Hey all, Happy Fourth -- I've come in need of someone who may have seen this behavior before... I've owned a few other Freshwater Puffers before (Figure 8, and Green Spotted) for a good while and learned much about their needs and how to keep them happy. I had recently lost a large amount of Cichlids while moving and setting up a larger tank (50Gal -> 75Gal). After my loss I fell in love with this baby Fahaka (which I know grow large and will need his/her own tank down the road) and I have been raising it for the past 3 months.
It has recently shown no interest in food and has started swimming and behaving abnormally (will post short videos of its behavior) and I am growing concerned. Before it was attacking frozen krill, "feeder/infest" snails, and bloodworms. But now it has no interest in any of that not even with soaking the food in Garlic extract. It has not cared about eating in the past two days, it took a nib at the frozen krill (but seemed to not be strong enough to take out a full bite?)
It is currently housed with 9 various sized African Cichlids (<= 3 inches) and an African Catfish which was the sole survivor of the original loss. I just did a ~25% water change on Saturday, these are my parameters as of today:
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 40-80
The Nitrate seems a bit high, but it always seems to hover around there and he was doing fine before. As a last resort I took the puffer out temporarily and put him into a side container with food and he was in there the whole time laying vertically with no interest in eating. I turned off my powerhead in my tank for now as well because he seemed to not have enough energy to not get swept into the current constantly, and it was making me sad to see him just drifting and getting knocked around... I'm not sure what else to do here, I'm worried its something with his teeth (as his mouth is always open) but because of his small size it is hard to say, and he had eaten some snails about two weeks ago.
Videos are stored on my DropBox:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/o9znifmz6bhv ... SpYma?dl=0
Or via Photobucket:
http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/ManBe ... a%20Puffer
Baby Fahaka Puffer Abnormal Behavior
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.
-
Mothra
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2016 2:56 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location (country): United States
- Location: Chicago
Baby Fahaka Puffer Abnormal Behavior
Last edited by Mothra on Tue Jul 05, 2016 10:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32987
- 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: Baby Fahaka Puffer Abnormal Behavior
![[welcome]](./images/smilies/welcome.gif "welcome")
Can't view the Dropbox, without logging in. Try uploading your vid here: www.photobucket.com. Then you can like them here.
What is the pH & nitrate of your tap water?
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!"
-
Mothra
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2016 2:56 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location (country): United States
- Location: Chicago
Re: Baby Fahaka Puffer Abnormal Behavior
Hello, sorry for the delay but when I edited my original post to add photo bucket links it caused my post to be "pending review" for another good while...
So I just tested the tap that I use as a source for my water changes and the parameters are as follows:
pH 8.0
Ammonia: 0.25 (compared with API chart, slightly tinted yellow)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Hes still alive, but still lethargic. I'm worried his energy levels are just dropping every hour that goes by without food. I was browsing through the forums more and am worried he might have a parasite that only has now taken effect. The only quarantine tank I have setup is a small 10 gal that I've so far been using to let snails populate for future consumption by him
So I just tested the tap that I use as a source for my water changes and the parameters are as follows:
pH 8.0
Ammonia: 0.25 (compared with API chart, slightly tinted yellow)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Hes still alive, but still lethargic. I'm worried his energy levels are just dropping every hour that goes by without food. I was browsing through the forums more and am worried he might have a parasite that only has now taken effect. The only quarantine tank I have setup is a small 10 gal that I've so far been using to let snails populate for future consumption by him
-
kass
- Green Spotted Puffer
- Posts: 473
- Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 5:14 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location (country): Canada
- Location: Guelph, Canada
Re: Baby Fahaka Puffer Abnormal Behavior
Is his poop white and thin? Was he very thin between feedings, when he was feeding? If so, he may have internal parasites.
Your nitrates are pretty high. How often do you do water changes? Puffers are sensitive to high nitrates. You should aim to keep them below 20ppm.
Your nitrates are pretty high. How often do you do water changes? Puffers are sensitive to high nitrates. You should aim to keep them below 20ppm.