The Puffer Forum

Yes, the water coming out of the filter is breaking the surface. The temperature and water testings are normal. I don't see anything at all on his fins or gills. The salinity is 1.006. I also have an air pump.

two options.... the mollies brought something into the tank.. can you get hold of melafix/primafix and treat the tank, just to kill free swimmimg bacteria and internal ones too...

before adding it, do a 75% water change...

you had a 0.25 ammonia reading, so it's a possibility that in a 15G tank with a Fig 8 couldn't handle the sudden bioload jump of adding two more mollies... so you had a mini cycle...

your molly could have died from nitrite poisoning and it coud have damaged your F8 as well, acting blind, bumping into things and not being able to swim against the current as strong signs of nitrite poisoning...

I'd keep dong large daily water changes and hope the damage is reversible, treating with melafix may help soothe the fish and also nutralise any nasty bacteria in the tank...


Just one last thought, have you changed the salt levels recently? Up or down? Do you use a hydrometer to measure the salt exactly, as swinging it by more than 0.002 a week will damage/kill your cycling bacteria...

Ok, I added Melafix and Primafix last night after a 75% water change. He moved around some while I was doing the water change but is now back to laying on the bottom. Nope, haven't made any salt level changes either.

So, for future notice, how do you "quarantine" a fish before adding it with others? Wouldn't have have to have another tank set up? Is there a simpler way?

fraid not, quarentine is exactly that, usually a smaller tank made up to exactly the same parameters as the display tank, fully cycled (or with two filters running on the main tank, so that one can be transfered to the Q tank when needed)

then you put the new fish in for 4 weeks before adding it to the display tank, assuming no illnesses have shown up...

sounds a pain, but it saves longer term issues of bacterial/parasites being transfered from the new fish to your resident fish...

Most people with big marine tanks do it, as the cost to replace the fish if they get sick far outways the hassle of running two tanks for a few weeks.

I'm afraid the puffer was lost this morning. What do I need to do to the tank (still has a mollie and 2 ghost shrimp)? How long should I wait before adding another fish? I am also debating on switching to either freshwater or saltwater. If I switch to saltwater (assuming I wont have the other fish) is all I need as far as equipment - a protein skimmer?