GSP (Seems) Fine but F8 Not Eating and Pacing

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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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IanM
Puffer Fry
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 6:40 am
Location (country): Singapore

GSP (Seems) Fine but F8 Not Eating and Pacing

Post by IanM »

Hi I need some help for my Puffers.

Tank 14”x12”x10”
Hang on Back Filter
Decoration: 1 Clay Pot & 2 Clay Bricks – all with holes to swim through/hide/play
Tank Bottom: Coral fragments
Been established for less than 1 month

In the tank: I got them a week ago
1 x Small Green Spotted Puffer - - approx 1’
1 x Small Figure 8 Puffer – just a bit bigger than the GSP
2 x Small Ghost Shrimp (they took up residence from a feeding – seem to do a good job cleaning the tank bottom)
1x Crayfish – approx. 1.5”

Feed:
Live Ghost Shrimp at weekends (it’s a drive to go buy them)
Frozen Blood work weekdays
I put one sinking pellet per day of Cichlid food for the Crayfish

Water:
I didn't have time to cycle the tank - but the the HOB filter was running with other fish for a week or two prior
I do water changes every 2 or 3 days to manage the fact I didn’t have time to cycle the tank :-(
I dechlorinate – Tetra AquaSafe
I add Microbe-Lift Nite-Out II (https://www.microbelift.com/products/ho ... te-out-ii/) to help manage the water
I add “a bit of salt” – see below

Using Tetra 6 in 1 Test strips here is the readings for the water
NO3 – 50
NO2 – 5
GH - 8d
KH – 10d
pH – 6.8

The chart on the Tetra Test strip says to change the water – but these are the readings just AFTER I changed 50% of the water
Water temp: Luckily I live in the tropics (Singapore) and they are in a room with no aircon – so the water temp should be right for them

Salt: I am not sure what (salinity wise) the shop was keeping the fish in – but I have been adding “a bit” of salt I was sold to condition the water with. Is this the right/wrong salt (its all NaCl isn’t it?) and I need some help on how much is the right amount please. I don’t have a means to measure salinity yet (going out to but one this weekend) but a guide eg grams per gallon or table-spoons per gallon


The GSP seems fine, curious, eats well, nice white tummy.

But the F8 Puffer does nothing but pace the tank, his tummy is grey, and hardly seems to eat

Help please – I love these little fish and really want to know what to do! Been reading up like crazy but am still stuck.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: GSP (Seems) Fine but F8 Not Eating and Pacing

Post by Pufferpunk »

[welcome]
Forget the test strips--they are garbage. Get yourself the API liquid test kit. Ammonia/nitrite should be 0 at all times. Anything above that is toxic. Do a 90 % water change & add Tetra Safestart to their filter.
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... d-puffers/
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... ocus/fig8/
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!"
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