mbu puffer sick help

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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KITKAT
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mbu puffer sick help

Post by KITKAT »

Help/advise please.
I know someone who's mbu puffer has suddenly become ill.
It is laying upside down & has developed what looks like a lump in it's stomach.
Has anyone come across this before & what are his chances of survival?
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Post by Hilly »

Please read this post and get all this information from your friend to add to this post. Also what size tank is the Mbu in and how big is he.

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5
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KITKAT
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Post by KITKAT »

Sorry.

Tank size 5x2x2
4 silver sharks -3"
3 gourami - 3"
1 angle
1 elephant nose
1 plec 9"

& he's 13" the tank has been established for 18 month,
Regular water changes & nothing new added to the tank.
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Post by Pufferpunk »

How large are thew water changes & how often? What has it beeen eating? What kind of filtration? Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH?
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!"
lisalisa

Post by lisalisa »

You should let your friend know that Mbu's get to 3' long, and will require a 1000 (yes, one thousand) US gallon tank to keep it into adulthood.

Now, is there any chance it make have puffed/swallowed air?

http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/ ... rpuff.html
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Post by Pufferpunk »

While a 150g tank may hold the fish for a little while, it will definately need to be upgraded to at the very least, a tank 2x that size.

"Silver" (Columbian) sharks each grow tup to 18" & are brackish water fish.
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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Post by Fella »

Pufferpunk wrote:While a 150g tank may hold the fish for a little while, it will definately need to be upgraded to at the very least, a tank 2x that size.

"Silver" (Columbian) sharks each grow tup to 18" & are brackish water fish.
Silver Sharks is often a name I've seen given to bala sharks as well.

With regards to the Mbu in question, sounds like a blockage, probably forcing on the swimbladder. I'd call a vet in the circumstances.
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Post by Pufferpunk »

For some reason I was thinking balas to begin with.
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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Post by Fella »

Pufferpunk wrote:For some reason I was thinking balas to begin with.
Either way, I'd only be happy seeing bala sharks in a 6x2x2 as well, they might not get huge, but they do school, and they do swim constantly.
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