Fahaka Puffer Blind?!

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
Forum rules
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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DarkStorm
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Re: Fahaka Puffer Blind?!

Post by DarkStorm »

that's great news happy for you and Chongo.
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pufferpuggirl
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Re: Fahaka Puffer Blind?!

Post by pufferpuggirl »

That is excellent news! Glad to hear that Chongo is doing better, and I hope he continues to improve.
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Papa Helio
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Re: Fahaka Puffer Blind?!

Post by Papa Helio »

8) I just Joined the forum looking for help with Helio, my almost 1 year old Fahaka. I've read Chongo's whole story and was really happy to see that he got better. Unfortunately my fahaka is going on some similar symptoms and I don't know what could be wrong. I've done water changes, moved the environment, he doesn't react at all like before, he looks really sad, doesn't move his fins much, darker color than usual, doesn't react to food like he used to. I have to put food with tweezers in his mouth to get him to eat. But he looks blinded. He's eyes look normal tho.. I know you're going to roast me for saying that I have him on a 10 gallon. But I got him as a Fry he's about 1-4 inches now. He has space for himself but I know I have to switch to a 55 o 75 galon soon. I fed him freeze dried krill ever since I got him. First small 1/4 portions till he ate half, until he started eating 1 and he now eats around 2-3 once every 2 days. I always fed him till he ignores the krill.

I'm really sad, we've gone through allot together he's my first puffer fish, I haven been successful with other brackish puffers. But Helio was different. He reacted to my voice I stimulated him waving with my hands and fingers and he responded, As if we communicated like that. It hit me to see him like this and have been looking all over for answers. If anyone could reach out and help We would really appreciate it.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Fahaka Puffer Blind?!

Post by Pufferpunk »

Blindness can be a symptom of ammonia/nitrite poisoning. What test kits are you using? How large is he exactly? When are you upgrading?
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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