New Figure 8 puffer laying on bottom of tank?!

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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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figure8han
Puffer Fry
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 22, 2023 2:12 am
Location (country): Coventry

New Figure 8 puffer laying on bottom of tank?!

Post by figure8han »

I have recently introduced 3 figure 8 puffers to a tank, they have been in their new home for 2 days so not long at all. They were in brackish water at the shop already and all water parameters have been replicated from what they were in at the fish shop. Temperature is 24-26. Two of the puffers are happily swimming around and exploring, the third has spent two days laying on the bottom of the tank behind various pieces of driftwood. I fed them some chopped prawns last night, the two lively fish ate most of it and the puffer that has been laying down didn’t seem interested at all?

Could it just be the new scenery, or is something wrong with the third puffer?

Thanks ☺️
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Pufferpunk
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Re: New Figure 8 puffer laying on bottom of tank?!

Post by Pufferpunk »

Hi, I'm moving this to the Hospital forum, so you can answer the Qs in red.
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!"
figure8han
Puffer Fry
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 22, 2023 2:12 am
Location (country): Coventry

Re: New Figure 8 puffer laying on bottom of tank?!

Post by figure8han »

Update: puffer number 3 had died when I got home from work today so clearly wasn’t healthy, the other two are still happy as larry
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32979
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Greenville, SC
Contact:

Re: New Figure 8 puffer laying on bottom of tank?!

Post by Pufferpunk »

I'm so sorry to hear that!
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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