Dead F8 please help.

[Ruth]

Im gutted got up the other morning and found Mr P stuck between the filter and the heater, he was all burnt. Normally i've watched him swim into the tight spaces and i have seen him wiggle out obviously he got stuck.
He was absolutly fine was eating like a pig as normal and swimming around quite happily. I posted this question on another site and they said he must of been ill, but to me he was fine. Why did he get stuck do you think he puffed up, and would he have felt the burning from the heater.
Also one i notice and i don't know if its normal or not, but every now and then he would get a cluster of black spots on his belly and then they would just go,there was no pattern to then, what was this.

I want to get another but i wanna know where i went wrong first he was my first puffer and after reading they can live for 15 years he didn't quite last a year PLEASE help.

[Hilly]

How long had you had the F8?
What size tank was he in?
How was the tank cycled?
What were the water parameters?
What SG was the tank at?

It's possible that he tried to squeeze through the gap, got stuck and couldnt work himself free and the heater got him.

The black spots on the belly can be a sign of stress.

[Ruth]

Had him since feb, not sure of tank size its a aqua 40. Tank was cycled using water from a old tank and keppt a few fish in it for a while. Not sure of parameters at the mo but never had a probem. the black spots are a sign of stres so do you think he was weak for some reason and thats why he couldn't free himself.

Would he have felt the heater burning him and would he have been in pain?

[Hilly]

I'll take a guess that the 40 stands for 40 litres, which is about 8 UK Gallons. 1 F8 puffer requires 15-20g per puffer so if the tank is 40 litres it's too small to cope with the bio-load that the F8 produces whic could in turn have caused poor water quality.

If you get the dimensions of the tank we'll be able to tell you exactly how many gallons it is.

Really need to know specific water parameters PH, Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates. Only with these readings can you tell for certain whether you have or haven't got a problem with water quality.

Was your F8 in freshwater or brackish water?
How much and how often did you do water changes on the tank?

As for being in pain I cannot say.

[Boxermom]

My GSP is constantly trying to swim behind the filter uptake tube, even though he grew too big months ago. Still tries. He's way too big to get stuck now, but he struggled a bit when he first started becoming too fat for it. Perhaps that's what happened with your F8 as well.

But I agree with Hilly, before you get anything else, you need to know how big your tank is and need a test kit to test the basics such as nitrites, nitrates and ammonia. The water should be tested regularly to make sure the parameters are good and stable. You can't see ammonia, nitrites and nitrates so not seeing a problem doesn't mean there isn't one. You'd be surprised at how many people think the water is fine, only to find out that its not and is the cause of many problems in their tanks.

[Ruth]

ok ,thanks for your help. tank is about 30cm2 give or take and about 40cm high.
As for parameters can't test water now anyway coz ive had filter turned of and started to empty it.

You say that the size of tank can't cope with the bio load, but the filter (fluval 2) never had any gunge or stuff on the pads like my other tank. Water changes where fortnightly between 30-40%.

I had been having a massive trouble with slime algae on the glass, it was thick. But the tank was clear for about 2.5 weeks before he died.

And he was in freshwater, i know they are suppose to be in brackish but when i got him he was in fresh and i posted a question on another forum and they said it would be to distrssing to him to change now.

I don't understand though he was so happy looking.
I don't want it to put off buying another but i think if i do i would like a bigger tank with more than one is that poss with F8. or s there a similar looking puffer.
Thanks so much for all your help.

[Boxermom]

Its not just a matter of cleaning the waste with the filter, its also the amount of ammonia produced by the fish in a too-small container. We normally recommend weekly water changes, too, especially in smaller tanks.

Slime algae? Are you referring to the brown stuff? If so, those are brown diatoms and are normal with newer tank setups but it goes away as the tank starts to age. Just scrape it off with a sponge or even your fingers. Its not detrimental to the fish, its just ugly.

Its much more detrimental to keep them in freshwater, even if that's how he was kept in the store. The salinity just needs to be raised slowly, using marine salt and a hydrometer or refractometer to measure the salt content.

If you get a tank that's about 30g (about 113 liters), you can have two F8s. I wouldn't put any other type of puffer with them though.

[Hilly]

30x30x40 cm is an 8 gallon tank so it is about half the minimum recommended size that 1 F8 requires.

you can't judge by the amount of gunk in the filter, the sponges house the beneficial bacteria that convert ammonia an nitrites into nitrates. Puffers produce high amounts of waste so in a small body of water this could become polluted much quicker than a larger body of water.

A fortnightly water change may not have been enough to keep the water pristine. Doing this percentage and more weekly would have been better.

You can keep more than 1 F8 together provided they have 15-20 gallons per fish. The current tank you have at the most could have 2 Dwarf Puffers and even then that would be cramped. However if you are serious about keeping puffers, you could use this tank later on as a snail breeding tank to provide them with cheap renewable food source.

Converting over to brackish doesn not distress the fish if done slowly and correctly, in the long run it is more beneficial to them as their immune systems are boosted by the low end brackish environment. The advice you received from another forum was sadly incorrect.

[Ruth]

Well thank you for all your help. im just gutted it was all my fault certainly won't be buying from that fish store again. What i will proberbly do is at the minute i live with my parents so when i eventually move out i will get a bigger tank and get two F8 puffers and i will come back to you guys and get all the help i need first. thanks again, and im just sorry MR P had to suffer because of me.

By the way the algae wasn't brown is was a greeny black slime had to get it off with a blade.

[Myaj]

Ruth, your tank was too small, but that didn't make him swim over and get stuck behind the heater. You can't blame yourself for that, really.

But next time around I'm sure it will go better, let us know when you get set up!

[Ruth]

I will do thanks can't see it being for a while think i'm talking couple of years but hey gotta be patient do wanna mess up again!!!

Also just thought was feeding him half and frozen prawn every day and a cockle about twice a week also frozen was his diet ok????

[Ruth]

Can anyone tell me if his diet was ok thankyou

[Phaedrus]

The diet sounds fine.

Here's an article with more feeding ideas: http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/puffer/food.html