Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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.
My Puffers: Mbu Puffer named Naboo South American Puffer named Bollo RIP :( 3 Dwarf Puffers yet to be named Red Eye Red Tailed Puffer - Returned to LFS for being to vicious Porky the Porcupine Pup the Dogface
Dadof4 wrote:I added MElafix and pimafix just in case too. I have a power head that I can bleed air in to that I'm going to set up...
Sorry to hear that Dadof4
It's a bit late now but I was going to say if there's not much oxygen in the water adding Melifix and pimafix will reduce the oxygen in the water further still and make things worse. Although you did say you're adding a powerhead
Very sorry about the outcome, Dadof4...I know you must hate losing him. Kind of scary because if it's true that the shellfish had some sort of toxin in it, well it could happen to any of us at any time - and the fact that it was frozen made no difference at all is pretty disturbing.
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
My Puffers: Mbu Puffer named Naboo South American Puffer named Bollo RIP :( 3 Dwarf Puffers yet to be named Red Eye Red Tailed Puffer - Returned to LFS for being to vicious Porky the Porcupine Pup the Dogface
marksrush wrote:Very sorry about the outcome, Dadof4...I know you must hate losing him. Kind of scary because if it's true that the shellfish had some sort of toxin in it, well it could happen to any of us at any time - and the fact that it was frozen made no difference at all is pretty disturbing.
"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him or her. Will she gain anything by it? Will it restore her to a control over her own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to freedom for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."
My Puffers: 1 GSP (Microfiche) RIP, 1 Monotrete Turgidus (Leon) in a 30gal. 1 Monotrete suvattii in a 40 gal FW. 120 gallon BW with 3 juvenile Dragon Gobies (so cool). 55 gal with a 2" GSP named Hank. 180 gallon being set up for a Fahaka in the next few months!
So, late last night I was lying in be reading like usual and I looked over at Leon. He was just lying there gasping, no fin movement, and nearly black. Same symptom that Microfiche had before he died. Panic set in. He did this one other time right as my GSP died but things improved. Now, back to it again. Water test time! Ammon 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 10, pH 8.2, temp 76F. Nothing out of the ordinary but let's do a big WC just in case there's some other issue. BINGO!!! As soon at the Python started I saw it. Little white balls that look like styrofoam mixed in the substrate! I never saw it because it was in the depression he made in the gravel under his log. I picked up his log and there were a lot of these things. I put on some gloves, started picking them out and then I picked the puffer and move him, there were even more. I did a 90% WC at 2:00AM and a heavy vacuum of the substrate and go even more.
This morning he was back to his nasty old self and ate like a pig. Did another 90% WC and gravel vac. and he started cruising the tank again. Got me thinking, things were too coincidental, GSP dies, Brown shows same signs. Only two things in common were a clam that I fed them and nightcrawlers that I feed all my Puffs. Went to look in the nightcrawler container and sure enough, there were the little white things. I called the company that packages the worms and asked what those are and it turns out they are a food for the worms and for moisture retention. I asked if they are toxic to fish and he said possibly very small ones, then i mentioned the death of the puffer and the sickness and that I thought the two things were related by a common denominator, the nightcrawlwer. His tune changed, according to him they are non toxic if ingested but they can be toxic in an aquarium as they dissolve. I think that is pure BS. I have a sample in the chem lab at the local university to see what these are made of. I won't name the company until I can get firm results.
My theory is that Micro actually ate one of these and that Leons' tank was being poisoned by them. I have a large gravel substrate mixed with dirt and they got in the cracks and buried where Leon makes his depression in the rocks. Just a heads up for anyone feeding live nightcrawlers or worms to their puffers that this is a good possibility of being extremely toxic...
"Darwin swings...annnnnnd a miss. Boy Jim, Chuck's suffered at the plate tonight. He's 0 for 3 and I'm not sure he's recovered from that shoulder pull a few weeks ago. I'll bet the front office is re-thinking that contract."
When I first read that post I thought they were eggs until u talked about the worm stuff, I was like WTF?
But thats wack,I would sue them.
I hope Leon pulls through
Interesting, vermiculite possibly? The worms I get are in nothing but soil, fortunately.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
My Puffers: 1 GSP (Microfiche) RIP, 1 Monotrete Turgidus (Leon) in a 30gal. 1 Monotrete suvattii in a 40 gal FW. 120 gallon BW with 3 juvenile Dragon Gobies (so cool). 55 gal with a 2" GSP named Hank. 180 gallon being set up for a Fahaka in the next few months!
More than likely vermiculite, I never thought of it. Just an FYI, these were bought at the dreaded Wal-Mart.....Only place in a small town to get bait at 11PM when you suddenly realize you are out of worms. I found a nice place to get them, and they are grown organically, in an even smaller town about 25 minutes from here. I'm going to go talk to them Monday and see the operation they have set up. I know there are a few people in central and western Wisconsin that may be interested in this place to get 100% chemical free worms. If they turn out like advertised I'll post their contact info.
"Darwin swings...annnnnnd a miss. Boy Jim, Chuck's suffered at the plate tonight. He's 0 for 3 and I'm not sure he's recovered from that shoulder pull a few weeks ago. I'll bet the front office is re-thinking that contract."
Found this little bit of information: The United States government estimates that vermiculite was used in more than 35 million homes but does not recommend its removal. Nevertheless, homes or structures containing vermiculite or vermiculite insulation dating from before the mid 1990s, and especially those known to contain the "Zonolite" brand, may contain asbestos, and therefore may be a health concern.
The vermiculite deposit at the Libby, Montana mine, was (and is) heavily contaminated with asbestos.
Don't know if it's the same thing but that would explain why your puffer died.
