Pea Puffer Swimming at the Top

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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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Tryze
Puffer Fry
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2022 12:43 pm
Location (country): United Kingdom

Pea Puffer Swimming at the Top

Post by Tryze »

Hi there,

I just got a pea puffer 4 days ago and for the last 24 hours he has been floating on the surface like this

Image

https://imgur.com/a/uI09223

I've put him in a hospital tank for now but before that, he was in a 20l that had been cycled for 4 days before getting him. The ammonia and nitrates all came out at 0 when I took the water test. The PH is 7.5.

He's not eating at the moment and not swimming around. Does anyone know why?

I don't want any harm to come to him at all so if I have to, I will return him to the aquarium store as I don't want him to die

Many thanks for the help
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32755
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: Pea Puffer Swimming at the Top

Post by Pufferpunk »

Sorry this is happening. How exactly did you cycle your tank in 4 days. Do you have any nitrate?
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!"
Tryze
Puffer Fry
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2022 12:43 pm
Location (country): United Kingdom

Re: Pea Puffer Swimming at the Top

Post by Tryze »

Sorry by cycled, I meant I left it running for 4 days before I picked him up. I did a water test before getting him. The nitrates are on 0 as is the ammonia levels. Water temp is at 26°c. He's been sitting at the bottom of the tank now instead not moving much. I've treated him for parasites too just in case which seems to have improved his behaviour a bit
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32755
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: Pea Puffer Swimming at the Top

Post by Pufferpunk »

Sorry to say, your tank is not cycled. What about nitrite?
library/water-filtration/fishless-cycling/
library/water-filtration/emergencycycle/
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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