Is my little puffer poorly?

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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.
User avatar
Troender
Former Staff Member
Posts: 1843
Joined: Sat Nov 25, 2006 8:04 pm
Gender: Female
My Puffers: 1x GSP (Bolla), 1x m. something. Bought as a leiurus, maybe a turgidus (Tiger), 1x c. irrubesco (Tott(a) aka Houdini) 1x c. salivator (Jack the Ripper), 1x m. cochinchinensis (Hufflepuff - R.I.P.), 2x c. lorteti (Tommy and Tigern = Calvin and Hubbes), 1x m. suvatti (Koseklumpen), 1x m. palembangensis (Dragonfly), 2x t. biocellatus (Koken and Fiken).
Location: Askim, Norway

Post by Troender »

Trems wrote:and thought maybe it was in the frozen bloodworm block somehow?
Did you feed it frozen? When feeding puffers, the bloodworms should be thawed first. Puffers are sensitive to cold things. Actually I was feeding my puffers frozen food for a long time, and never had any problems with it (I've stopped doing it now), but I know that can be a problem.
Inger Anne
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Just think how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of them are even stupider! -George Carlin

Image
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32975
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:

Post by Pufferpunk »

Clean out w/Oxyclean. Get Bio-Spira (no other produce will do) to instant cycle the tank (added to your filter) & add fish immediatly. If you are in a country where you can't get Bio-Spira, then read the FISHLESS cycle article in our Library. Please don't cycle with fish.
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!"
Trems
Puffer Fry
Posts: 14
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2007 9:02 am
Location: West Mids

Post by Trems »

no i always thawed the food before adding, just added a little tank water to the food in a little dish and then drained it off before dropping it in.


i was assuming that the tank would be well on its way to being cycled already and adding some tough fish would finish the job?
User avatar
Boxermom
Former Staff Member
Posts: 2182
Joined: Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:34 pm
Location: Wisconsin
Contact:

Post by Boxermom »

Oxyclean to sterilize it. There is no cycle booster other than Biospira, everything else is dead bacteria in a bottle that does nothing but waste your money. I would highly recommend reading up on and doing a fishless cycle, as there's no reason to subject a fish to the dangers of cycling, even if it is hardy and cheap.
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
Post Reply