EMERGENCY: Floating upside down with dark spot on belly after 2 weeks of illness

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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kaywilde
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Mon May 19, 2025 9:47 pm
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EMERGENCY: Floating upside down with dark spot on belly after 2 weeks of illness

Post by kaywilde »

My spotted congo puffer is likely about to pass, but figured I'd post here in case anyone has any last second ideas. He's currently floating upside down still breathing with a dark spot on his belly, I fear it's organ failure or advanced IP but can't be sure.

update: After being belly up for 3 hours, he's now swimming around the tank again??? Definitely very stressed and ill and I'm not hopeful, but better than being upside down. First time I've seen him swim below the top water column in days.

History:
- 2 weeks ago I returned from a vacation to find I'd had a nitrate spike (80 ppm) while away. My puffer was breathing rapidly (100 per minute) and had some crater like holes on his body, with minor fungus. :( Started daily water changes right away, got back down to under 10ppm within a few days. His skin quickly started to recover. Never stopped enthusiastically eating, though lethargic. Increased oxygenation (2 airstone).
- Dosed Expel-P in case of parasites, but I usually dose every 6 months. He started to become more energetic
- After a few days of rest from Expel-P, dosed lightly with Maracyn to help his skin. His energy was returning to normal, begging for food as usual. Added some VitaChem to his diet to help him recover.
- 3 days ago: As he dove for bloodworms, appeared to have buoyancy issues and struggled to right himself for about one minute. His energy started to decline and he'd stay near the top at a 45 degree angle, nose pointed towards surface. Increased oxygenation again.
- 2 day ago: Appeared to have a "seizure", for about 2 minutes went belly up curled in a c shape, breathing slowed. Came to and righted himself. Added PraziPro in case of internal parasites expel p missed. Swam in the light current of the airstone for the past 48 hrs.
- Today I noticed his coloration was much darker, but he was still swimming around. This afternoon I found him upside down in the floating plants, breathing at the same rate but with an obvious brown patch on his belly.

1) 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, 5 nitrates
2) 20g, 3 endlers (no new tankmates in over a year). Lots of valisneria and anubias.
3) Primarily ramshorn snails, some bloodworms and dried freshwater shrimp as treats. Using Prime as conditioner.
4) No changes in the past year.
5) Stable and cycled for over 2 yrs, cycled using filter media from another established tank then adding ammonia drops until it could convert 2ppm ammonia in 24hrs.

I know it's likely too late at this point, but if anyone has any advice I'd be happy to take it.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: EMERGENCY: Floating upside down with dark spot on belly after 2 weeks of illness

Post by Pufferpunk »

How long have you had him?
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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kaywilde
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Mon May 19, 2025 9:47 pm
Location (country): United States

Re: EMERGENCY: Floating upside down with dark spot on belly after 2 weeks of illness

Post by kaywilde »

Pufferpunk wrote: ↑Tue May 20, 2025 9:45 am How long have you had him?
A bit over 2 years. Don't know his age, he came from the LFS I worked at where he'd been alone in a tank for 5 months, came in full grown.

This morning I found him stuck to the hob filter intake (has sponge over it), still alive. I've placed him in a breeder box to avoid injury, he can't seem to right himself and has a swollen lump on his lower right stomach. I tried gently burping him in case it's air but no luck yet, I'm going to start by removing meds from the water with charcoal and doing a water change.

update: nevermind, he's gone 💔
Last edited by kaywilde on Wed May 21, 2025 4:09 am, edited 2 times in total.
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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:
Contact Pufferpunk

Re: EMERGENCY: Floating upside down with dark spot on belly after 2 weeks of illness

Post by Pufferpunk »

:rip: Sorry I couldn't help you, was thinking it might be old age.
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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