sick puffer

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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simpson

sick puffer

Post by simpson »

hi could do with some help , my mbu puffer fish is of his food lays lifeless at bottom of the tank or swims to the top like some one is pulling his tail ? had my water checked and that's fine he has lots of different food there is plants in the tank , please help :cry: my puffer is about 7inc long my tank is 4ft long
Last edited by simpson on Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
simpson

Post by simpson »

need help
Nick
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Post by Nick »

What are the actual numbers for his water parameters? Puffers are sensitive to ammonia and nitrite. What size tank is he in? Mbus need HUGE tanks eventually, and if he's getting to big for his present tank, that could do it.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
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manutius
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Post by manutius »

Yeah I agree they tend not to be very happy with too high a temperature and will sit at the bottom sometimes. I would like to know the size of the tank too and the actual water perameters, what is considered fin for most fish cannot be applied to puffers Mbu especially. Though they are large fish they do suffer in poor water conditions. Are there any other symptoms, colouor change, gasping for example
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Pufferpunk
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Post by Pufferpunk »

Read the article in our Library on Air-Filled puffers.
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!"
simpson

Post by simpson »

he is alot better today , thaks for your help
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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:

Post by Pufferpunk »

What did you do to help him get better? I'd still be curious as to what the perameters were. Also, it might help to read the sticky in the FW Puffer forum on Mbus.
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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