I have three SAP’s in a 28g with 8 bleeding heart Tetra’s and a bristlenose pleco. They all have gotten along fin so far as far as I can tell, but I have a few questions/a conundrum. A few days ago, I decided to clip their teeth right after doing their water change. I was very nervous about it for some reason (I had done it already 3 times) but felt like I had to do it because one of the puffers’ teeth were getting very long and my sister had offered to help. I wasn’t sure how much MS 222 to use (I couldn’t remember how I figured it out in the past either..) so I used a very small amount, thinking better safe than sorry, although it was probably too small. I also used a few punches of baking soda and 8 cups of water. The first puffer to go in began to swim around immediately and was not slowing down as quickly as I was used to. He also was skimming the water surface with his nose a lot. After this went on for a while, I began to feel afraid I’d put too littleness in so I added a small pinch more, as well as a pinch of baking soda. Immediately, the puffer began to swim erratically out and proceeded to “Throw up”, ejaculating several spurts if mushy brown stuff, a small snail shell, and a piece of the fluval eco terra stratum.. I couldn’t go forward at that point and transferred him right away back to fresh water and ended up putting off the tooth clipping till today.
Before doing it today, I did more research and ended up adding 1/8 tsp MS 222 to 8 cups of their water, no baking soda. All the puffers did fine, except for one afterwards (in the tank), began throwing up again (much less this time and no large chunks) and took longer than the other two to fan his dorsal fin out. He also positions himself facing the output of the filter for a long time.
Does anyone have any experience with throwing up puffers here? I’m not sure if he is sensitive to MS222, it’s just the stress of the whole experience, or if he might not be very healthy generally speaking to begin with. I give the puffers weekly water changes, this week two already because I have become more concerned about their water quality. The Nitrates are at 40ppm currently and Ammonia and Nitrites are 0. Is 40 too high for puffers?
Appearance wise their bellies are white, their bodies are a little muddled looking in some places, without as clearly defined colors and stripes as I think is probably best (I’m not entirely sure) and their tails have some darker streaks/coloring on them.. They also have small dark specks around their mouths and faces and sometimes their colors and stripes become blanched and paler looking.
I will try to attach some pictures but i’m not sure how. Also, sorry for the longer post. Any and all help is appreciated!! About to do a water change now..
