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.
Help.
My water levels are fine, my temperature is fine, my salinity is fine, and I check it way more then I should all day long so it isn't any kind of shock. But my Spiny Box Puffer that I just got is laying at the bottom of the tank, occasionally getting up to swim around or look at me but then he goes back to the same spot. I got him two days ago and the thing that bothers me is when he breaths his little body moves a little with every breath when hes lying at the bottom of the tank, the only thing that I can't understand is he sick or is he depressed or tired or something? But before I woke up he was swimming. Is this normal? The thing I did today though was a 50% water change to decrease salinity levels, but I accidentally went too low so I added instant ocean directly into the tank, not much mind you only several spoon fulls, so i'm assuming that it is okay to add instant ocean in my tank WITH my fish in it too? Otherwise I don't know why he is doing this everything is perfect...
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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.
Hi please answer all the questions above in red so we can help you, you should never add salt directly to the tank
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
Re: Help.
bertie 83 wrote:Hi please answer all the questions above in red so we can help you, you should never add salt directly to the tank
fed thawed squid
in the last two days ive done a 25% water change and today a 50%
I just put in some type of white rock from the fish store, they told me not to put live rock in and to put this white rock for now which looks similar but I don't know what its called ( lots of mini holes in it too and they told me its just a dead rock with a lot of surface area for good bacteria to grow. )
aquarium set up for 2 days, 50 gal, cycled with that instant cycling bacteria
My puffer is the only guy in there, no nitrites no nitrates salinity is 1.023 with no ammonia and ph is 8.4
Re: Help.
bertie 83 wrote:Hi please answer all the questions above in red so we can help you, you should never add salt directly to the tank
I'm thinking 50% was too much water change for a new fish? I only did it because salinity shot up to 1.028 which i thought was too high for him. So I dropped the salinity down to normal .23.. i don't know if maybe I did this too quickly? Plus adding in the salt directly was a very dumb move and I felt dumb right after and you've confirmed it to myself. The temp is at 82 also.
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32975
- 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:
Re: Help.
Have you kept a marine tank before? Have you done any research on keeping marine? Please post ALL the results of your water testing: ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH. This is very important! "Fine" won't do here.
What "bacteria product" did you use? Did you add it right before adding the fish?
What "bacteria product" did you use? Did you add it right before adding the fish?
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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Arny
- Mbu Puffer
- Posts: 1081
- Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2010 4:33 pm
- Location (country): uk
- Location: London
Re: Help.
Sorry to hear that mate. If you're gona get another saltwater puffer make sure you get Live Rock and a good skimmer. You dont need to get an external/internal filter as its the live rock that filters your water. If you dont want to do all that then maybe a Freshwater puffer will be better for you.puffer94 wrote:He's dead.
Re: Help.
I will move to a hardier salt water creature, maybe a snowflake eel or something else. I'll practice more before I return to puffers and when I do I won't start with a spiny... All I know is it was not to do with parasites or with eating coral, and I know he didn't starve... Maybe he had low oxygen? I don't really know.. the hardness when tested was high at like 450 - 475 but I don't think that would of killed him. Either way I'm going to do some more reading and acquire a hardier salt water animal and return to puffer fish later on.
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32975
- 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:
Re: Help.
Puffers are extremely hardy! Until you get down the ways of keeping any wet creature,you will continue to find them dead. 
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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GSP32
- Dwarf Puffer
- Posts: 87
- Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 12:26 pm
- My Puffers: Fahaka Puffer
- Location (country): Canada
- Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Re: Help.
I"m not sure your lfs is giving you great advice here... you put a puffer in a tank that was not cycled.
First you need to get live rock and a good powerhead and cycle the tank, then you can add fish.
Your salinity was too high, too low and then you put salt directly in the tank and might have possibly salt burned him. You need to let salt age for about a day in a bucket with a heater and a powerhead.
How big is your tank?
You should really read up on cycling the tank, how the beneficial bacteria and live rock works, and the basics of keeping a saltwater tank before putting more fish in there and killing them and wasting your money.
I really don't think that you should rely on your lfs, please do you own research and then try again
Salt water is not hard but there is a lot to learn... which is one of the great things about the hobby imo
First you need to get live rock and a good powerhead and cycle the tank, then you can add fish.
Your salinity was too high, too low and then you put salt directly in the tank and might have possibly salt burned him. You need to let salt age for about a day in a bucket with a heater and a powerhead.
How big is your tank?
You should really read up on cycling the tank, how the beneficial bacteria and live rock works, and the basics of keeping a saltwater tank before putting more fish in there and killing them and wasting your money.
I really don't think that you should rely on your lfs, please do you own research and then try again
Salt water is not hard but there is a lot to learn... which is one of the great things about the hobby imo