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.
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zulfvdlee
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:50 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: 2 x GSP
3 x F8s - Location (country): Singapore
HELP!
there is something wrong with my GSP but im not sure what it is,it started of with my GSP swimming "blindly" and hitting the walls of the tank.i thought it was normal but after awhile it got worst,then i realise his eyes wasnt moving or reacting as much as my another GSP.i could even literally touch him and he wouldnt mind,so i knew something was wrong.later that day it swam belly side up and was at the top area and surface of the tank,i couldnt manage to find any disease like by the look of it.there wasnt like any mould,or the stomach turning black and those kind of things so im really really lost.please help,i dont want another GSP of mine to die
"you wont like me when im angry"
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Nuclear_Glitter
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 971
- Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 1:03 am
- Gender: Female
- Location (country): North Carolina, USA
- Location: North Carolina, USA
Re: HELP!
We need to know the following:
Tank size:
Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
Salinity:
Recent changes:
Water change schedule:
Diet:
Please answer all these questions to the best of your ability so we can help you.
Tank size:
Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
Salinity:
Recent changes:
Water change schedule:
Diet:
Please answer all these questions to the best of your ability so we can help you.
Last edited by Nuclear_Glitter on Tue Aug 07, 2012 11:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." -- Henry Ford
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zulfvdlee
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:50 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: 2 x GSP
3 x F8s - Location (country): Singapore
Re: HELP!
Tank size:15gallon
Ammonia: -
Nitrite: -
Nitrate: -
Salinity:
Recent changes:yesterday
Water change schedule: 30% every 3 days
Diet: frozen bloodworm,shrimps
i know for sure that the tank size is small but they are only 1.5inch big and i am planning to get a bigger tank asap,ive gotten them for like a mnth plus now and i havent gotten a kit to check the ammonia,nitrate and nitrite level.only started to change to brackish,salinity still very low
Ammonia: -
Nitrite: -
Nitrate: -
Salinity:
Recent changes:yesterday
Water change schedule: 30% every 3 days
Diet: frozen bloodworm,shrimps
i know for sure that the tank size is small but they are only 1.5inch big and i am planning to get a bigger tank asap,ive gotten them for like a mnth plus now and i havent gotten a kit to check the ammonia,nitrate and nitrite level.only started to change to brackish,salinity still very low
"you wont like me when im angry"
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Nuclear_Glitter
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 971
- Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 1:03 am
- Gender: Female
- Location (country): North Carolina, USA
- Location: North Carolina, USA
Re: HELP!
Stop working on the salinity until you have a water testing kit. You need to know your levels before your start changing to brackish, plus you need a hydrometer, or a refractometer.
Do a large change, like 75% as soon as you can. Then start doing two 50% changes a day. One in the morning, one in the evening.
I suspect you've killed your bacteria off by adding salt and now your tank is cycling.
Do a large change, like 75% as soon as you can. Then start doing two 50% changes a day. One in the morning, one in the evening.
I suspect you've killed your bacteria off by adding salt and now your tank is cycling.
"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." -- Henry Ford
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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: HELP!
Yea lots of large partials, start raising the sg when you have them in a more suitable tank. Although small they are massive waste producers 15g can't dilute that much, for instance we would only recommend 3x dps in that size because of bio-load. When you get the new tank you could always set it up as marine (fowlr) and drip acclimate him. But let's get him well first so lots of water changes, do you use prime? If so add another dose or two to your next change.
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
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JRC3
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 904
- Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2010 4:10 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: F8(55g)
F8 (46g)
4-DP(29g) - Location (country): U.S.
- Location: S.W. OH
Re: HELP!
+1 on to not worrying about SG right now...You have plenty of time to keep FW.
There are many knowledgeable fish keepers on this forum willing to help and give great advice...The advice is free; What you choose to do with it gives it value.
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puffykid
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 537
- Joined: Mon May 30, 2011 3:16 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location (country): Madison, WI
Re: HELP!
When you raise the salinity of your tank you must do it in increments of .002 with a pause in-between of a few days to allow the bacteria to adjust and establish into the environment. You've been changing the salinity without a way to measure what the current salinity of the tank is at and likely killed off your bacteria by changing the salinity to much. There is now a lower number of bacteria which means your tank is getting a build up of bioload that isn't being converted. Start doing 2 wc a day to get the salinity back down to 0 and check when you get the hydrometer. Also give us parameters when you can.
1 M. Turgidus - 29 gallon
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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: HELP!
Most likely to be honest
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
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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: HELP!
specifically, he is probably being poisoned by the by-products of his waste, namely ammonia & nitrites, and to an extent, nitrateszulfvdlee wrote:so my GSP is acting that way due to his waste?
these are not a problem in a cycled tank, but under your circumstances, that is not likely
you need the necessary liquid test kits to monitor the water parameters, AND a bigger tank so there will be less concentration of any harmful substances in the water
the immediate short-term method of reducing the concentration of these substances is (as already mentioned) lots of water changes
"I plan ahead. That way, I don't have to do anything right now!"
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Nuclear_Glitter
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 971
- Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 1:03 am
- Gender: Female
- Location (country): North Carolina, USA
- Location: North Carolina, USA
Re: HELP!
See if you can find a cheap, used tank somewhere. I don't really know what the options in your country are for finding aquariums but start looking for a much bigger one.
Your puffer is very, very likely to die if you don't get him upgraded very soon. Definitely keep up the large partial changes daily until you can get a bigger tank. Also, as recommended start using double, or even triple the amount of Prime you'd normally use. If you don't use Prime, see if you can find it as it will be a big help for your puffer.
Your puffer is very, very likely to die if you don't get him upgraded very soon. Definitely keep up the large partial changes daily until you can get a bigger tank. Also, as recommended start using double, or even triple the amount of Prime you'd normally use. If you don't use Prime, see if you can find it as it will be a big help for your puffer.
"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." -- Henry Ford