Sick puffer

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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Michelle3
Puffer Fry
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2023 7:56 pm
Location (country): United states

Sick puffer

Post by Michelle3 »

About three weeks ago I purchased a young ~4" porcupine puffer. I added him to my 40-gallon aquarium which I have had running for the past two years. The tank only has two other fish, a clown fish and a flame hawk. I also have a turbo snail. The tank has lots of live rock, a penguin biowheel filter, and live sand. All tank inhabitants are healthy and have been fine for two years. My water chemistry as of 10 minutes ago was 8.2 pH, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 5-10 nitrate. I have been doing 5-gallon weekly water changes every Saturday morning ever since I got the puffer. (I'm in the market for a larger tank .....) The current water temp is 81F.

The first week I had him he was very active but would not eat the clams or shrimp that the pet store gave me to feed him. He didn't eat for a week. I got some dried krill online, soaked it, and he has been eating that like crazy. (I know I need to wean him onto other food). So, for the past two weeks he has had a voracious appetite and has been very very active. However, I came home from work and found him resting (I've never seen this). He still raced up to the tank to eat and is currently swimming around, but it still is a behavior change. If I look hard I think there is something on his fins and I worry that it is ich (see photos). Also, he eyes sometimes look cloudy eyes, depending on the light. I want to be really proactive if something is going on and would be SO grateful for any advice.
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Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
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:
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suvattii
burrfish
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Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
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Re: Sick puffer

Post by Pufferpunk »

He really looks quite healthy. Definitely get him off that krill or hes going to develop lockjaw.
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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