Pea puffer suddenly acting strangely

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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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Saypiz
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2020 11:15 am
Location (country): United States

Pea puffer suddenly acting strangely

Post by Saypiz »

I have a single pea puffer in a 5 gal tank, no other tank mates (except for a shrimp). Diet is live blackworms supplemented with pond snails.

Yesterday my boyfriend thought it was possible a very small amount of non-toxic household glue might have melted, gotten into the tank via condensation (he was gluing something on the top, used the wrong glue) so we got worried and did a 20% water change followed by a 40% water change. We regularly do a 20% change 1x/week.

Nitrates 20 ppm
Nitrites 0
Hardness - hard
Alkalinity kh - 20 ppm
PH - neutral 7
No ammonia

Yesterday after all the commotion, she hid. I got concerned but thought maybe she was freaked out by all the activity. She was hiding into the morning, she came out not long ago, but she is acting strangely. She isn't eating (EXTREMELY unusual), she is swimming oddly, a bit floaty and out of it.

We had 2 pea puffers, 1 passed about a month ago and the symptoms started exactly like this (she passed within a day or so of showing symptoms so I'm freaking out). We've had her about 2 years. I'm wondering if they got some kind of internal parasite from worms at some point? If there is anything I can do to help her, I really want to do it, i just feel at a loss. When the other puffer got sick, I tried to research but couldn't quite narrow down what was going on or how to treat it.. Any help appreciated ty
Saypiz
Puffer Fry
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2020 11:15 am
Location (country): United States

Re: Pea puffer suddenly acting strangely

Post by Saypiz »

Update - she seems to be doing much better! She is swimming much better (less floaty, more in control) and ate a few worms :) :) idk if it could've been stress/a bit of shock? Or maybe something did get into the water and the water changes helped? I am hopeful though. Ty again :)
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Pea puffer suddenly acting strangely

Post by Pufferpunk »

That's wonderful! I was at a loss as to what to tell you about his behavior, so I didn't respond. I would try to get that nitrate <20. Also, DPs are much happier in groups of 6 or more.
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!"
Saypiz
Puffer Fry
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2020 11:15 am
Location (country): United States

Re: Pea puffer suddenly acting strangely

Post by Saypiz »

Thanks, yeah she seems to be doing much better! I'm so happy, i was starting to get really worried. Last night she started eating again and swimming normally, seems like she's back to her energetic, inquisitive self lol. And I'd love to have a group of DPs if we could get a diff setup and larger tank, I'll keep that in mind!
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