Bought New Puffer Side Fin Problems

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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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steveo
Puffer Fry
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Bought New Puffer Side Fin Problems

Post by steveo »

The fin on his left side seems to be torn and protruding. Its not working nearly as well as the fin on the other side. It seems like its actually popping out. The GSP seems stressed. i do weekly water changes ammonia levels extremely low, 1.014 salinity, ph 8, have protein skimmer meant for a much larger tank. Gsp was constantly changing colors from the moment i got him. Now after fin injured seems like he is grey all the time. still eats but not as much. He was in bad shape when i bought him but was able to fix his fin rot. 37 gallon tank
steveo
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Re: Bought New Puffer Side Fin Problems

Post by steveo »

GSP is alittle larger than 3" in length. Started using Melafix on it today to try and help it heal.
steveo
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Re: Bought New Puffer Side Fin Problems

Post by steveo »

Has anyone ever delt with gill flukes?
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eieio
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Re: Bought New Puffer Side Fin Problems

Post by eieio »

please provide info & answers to all of the questions in the red box, above
what is the ammonia level, and what kind of test kit are you using?
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bertie 83
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Re: Bought New Puffer Side Fin Problems

Post by bertie 83 »

Ammonia should be 0 not very low. Until ammonia is no longer present he will not recover fully. Water quality is key, step up the waterchanges and keep adding s/w melafix
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
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Re: Bought New Puffer Side Fin Problems

Post by RTR »

Skimmers do not operate effectively in brackish water.

What other filtration is in use?
Where's the fish? - Neptune
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