I've had a female dwarf puffer for over six months, and usually she's a vibrant green colour. Recently I've been seeing her looking really pale in colour almost white.
She's been a pale white before but the colour returned. Is this sickness related or normal?
Is my Puffer sick?
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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Puff_Daddy
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 34
- Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:42 pm
- Location (country): England
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RTR
- Mentor
- Posts: 6155
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 4:39 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location (country): East Coast, USA
Re: Is my Puffer sick?
Tell us about the tank size and handling, tankmates, etc. - all the info asked for in red up above that you can give will be helpful.
Where's the fish? - Neptune
Re: Is my Puffer sick?
Is it still eating?
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Puff_Daddy
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 34
- Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:42 pm
- Location (country): England
Re: Is my Puffer sick?
125 litres, heated to 26.5C, fluval 206 external filter. Heavily planted, CO2, Powerglo, Sunglo lights.RTR wrote:Tell us about the tank size and handling, tankmates, etc. - all the info asked for in red up above that you can give will be helpful.
7 Dwarf Puffers, 3 Bumblebee Gobbies, Bristlenose Plec, 2 Amano shrimp. All get on superby, no fights or nipped fins.
All water condition readings come out perfect.
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Puff_Daddy
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 34
- Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:42 pm
- Location (country): England
Re: Is my Puffer sick?
Yeah still eating and swimming as normal. A varied diet of snails, bloodworms, daphnia, glassworm etcCoCoPuffs wrote:Is it still eating?
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bertie 83
- Moderator
- Posts: 5298
- Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2011 4:28 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: lineatus R.I.P, South American puffer. Valentini puffer, porcupine puffer.
Non puffer
Danios, Tetras, Redtail Rasporas,
Harlequins, CAE's, Yoyo
Loaches, Clown loaches ,Eels, various shrimp, tangs,wrasses, damsels, chromis - Location (country): Brighton, England
- Location: brighton , england
Re: Is my Puffer sick?
Personally I think you are a little overstocked. What are the exact parameters? How often do you change water and what quantities? Lastly how long has your tank been set up?
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
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Puff_Daddy
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 34
- Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:42 pm
- Location (country): England
Re: Is my Puffer sick?
I wouldn't agree with that at all. Regardless of what my set up is, I was wanting to know if anyone has heard of this happening before.bertie 83 wrote:Personally I think you are a little overstocked. What are the exact parameters? How often do you change water and what quantities? Lastly how long has your tank been set up?
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bertie 83
- Moderator
- Posts: 5298
- Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2011 4:28 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: lineatus R.I.P, South American puffer. Valentini puffer, porcupine puffer.
Non puffer
Danios, Tetras, Redtail Rasporas,
Harlequins, CAE's, Yoyo
Loaches, Clown loaches ,Eels, various shrimp, tangs,wrasses, damsels, chromis - Location (country): Brighton, England
- Location: brighton , england
Re: Is my Puffer sick?
104 litres for seven dps if you do 5g for first and then 3G for each other. Leaves 20l for plec and bbg's. But anyway, not a behaviour I have seen personally. Does she seem to get chased more than the others? W/c schedule? It's a bit of a weird one if you ask me, have you made any changes to the tank recently?
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly