Puffer fish don't eat and strange behaviour.

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.
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RaptorRVL
Puffer Fry
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Dec 10, 2006 7:36 pm

Puffer fish don't eat and strange behaviour.

Post by RaptorRVL »

Hello all,

My first post here, although I've been reading the forums for quite some time now. Bit like I know you guys better than you know me :P

I'm having two puffer fish for a month now.
First I cycled the tank (around 60 gallons) as explained in the guide and after a while all the readings were ok.
So then I entered the puffer fish into the aquarium.
For a few weeks now they were doing allright and they were eating good too (I fed them mosquito larva, shrimp and snails).

They both got a nice 'yellow' color. But for some reason they don't seem to be doing too well now.
They seem to have lost their appetite and one is starting to look really pale. That one also seems to have less strength now.

Readings are:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <20
GH (d): 5-10
KH (d): 10
pH : 7,5-8

salt: 0.05

I don't see any white spots on them so I don't think it's ich. However I fear that one of them is not doing allright at all and might even die if this continues :( Sometimes it's like it's having spasms or something and then it just goes back to normal swimming.
Regular changing of the water doesn't seem to improve things too.

So I'm hoping you might have any idea what's wrong.
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JustinPSmith
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 209
Joined: Tue Oct 03, 2006 5:21 pm

Post by JustinPSmith »

Is there good water flow and oxygen in the tank? Are they gasping at all? Is there good surface agitation? Maybe there is not enough oxygen?
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jake_vdb
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 127
Joined: Sat Aug 12, 2006 9:32 pm

Re: Puffer fish don't eat and strange behaviour.

Post by jake_vdb »

RaptorRVL wrote:salt: 0.05
I assume you mean 1.005 sg?
Are they figure 8 puffers?


They may have internal parasites. Their are several previous posts on signs/treatments if you do a search you should end up with something to start with.

If you do think it's IP's start treatment right away. The best method is medicating food, but that can be very difficult if you can't get them to eat.
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Pufferpunk
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Post by Pufferpunk »

Try garlic to enhance appetite.
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!"
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RaptorRVL
Puffer Fry
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Dec 10, 2006 7:36 pm

Post by RaptorRVL »

Yeah sorry, it's 1.005 :)
And it would have been handy to say what puffer fish they are: they are GSP's.
They came with 1.005 sg, so I was starting to slowly go towards the 1.010.

Water flow is quite good, and I also made sure for enough filtering because they are kinda sloppy eaters.
They are not gasping at all, so I guess there is enough oxygen in the water. If there isn't enough oxygen, wouldn't they have done the gasping a few weeks ago?

Maybe they have parasites, I'd better start treatment for that then asap. How long would that take on average before I see some results so I know I'm doing the right thing?
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