I have been doing a lot of reading on f8 puffers and other puffers and I keep reading references to there belly going gray when stressed but that it's not as bad as if it has dark rings on it. Could someone please tell me what they are talking about? What does it mean when there belly goes gray and or has dark rings on it?
Also when I got my puffers home 4 days ago they had ich and I have read over and over of others bringing theirs home and finding out their puffers are sick and a great many die soon after. Is that the normal way it goes do most of them die of things they have before you even get them. Mine were not in the pet store tanks I got them as soon as they arrived at the store because I had ordered them and they were sick, chewed up, and one stressed so bad it just stayed on the bottom of the tank curled in a ball Sorry this is so long and confusing but please don't tell me to read another sticky.
Need Answers Please
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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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:
LOL, no sticky on that!
Whenever you take an animal out of their natural habitat, ship them to the other side of the world (whether or not they are put into the LFS tanks or yours) it is complete stress on them, which stresses their immune system, causing them to catch diseases. In addition, they are caught in BW & put directly into FW by the shipper (no acclimation).
Try to get them into a fully cycled tank & up the SG, as soon as possible, to help their immune system to recover. Feeding healthy foods will help too. These fellas go thru a lot to get to our tanks!
I'm not sure what you're talking about "dark rings"? That is usually caused by pufferbites & go away in a few days. Melafix promotes faster healing.
Whenever you take an animal out of their natural habitat, ship them to the other side of the world (whether or not they are put into the LFS tanks or yours) it is complete stress on them, which stresses their immune system, causing them to catch diseases. In addition, they are caught in BW & put directly into FW by the shipper (no acclimation).
Try to get them into a fully cycled tank & up the SG, as soon as possible, to help their immune system to recover. Feeding healthy foods will help too. These fellas go thru a lot to get to our tanks!
I'm not sure what you're talking about "dark rings"? That is usually caused by pufferbites & go away in a few days. Melafix promotes faster healing.
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!"