What could this be??

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.
Pandora114
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My Puffers: C. travancoricus RIP both of you little guys. Tank will be a F8 after GSP goes full marine
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What could this be??

Post by Pandora114 »

Other than one very sick Puff?

Water Params:

Ammonia: 0
NitrIte: 0
NitrAte: <5
SG: 1.005

Did a %50 water change last night, and we woke up to this.

Only real change is we put a Phos-Zorb cartridge in the filter to replace the carbon because the carbon one tore.

Soon as we saw him we put some melafix in the tank.

His mouth is a bit scraped up as well.

The other eye is fine BTW.

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Boxermom
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Post by Boxermom »

Cloudy eye. Mine gets it whenever we do any major maintenance to his tank (scraping the glass, moving the decor, etc.). Usually goes away within a couple of days. Dunno about the mouth though, maybe he banged into something?
Tina

Puffers: Auriglobus silus x1, Tetraodon travancoricus x1, Tetraodon turgidus x1, Tetraodon miurus x1, Tetraodon nigroviridis x2, Tetraodon baileyi x2, Tetraodon lineatus x1, Tetraodon palembangensis x1
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Post by Myaj »

Oh the poor little thing!

I have no idea, but I'd probably pull out that filter pad asap since that's the only thing you changed! Maybe do several smaller water changes, try to not stress him more, keep lights off, etc..
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Pandora114
Green Spotted Puffer
Posts: 397
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 1:28 pm
My Puffers: C. travancoricus RIP both of you little guys. Tank will be a F8 after GSP goes full marine
T. nigroviridis Named Pepsi
Location: Comox Valley, BC, Canada
Contact:

Post by Pandora114 »

Myaj wrote:Oh the poor little thing!

I have no idea, but I'd probably pull out that filter pad asap since that's the only thing you changed! Maybe do several smaller water changes, try to not stress him more, keep lights off, etc..
done.

hope he makes it thru the night

*srry, new baby, am nursing at keyboard*
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Post by Myaj »

Congradulations on the baby!

When did you have it? Boy, girl?
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Pandora114
Green Spotted Puffer
Posts: 397
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 1:28 pm
My Puffers: C. travancoricus RIP both of you little guys. Tank will be a F8 after GSP goes full marine
T. nigroviridis Named Pepsi
Location: Comox Valley, BC, Canada
Contact:

Post by Pandora114 »

Myaj wrote:Congradulations on the baby!

When did you have it? Boy, girl?
announcement in the lounge ;)
Pandora114
Green Spotted Puffer
Posts: 397
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 1:28 pm
My Puffers: C. travancoricus RIP both of you little guys. Tank will be a F8 after GSP goes full marine
T. nigroviridis Named Pepsi
Location: Comox Valley, BC, Canada
Contact:

Post by Pandora114 »

He's feeling a bit better now.

When I walked up to the tank, Bubbles swam up to the front and started to greet me, but he's obviously tired and wore out...

He was trying so hard....You swear I'm that little fishies world....I love that fish and I hope he makes it....

Never thought I'd acctually love a fish lol.

If he makes it thru the night I think it'll be smooth sailing. Give him another dose of Melafix and try to offer him some shrimp tomorrow. He didn't want to eat today...
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Post by Peregrine »

I am going through a similar ordeal...I have been told same as you..keep the water pristine, and it should clear...I have also been told, one can add epsom salts to the water to help with any swelling around the eye (make it go down), 1tsbl spoon/5gal...and dose with melafix and/or primafix to prevent any secondary infection
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Pandora114
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Posts: 397
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 1:28 pm
My Puffers: C. travancoricus RIP both of you little guys. Tank will be a F8 after GSP goes full marine
T. nigroviridis Named Pepsi
Location: Comox Valley, BC, Canada
Contact:

Post by Pandora114 »

Gave him another dose of melafix.

We tried to feed him, he showed intrest, but couldn't open his mouth.

We have lockjaw....

:(

any suggestions?
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Post by Corvus »

Anything different in the water you used for the water change? Where do you get your water from? If it's tap water, it is possible the water supplier changed a critic parameter. If it is reverse osmosis water is your system in good condition?

Second idea is: something was possibly not working with the Phos-Zorb or interacting with it in a unexpected way. Did you have high phosphate before?
Removing it was good.

If the source of the bad condition remains unclear I'd suggest slowly increasing the salinity with daily water changes.

Good luck.
Pandora114
Green Spotted Puffer
Posts: 397
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 1:28 pm
My Puffers: C. travancoricus RIP both of you little guys. Tank will be a F8 after GSP goes full marine
T. nigroviridis Named Pepsi
Location: Comox Valley, BC, Canada
Contact:

Post by Pandora114 »

Corvus wrote:Anything different in the water you used for the water change? Where do you get your water from? If it's tap water, it is possible the water supplier changed a critic parameter. If it is reverse osmosis water is your system in good condition?

Second idea is: something was possibly not working with the Phos-Zorb or interacting with it in a unexpected way. Did you have high phosphate before?
Removing it was good.

If the source of the bad condition remains unclear I'd suggest slowly increasing the salinity with daily water changes.

Good luck.
Salinity is already at 1.005, where we want it to be. We aren't ready to go full marine just yet.

For water changes we use tap water + Aqua Plus dechlorinator + Instant Ocean marine salt.

Hubby put the phos-zorb in because he tore the charcoal filter while rinsing it. :? He did remove it and put in some filter floss to take it's place. The other two foam media pads have not been touched. The params are still perfect.

We had a boil water order a few weeks ago. But it's been rescinded and we check with the town whenever we do a big water change to see if there is another. We get our water from a local river, it gets treated ect ect...
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Post by Boxermom »

Pandora, you can try manually feeding him with an eye dropper or syringe kind of thing, not sure how big the fella is. Its my understanding from admittedly limited research that lockjaw isn't often reverseable though. :(
Tina

Puffers: Auriglobus silus x1, Tetraodon travancoricus x1, Tetraodon turgidus x1, Tetraodon miurus x1, Tetraodon nigroviridis x2, Tetraodon baileyi x2, Tetraodon lineatus x1, Tetraodon palembangensis x1
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Post by Corvus »

dechlorinator is ok for chlorine and chloramines, but heavy metals like copper, lead etc. cannot be made completely harmless, as well as some organic substances. Heavy metals are only immobilized to a certain extent. contents harmless for humans can harm fish. So, the tap water remains a possible source.

If the pads were the source of the problem, since you removed them, the condition of the puffer should improve.

The puffer is a T. nigroviridis ?! A friend had a sick one (think it was a fungus at his eyes and uncomfort signs like black belly, no eating) at 1.005, we increased it to 1.01 (won't tell here how fast) and he became well again. 1.01 is not full marine, yet.
Pandora114
Green Spotted Puffer
Posts: 397
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 1:28 pm
My Puffers: C. travancoricus RIP both of you little guys. Tank will be a F8 after GSP goes full marine
T. nigroviridis Named Pepsi
Location: Comox Valley, BC, Canada
Contact:

Post by Pandora114 »

And..he's gone :(

I'm so sad...

*sigh*

Gonna start over I guess. Gonna do a full drain, replace the substrate with gravel instead of Sand (coulda been an anerobic reaction despite stirring) and order another from the fish store down in Naniamo after a few weeks fallow/recycling.
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Post by Corvus »

That's sad. I am sorry.
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