The Puffer Forum

Well if Elvis forgive's then I'll forgive you.

t1gerbee, You don't have to suffer any longer.

Full tank shot.


A picture of my blennie and snowflake eel I took a few days ago.


And finally a close up of Elvis. Dosen't he look good? His color is back and his skin dosen't look blochy.

Look at those beatuiful fins! I actually counted about 7 dots on all his fins.

Well Elvis looks better then me.LOL.GOod job Edmlfc
LESS THEN A WEEK. SEE PP..TOLD YA(sort of_)

it's truely amazing how well these fish deal with hypo.. do you remember being told how difficult marines were before you kept them..

it was always, 'the salinity must not move by even the tiniest bit or your whole tank will wipe out.... '

yeah, right?!

I'm glad he looks like that, the hard bit is over now, IMO the risky bit is going down into hypo in case any of the fish react badly, once they are all down there and happy it's reasonable to expect them all to come through it fully, assuming the cycle is dealt with.

That's where mummy comes in with the water changes. Builds up good muscles don't you know!

Good job (said with an american accent!)

that is so great that all is well with elvis and chong...
you did a great job getting rid of that ich in there for them....and i am really amazed at your efforts for them....you truly do have a case of "puffer love"....i'm very proud to call you my friend girlie....

yeah elvis and chong....you have one of the best puffer mom's i've ever known....

when will it be safe enough to put the tank back together?

It's not over yet. It's just beginning. My countdown started Thursday. I still have 7 weeks and 4 days to go. Then the sg slowly starts coming up by .002 per week until I get it back to full marine. Which I keep my sg at 1.020. After that I can start adding my lr back to my tank. So I'll say at least 3-4 months by the time it's back together. Seems like forever but we'll get there.

Just a recap:
Elvis, Chong, Wrasse and Sailfin blennie are all eating fine. Even though there is no algea in the tank for the blennie he has been eating pellets. Probally not a good diet for him but it's all I have to offer him until the hypo is over. My snowflake eel has refused to eat for the last 5-6 days since going into hypo. I sent an email to Corvus to ask him about it. For those of you with snowflake eels this may be helpful at a later date. With Corvus' permission:
A copy of our conversation:

edmlfc1: Corvus, I have a few questions about my eel. I had to take my tank down to hypo, I'm doing daily water changes for the amm. battle. Problem now is everyone is eating except my snowflake eel. I didn't not feed for 3 days, this morning I fed them and she still refused to eat. You are the eel expert around here so I'm writing to you for help. Is it the amm. that's causing her hunger strike or is it the hypo? My water test from last night before my water change: amm. 1 (after 24 hours), nitrite 0, nitrate 0, ph 8.2. I did a 60% water change and I'll be doing another tonight. I'll be doing daily water changes until the tank recycles. Once my hypo period is over I'll be raising the sg by .002 each week so that I don't loose my good bacteria again.


edmlfc1: Is it the amm. that's causing her hunger strike or is it the hypo?

Corvus: Both. Morays don't eat when they are stressed, ammonia as well as hyposalinity mean stress. This behaviour can continue for a while.

edmlfc1: I think it's been about 5 or 6 days since she's eaten. How long can they go without food?

Corvus: If it is healthy: many weeks, even months. A healthy moray eel never starves to death. The longest time confirmed for a moray was more than 8 months until a specimen started feeding again. They have fat depots under their skin, which help them to go without food a long time. Most captive eels are actually overfed and many die of fatty liver disease.

A lack of food will not kill your eel. Ammonia is more dangerous, as well as copper use, which needs to be avoided. If you are unsure about the health of your eel watch its breathing. If the moray is sick, e.g. has Cryptocaryon ("Ich") parasites at its gills (the skin has toxic mucous and is rarely affected by white spots), you'll see elaborated breathing.

Good luck with your treatment.


edmlfc1: Thanks Corvus,
I knew you would know. I'll be staying on top of the water changes until it recycles and I've also been treating the tank with prime to help with the amm for now. I noticed that during the time I was taking it down to hypo she lost all of her black color. Her color is back now. I figured she was stressing, as they all were including myself. Her breating dosen't look any different than it did before. Although she has been hiding in the fake tree and I have to get a flash light to look at her. I feel much better now.


Corvus:You are welcome!
Those color changes of E. nebulosa don't need to be related to stress. I see them at night often much lighter, a feature observed at many moray species. For example I once had baby green morays, at night they were very light green, at day dark brown, looked like 2 different animals. It's no effect of the flashlight, they need a few minutes to get their daytime color back. Other of my morays change their color at nighttime, too. Have a look at your specimen at night, you might observe similar.

maybe your eel will start eating again once the tank has recycled at the lower salinity...? Hope so.

I hope so too. But like Corvus said, if she has enough body fat stored she can go months without eating. I never realized I might be overfeeding her so I'm very glad to know that. She is a little on the chunky side. I think she will be ok for at least 2-3 months. When I first got her she was the size of a pencil, she has doubled in width since then. I would say she has some fat stored up. I'll also be watching how much I feed her from now on.

hows it all going?

Going good! No more spots that I can see on Elvis, and his blochy skin is beatuiful again. He's happy and swimming around. My amm. goes up to 1 after 24 hours. Still not showing any nitrite. I tested his water today and right now his amm. is at .25. Still treating his tank with vit. c and doing daily water changes. Snowflake eel still not eating, but after talking to Corvus I'm not worried about her. She came out last night and I got some good pictures of her. I posted it under other pets. My little sailfin algea eater has no algea to eat so I've been feeding him pellets. He still looks good. Not as fat as he was when he was eating 24/7 but not loosing too much weight either. His tummy is still rounded. He searches the tank for algea but there's none. I feel sorry for the little fellow. I'm keeping a close eye on to make sure he don't starve. Chong is staying close to Elvis and sleeps with him every night. I have March 5th marked on my calendar to start raising the sg. I can't wait! It just seems so far away. Thursday will be a week, I think the worse is pretty much over. Now it's just keeping up with the daily water changes. That's not too bad. I have a 55 gallon drum that I mix his water in the night before with a powerhead and heater. Then when I get off of work, I syphon out his tank, hook up a hose to the power head and pump the new water in. Then I refill the drum and start over. I'm not into back breaking buckets.
I've been using tap water and it dosen't seem to bother them. It takes too long to make ro/di for these daily water changes. Until hypo is over I'm going to keep using tap. That's about all. The update for the day.

Question about the dry rock. I've had it out of the tank for about a week. Do you think by Sunday I can put it back into the tank to give a place for the algea and bacteria to grow? It's totally dry, I'll wash it all off on Sunday and give it a good scrub. I would just like to put a little rock in there to try to grow some algea for the blenny and maybe get some bacteria to stick. Let me know what you think.

thanks for the update on elvis, chong, daisy, and the rest of your crew in there....
i'm glad it's going well so far....
march isn't far off....just yesterday it was christmas....and now we're halfway thru january.....

I never thought I would be so happy to say this but " I have Nitrites!". Amm..25 Nitrites .25. The cycle is moving along. Still doing daily water changes and all my little fishes are doing good.

I'll be adding the dry rock back in Sunday. Blenny is starting to loose weight. He's been eating pellets but I don't feed him much. I need to get some algea growing for him. I'll update in a few days.