Question about puffers and possible air swallowed
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.
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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SaltwaterPufferGirl
- Dwarf Puffer
- Posts: 65
- Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:39 am
- My Puffers: 2 dogface puffers, 1 porcupine puffer
- Location: Henryville, IN. EST time zone
Question about puffers and possible air swallowed
I have a dog-face puffer that is in a 220 gallon tank, he is the same on that got stuck to a power head back in Feb. But he has healed except for the scar on his belly. I noticed last night after I feed him that he had a lump on his side behind his left fin it was about the side of a quarter it looked like a air bubble and he seemed to be having problems swimming without tilting the side that had the lump towards the top of the tank. I didn't see him eat anything off of the surface but I guess he could have swallowed air. when I approached the tank to get a better look,he did the puffer take off all fast and whipping his body this way and that. when he turned around the lump was gone. Later I feed him a snail and the lump appeared again but not as big. But his swimming was a bit off from normal. the angle that he was swimming at was tilted. This is the first time I have seen him like this. The test come out fine on the water, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate, and nitrites,the salinity is just above 1.010. I like to keep them at this level to ward off ick. Everyone in the tank is fine, Niger trigger, clown-fish, foxface lo, and raccoon butterfly fish. I was feeding him shrimp and krill that was soaked in zoe when I noticed his lump/bubble looking spot on his side, has anyone ever heard of this, should I try to catch him when I get home today and rub his tummy towards his mouth while having him face the surface to see if i can get him to burp or just let it alone and see if it happens anymore. thanks
Smiles are free... so give them away...
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Puffer Queen
- Mentor
- Posts: 386
- Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:35 am
- Location: Louisville, KY
- Contact:
Definitely seems like an air pocket - cause could be many things.....I would recommend trying to put the puffer is a vented container (critter keeper) and weight it down on the bottom of the tank. I have used this technique many times. Air pockets cause stress and increase the puffer's metabolism as it fights to remain neutral or negative buoyancy. Increased metabolism increases oxygen demand which further increases the metabolic rate....end result stress and impaired immune systems which can lead to opportunistic infections.
Excessive rubbing of the skin can cause irritation and damage to skin as well as stress to the puffer - so be careful if you try to manually express.
Excessive rubbing of the skin can cause irritation and damage to skin as well as stress to the puffer - so be careful if you try to manually express.
Kelly
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
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- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
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burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
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I don't think it is a good idea to keep your marine fish in such a low SG all the time. The way to ward off ich is to QT anything that you will add to the tank. If you haven't seen any ich in the past month, then there won't be a problem w/raising the SG to more natural levels for your fish.
There is an excellent article in our Library on treating air-filled puffers.
There is an excellent article in our Library on treating air-filled puffers.
Last edited by Pufferpunk on Fri Sep 01, 2006 10:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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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:
-
Puffer Queen
- Mentor
- Posts: 386
- Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:35 am
- Location: Louisville, KY
- Contact:
-
SaltwaterPufferGirl
- Dwarf Puffer
- Posts: 65
- Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:39 am
- My Puffers: 2 dogface puffers, 1 porcupine puffer
- Location: Henryville, IN. EST time zone
Well they had ick about 3 weeks ago, one reason why their SG is so low. I didn't know that you can't keep the fish in that water for a long time. I will gradually start raising it back up to the norm then. we had some really bad storms and the power was out for like 6 or more hours. It freaked them out pretty bad then the power went off again like 5 days later for at least another six hours. I think we will be investing in a generator because I'm tired of power outages especially this time of the year. well my little guy can swim all the way to the bottom and stay there no problem he just gets that lump as of yesterday after he ate then he swam around on the bottom tilted to one side. If he is doing it again today I will catch him and rub his stomach to see if i can get him to burp, cause I think putting him in a critter keeper isn't going to get it since he can swim at the bottom and not float up.
Smiles are free... so give them away...