Hello all. I am new to this forum but am glad I found it. I've been lurking it since I got my puffer fish about 3 weeks ago or so. About a week ago I noticed one morning he randomly had a cloudy eye with ich all over him and was curled up by the heater. So I did a quick water change, slowly raised the water temp up to 80. Took some water to petco for testing and they said the nitrites were a tad high but nothing to worry about. Since then have done 3 20% water changes and vaccumed the gravel/cleaned the tank real well. Nothing was working so I tried my old method I used on my past fish, which is make up a cup of water/salt mix and dunk them in it for a few mintues. His eye has since cleared up and the ich about reduced to half. However I'm noticing him having labored breathing, laying on the bottom sometimes, and turning very dark. His darkness comes and goes and I noticed it goes away when I am changing the water or after I salt dunk him.
So obviously I am kind of lost here. Btw, he is just a baby at about 2 inches and so I have him in my 10 gallon for now, will upgrade in a few months. I was advised to wait on turning it into a brackish tank since he got ich so so badly. But I am wondering if he is stressed now from lack of salinity?
I can't do tests right now on water quality but will do so asap.
Please help! I am at a loss. I am pretty used to very hardy fish and my puffer seems so much more sensitive and I don't want to lose him.
Green Spotted Puffer 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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Pufferpunk
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Re: Green Spotted Puffer help??!!?
![[welcome]](./images/smilies/welcome.gif "welcome")
We really need you to answer ALL the Qs abode, in red. Especially about cycling. Get yourself the API liquid test kit. ANY nitrite is toxic. You really need to be on top of this! Adding Tetra Safestart will cycle the tank.
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... d-puffers/
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... encycycle/
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... =3&t=28113
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!"