Hi All-
I am hoping someone can help me. I bought 2 baby F8 puffers this past weekend. I am quarantining them in a 5.5 gallon tank. They will be housed permanently in a 37 gallon as soon as QT is over. One of the F8's started spinning as if he was chasing his tail today and now he is having trouble swimming. He just kind of rolls. He has no visible sign of illness, his poo is brown so I don't think he has parasites. The PH in the tank is 7.0, the ammonia is at 0ppm, the nitrates are 0ppm , the nitrites are 0ppm. Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong with this little guy? I don't know how to treat him and I'm really worried he won't make it. This tank is fully cycled and I do 50 % water changes a week on it.
Thanks for your help,
Nikki
sick F8 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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manutius
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 1316
- Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:49 pm
- My Puffers: RIP Clooney the Mbu :(
- Location: Southend essex, UK
- Contact:
Do you have these in Brackish water? They need to be slowly acclaimatised to a salinty of 1:005-1:008. They are often sold as freshwater fish but in fact are much better and healthier in low end brackish water. All you need is some marine salt mix, NOT AQUARIUM SALT, and over a few weeks bring the salinity up to the figures quoted above. You will need a low end hydrometer to read the levels of salinity too.
If the fish are already in salt water then I beg your pardon but this is often the common mistake with these fish. The other factor could be the cramped Q tank. How big are they and are they definately F8? Many LFS are woefully inept at ID-ing puffers. Post pics if you are not sure and check this link for more info. Hope that helps http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/ug. ... ocellatus/
If the fish are already in salt water then I beg your pardon but this is often the common mistake with these fish. The other factor could be the cramped Q tank. How big are they and are they definately F8? Many LFS are woefully inept at ID-ing puffers. Post pics if you are not sure and check this link for more info. Hope that helps http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/ug. ... ocellatus/
Hi there-
Thanks for your reply. I am aware these guys do better in brackish. However, they came from a fresh water tank and so for their QT I put them in fresh water. I planned to use very low end brackish water once they are moved to the 37 gallon I have waiting for them. These are definitely F8's as my boyfriend has a lot of experience with puffers and he identified them. As for the QT tank they are tiny F8's about 1.5 ". I guess I will wait for my boyfriend to get home from work and see what he says. I did a 25 % water change just in case. I hope I did not stress the little guy by doing the water change. I just felt like I should do something.
Thanks for your reply. I am aware these guys do better in brackish. However, they came from a fresh water tank and so for their QT I put them in fresh water. I planned to use very low end brackish water once they are moved to the 37 gallon I have waiting for them. These are definitely F8's as my boyfriend has a lot of experience with puffers and he identified them. As for the QT tank they are tiny F8's about 1.5 ". I guess I will wait for my boyfriend to get home from work and see what he says. I did a 25 % water change just in case. I hope I did not stress the little guy by doing the water change. I just felt like I should do something.
I just wish I knew what did it .-
Nick
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 3231
- Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:47 pm
- My Puffers: Mine:
GSPs - Shakespeare and Jillybean
F8 - Velvet
My fiance:
DP - Emma Goldman
Narrow Lined Puffer - Ulrike - Location (country): Northeastern USA
- Location: Middletown, CT
- Contact:
We're both very sad about little Riley. He was active, curious, and his poo was perfect, I thought we'd really lucked out with him. I was much more worried about Velvet, his tank mate, who was scratched up from a coral collision in the store tank and was a bit skinnier. I don't suspect digestive track parasites, but I wonder if he might have had other types of parasites... I was going to give the pair a precautionary flubenol treatment this weekend, just because they're wild caught fish. We were both taken by surprise that something happened to him, and Velvet is perfectly healthy in the same ideal parameter water.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.