Melody and Brandy's puffer gone to heaven
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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melody&brandy
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2005 11:42 pm
Melody and Brandy's puffer gone to heaven
Melody & Brandy:
My condolences on the loss of your Puffers. It sounds to me that you worked diligently and resourcefully in an effort to keep them healthy, so I know you must be disappointed.
I'd like to mention that I'm currently on my third Puffer -- a GSP -- after two unsuccessful attempts to keep one alive (all in the span of two months). While I feel dreadful about the loss of the first two, I must admit that I've learned a TON in the process of trying to keep them going; I also feel that my efforts might well be fulfilled with this third one, who I've had now for two weeks, and who seems quite strong.
One thing I've done that's helped me is to read, and re-read, and re-re-read (!) everything in the Library here that's even of remote relevance to Green Spotted Puffer care; I've also gone through a great number of past 'threads' on the forum to learn how other people have tried to resolve their particular challenges as they unfolded. Some of the experts here have somewhat varying approaches to things -- and of course express themselves uniquely! -- which I think is a strength of this site, as it ends up presenting one with a more nuanced perspective on the care of these extraordinary creatures.
I hope you keep going with the Puffers if that's something you feel inspired to do -- and I wish you every success with them in the future.
My condolences on the loss of your Puffers. It sounds to me that you worked diligently and resourcefully in an effort to keep them healthy, so I know you must be disappointed.
I'd like to mention that I'm currently on my third Puffer -- a GSP -- after two unsuccessful attempts to keep one alive (all in the span of two months). While I feel dreadful about the loss of the first two, I must admit that I've learned a TON in the process of trying to keep them going; I also feel that my efforts might well be fulfilled with this third one, who I've had now for two weeks, and who seems quite strong.
One thing I've done that's helped me is to read, and re-read, and re-re-read (!) everything in the Library here that's even of remote relevance to Green Spotted Puffer care; I've also gone through a great number of past 'threads' on the forum to learn how other people have tried to resolve their particular challenges as they unfolded. Some of the experts here have somewhat varying approaches to things -- and of course express themselves uniquely! -- which I think is a strength of this site, as it ends up presenting one with a more nuanced perspective on the care of these extraordinary creatures.
I hope you keep going with the Puffers if that's something you feel inspired to do -- and I wish you every success with them in the future.
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K4tsujink3n
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2005 12:23 am
- Location: Texas
- Contact:
My condolences as well ...
Unfortunately, it seems to be common that a few fishies must die in order for us to learn frm our mistakes ... but as Woland has mentioned, we can try to help prevent this as much as possible, so long as puffer owners are willing to put the effort in like you are in order to try to be good surrogate parents.
Good luck with your next babies - let us know if we can offer any help.

Unfortunately, it seems to be common that a few fishies must die in order for us to learn frm our mistakes ... but as Woland has mentioned, we can try to help prevent this as much as possible, so long as puffer owners are willing to put the effort in like you are in order to try to be good surrogate parents.
Good luck with your next babies - let us know if we can offer any help.