water?

If the fish was shipped in a bag that was about 1/4 full of water, that is normal. Less water is better for shipping.
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Re: 911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by Pufftastic »

J-P wrote:
goldielocke76 wrote:He was shipped to me today and his container was empty =(
What do you mean empty? There was NO water?

If the fish was shipped in a bag that was about 1/4 full of water, that is normal. Less water is better for shipping.
No water. Because I'm a total dumbass and shipped him in a plastic container (with large wide rubber bands around it tightly) filled about 1/2 way with water and surrounded by styrofoam peanuts. And I lined the entire box with styrofoam sheets. And apparently ALL the water leaked out. I'm an idiot.
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goldielocke76
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Re: 911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by goldielocke76 »

J-P wrote:
goldielocke76 wrote:He was shipped to me today and his container was empty =(
What do you mean empty? There was NO water?

If the fish was shipped in a bag that was about 1/4 full of water, that is normal. Less water is better for shipping.

Empty as in, I thought he was dead when I first saw him because he was sticky and not moving. No water, none. When I poked at him, he flopped, and started to wiggle, so my bf sprinted across the street to Jack in the Box, grabbed a cup of water, raced back and we dumped it in the bowl. Please, to those who read this, don't make any judgements. I opened the package while I was at the Post office (about 15 min from my house) because the box was soaked and soggy. I did the only thing I could think of. I didn't have any cycled tank water on me (forgot to put it in my pocket this morning), I had no other source of water but the tap that came out of the faucet at JitB. It wasn't cold, but it wasn't warm. As soon as I put that in his bowl, he started to swim around, but not really. His stomach was a little bulgy, so I assumed he needed to be burped. Denzil cut some lights super close, and broke a few speed limits, but we got here in about 7 minutes. I ran to the house, grabbed him, and got him into the 20 as fast as I could. While he was in there, he was having a hard time swimming, so without knowing what to do exactly, I grabbed him with my hands, and burped him. He expelled about 3 bubbles of air, and now his stomach is normal. After about 15 minutes, he started to perk up. His tail even flares a bit now, instead of being tightly clamped.

It may be too early to tell, but he is pacing like crazy, and swimming normally. I hope he will be ok, but let's get thru the first 24 hours, then we can celebrate. We are working on getting the goldfish out, and then I will add some melafix per Flutter's suggestion.

J-P, he was shipped in a container, and we are not sure what happened, but it was completely empty, no fault to anyone other than USPS, IMO. I just about had an effing heart attack when the lady tossed the box on the counter, and I almost verbally ripped her head off. Denzil had to grab me and pinch me. He was right, my first concern, was Luau.
5.5g: Pond snails
5.5g: Red Cherry Shrimp and Rams
10g: PZ the Pee Wee (DP), Ghost shrimp, Otos x3
36g: Luau the F8, Zebra nerites x8, sometimes a herd of ghost shrimp for food
60g: Perches the starry blenny, 1 watchman goby Snaps the l.c. hermit, 2 emerald crabs, 1 red crab, 2 turbos, 7 asteas, 2 nerites, 2 clown gobies and 2 firefish gobies (upgrading to a 90 gallon reef)

RIP Yoshi, you are dearly missed <3
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Re: 911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by Pufferpunk »

Yeah, a sealed plastic bag inside the container would have been better.
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Re: 911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by sevenyearnight »

I'm shocked he's alive! Sounds like you did everything you could, if he's pacing and swimming, he's probably going to be fine. That's super crazy that no water was left and he's still alive.
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Re: 911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by J-P »

Expect the worst and hope for the best.

I think is a waiting game at this point. There are too many unknowns. Even burping is no guarantee that it will be ok. Do what you can.
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goldielocke76
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Re: 911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by goldielocke76 »

J-P wrote:Expect the worst and hope for the best.

I think is a waiting game at this point. There are too many unknowns. Even burping is no guarantee that it will be ok. Do what you can.

I agree, that's what I am trying to do.

I think though, that if I didn't burp him, he would have passed. He started to perk up after I burped him, and I did get bubbles out. I know that that wasn't his major problem, but, in the 7 minutes that I had had to plan a course of action, I tried to do everything that I possible could as fast as I possibly could, to minimize any additional stress. Ugh, sorry guys, I am just now starting to unwind. What an afternoon, and omg, almost 2 hours have passed >< feels like this all happened in the last 5 minutes LoL
5.5g: Pond snails
5.5g: Red Cherry Shrimp and Rams
10g: PZ the Pee Wee (DP), Ghost shrimp, Otos x3
36g: Luau the F8, Zebra nerites x8, sometimes a herd of ghost shrimp for food
60g: Perches the starry blenny, 1 watchman goby Snaps the l.c. hermit, 2 emerald crabs, 1 red crab, 2 turbos, 7 asteas, 2 nerites, 2 clown gobies and 2 firefish gobies (upgrading to a 90 gallon reef)

RIP Yoshi, you are dearly missed <3
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Re: 911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by Pufferpunk »

They actually can live out of water for quite some time, as long as they stay wet. Of course, the air inside them can be a problem & it is likely the stress will cause it to puff with air inside. Good thing you got it out.
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Re: 911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by ILoveLola »

oh my goodness, goldie, i don't think anyone could judge you for what you did! that is absolutely terrifying, it's good you & denzil are quick acting and seem to have gotten this puff "back on his fins," if you will. (ha, corny, i know).
definitely keep us posted on how he's doing, i've got my fingers crossed for you!
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goldielocke76
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Re: 911! 911! 911! 911! 911!

Post by goldielocke76 »

ILoveLola wrote:oh my goodness, goldie, i don't think anyone could judge you for what you did! that is absolutely terrifying, it's good you & denzil are quick acting and seem to have gotten this puff "back on his fins," if you will. (ha, corny, i know).
definitely keep us posted on how he's doing, i've got my fingers crossed for you!

Thanks Lola! He seems to be doing on the better side of "ok" right now. He's definitely perking up. Still pacing, but as he didn't get to acclimate to his new home properly, I can totally understand that. Also, his tail is at full flare right now. Belly is still white and he just seems lively. He's such a cutie, I hope there is nothing but smooth sailing from here. =) After looking at it in retrospect, I still can't believe he is alive. He sure looked dead when I first saw him. He didn't move until I poked him the second time....but PP said that they can live out of water for a while, and his container was still moist, and he was in a drop or two of water. I don't know how long he was without water, but man. He's alive and that's all that matters now ^.^
5.5g: Pond snails
5.5g: Red Cherry Shrimp and Rams
10g: PZ the Pee Wee (DP), Ghost shrimp, Otos x3
36g: Luau the F8, Zebra nerites x8, sometimes a herd of ghost shrimp for food
60g: Perches the starry blenny, 1 watchman goby Snaps the l.c. hermit, 2 emerald crabs, 1 red crab, 2 turbos, 7 asteas, 2 nerites, 2 clown gobies and 2 firefish gobies (upgrading to a 90 gallon reef)

RIP Yoshi, you are dearly missed <3
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