The Puffer Forum

OCgatergal wrote:I've done that before, but the downside is that the goldfish probably has a lot of disease. I once bought a few feeders to cycle my tank and 2 survived and I didn't know what to do with them afterwards so I put it in a 3g bowl but it died in a few weeks

That's not the major downside. Remember why we cycle a tank before we add puffers? Because the toxins kill it. Your goldfish probably died due to the cycling process. That's why we do fishless cycling.

What i don't understand is that all of the water was at the appropriate levels which i tested twice a day and he was still sick. That is why i added the salt which didnt help. I just tested the water again the water is the same as before i added the salt, i dont know why.

take a look around at the puffer and maybe you can see if he is breathing heavy,see if he has small white spots or any skin abnormalities,or anything different from when you purchased him,also make sure his stool is not white and stringy and post it back along with your nitrates and health of the goldfish and maybe someone will see something more. sometimes you just get sick fish or they get stressed and then sick on their way to you.what you may be describing is clamped fins.which is commonly accompanied by whitespots that look like grains of sugar on their skin. That may not be it but it will get you to look closely at the fish. also google fish diseases take a look at list and check off some symptoms but i would suggest posting back before trying to treat because puffers are sensitive to some meds.

He is breathing very heavily and is sitting at the bottom of the tank with a curled tail and has trouble even making himself upright. He has a concave belly which i thought could be an internal parasit so i dewormed him. He does not have any white spots and does not appear to have clamped fins. I just tested the water and everything is perfect as of now. I have not tested the nitrates.

What kind of test are you using? Check the nitrates. If you find that there are none, then your test is defective, because a cycled tank always has nitrates, unless you've just done a 100% water change or if it's heavily planted.

how did you deworm him

was his belly concave when you purchased him

His belly was concaved when i purchased him. I used seachem focus which I soaked black blood worms in.

shouldnt have hurt but that is not for internal parasites (it is an antibacterial),praziquantel,levamisole,piperazine and fenbendazole are wormers general cure has been suggested but im not sure about in feed . someone may be able to give you some decent methods of worming,but you could look online and see other causes of concave belly. and maybe someone will come up with something. If you notice anything else post it and dont forget to post nitrates and if the goldfish is ok or if it died with any symptoms of illness

to be on the safe side use your hydrometer if it goes to 1.000 and see if that salt shows up and post it too

Excellent article on IPs in our Library. If he's breathing heavy, add an airstone. When was your last WC?

that is a nice article, I seen your post on levamisole too, does this sound like IP to you

Possible, or just previously ill-fed.

LOL just a warning though, these puffers are like humans when it comes to medicine soaked foods, I have to almost stuff it down my fishes mouth hah

My puffer is doing worse than ever. He has been sitting at the bottom of the tank for hours on his side, breathing heavily and cannot swim. Is there anything else I can do. I am worried he will not make it through the night.