I bought three little Pea Puffers about three weeks ago from a fish store and all seemed well until yesterday. One small guy became very dark colored, almost green, and he is usually a light brown with spots. He is very slow swimming, if he swims at all. He keeps sitting on the sand at the bottom most of the time and never eats. He appears to be breathing really hard. Especially when he swims across the tank. My tank water is at 78 degrees and the puffers live with two swordfish, three neons, two black angelfish and four suckers who are all doing fine. Please help! I feel so terrible looking at the poor thing! Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Thank you,
Cheyenne
HELP! Sick Pea Puffer!
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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PufferTrio
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2007 11:44 pm
- Location: Eugene. OR
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Boxermom
- Former Staff Member
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- Location: Wisconsin
- Contact:
What size tank is it? How long has it been set up? How did you cycle it? What are the current water parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates)?
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
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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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
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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
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PufferTrio
- Puffer Fry
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- Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2007 11:44 pm
- Location: Eugene. OR
Sick Pea
I have a 55 gallon tank which has been set up for about 1 month. I use two filters that suck through the sand and a layer of foam to clean up the water as well as one smaller charcoal filter. My water is ran through bleach since we get our water from a well so I use Chlorinex Complete to eliminate the amonia in the water. I havent checked nitrates and nitrites since I set it up. Im ashamed to say I dont know what they are!
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Nick
- Former Staff Member
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- My Puffers: Mine:
GSPs - Shakespeare and Jillybean
F8 - Velvet
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DP - Emma Goldman
Narrow Lined Puffer - Ulrike - Location (country): Northeastern USA
- Location: Middletown, CT
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I'd do a 50% water change right away, then get the water tested out as soon as possible. Many times fish health issues are water quality related.
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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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:
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Boxermom
- Former Staff Member
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- Joined: Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:34 pm
- Location: Wisconsin
- Contact:
I believe the Chlorinex Complete will get rid of chlorine/chloramines, but doesn't do anything for ammonia. You really need to read up on the nitrogen cycle of a tank.
As Nick said, do a very large water change right away. Get some Prime to declorinate the water, which will also detoxify the ammonia and nitrites that are most likely killing your fish. Try to find Biospira and add it to the tank. ONLY Biospira has the correct live bacteria needed to cycle the tank, nothing else in a bottle works so don't let them talk you into anything else.
Pea (dwarf) puffers do not make good community fish, as they tend to attack and bite fish much bigger than themselves. In addition, angels will eat anything that fits into their mouths, including neons and pea puffers, which can cause additional health/death issues.
As Nick said, do a very large water change right away. Get some Prime to declorinate the water, which will also detoxify the ammonia and nitrites that are most likely killing your fish. Try to find Biospira and add it to the tank. ONLY Biospira has the correct live bacteria needed to cycle the tank, nothing else in a bottle works so don't let them talk you into anything else.
Pea (dwarf) puffers do not make good community fish, as they tend to attack and bite fish much bigger than themselves. In addition, angels will eat anything that fits into their mouths, including neons and pea puffers, which can cause additional health/death issues.
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
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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PufferTrio
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2007 11:44 pm
- Location: Eugene. OR
Thank you guys.
I did the water change as soon as I saw the post but sadly, my buddy passed last night while I was asleep. The angels are so small yet that they keep to themselves in the back of the tank still and the puffers hang out together away from all the other fish, they just pick on eachother, nothing terrible though. I try to keep fish of the same temprement together. Thanks again and Ill keep you all posted!
Cheyenne
I did the water change as soon as I saw the post but sadly, my buddy passed last night while I was asleep. The angels are so small yet that they keep to themselves in the back of the tank still and the puffers hang out together away from all the other fish, they just pick on eachother, nothing terrible though. I try to keep fish of the same temprement together. Thanks again and Ill keep you all posted!
Cheyenne
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Boxermom
- Former Staff Member
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Sorry to hear that. Swords, neons, angels and puffers all have very different temperaments IMO. Don't let the cute little faces fool you, my DPs were more vicious than any of my other puffers and killed and ate fish much larger than themselves, and they get more aggressive and territorial as they age IME. I didn't listen to others here either and thought I could keep various puffers in various communities. I was proven wrong each time. With the exception of SAPs, I would never keep another puffer with any other fish.
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
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