Help, my puffer seems to be blind....

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.
jus85411
Mbu Puffer
Posts: 1116
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:28 pm
Gender: Male
My Puffers: none currently :(
Location (country): USA
Location: Philadelphia Area

Re: Help, my puffer seems to be blind....

Post by jus85411 »

yeah 50% is more what you want to do. even though the beneficial bacteria isnt in an abundance in the water column, just the time it takes to do that big of a water change is probably enough time to kill off your bacteria with the filters sitting still and not running. water movement is what really keeps the bacteria alive because its getting a constant feed of waste produced by the fish. hopefully the pet store you take your water sample to will know what they are testing for, how to test for it and the correct solutions for any problems you might have. please do not buy any chemicals/additives they might recommend, and certainly dont walk out with any fish lol. i know how hard that is to do. the only thing i would possibly suggest getting is BioSpira to help get more bacteria in there that you need to speed up your breakdown of current ammonia.

have you tried seeing how he acts with the lights off? if maybe his vision is better? it makes sense about the bright lighting especially if its over an extended period of time. does the puffer do this at all times? i notice my puffer act "blind" before but its mainly if i turn the tank lights straight on without turning on a light nearby first to kind of warn him and give him time to wake up before turning on the tank lights
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32987
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
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
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Greenville, SC
Contact:

Re: Help, my puffer seems to be blind....

Post by Pufferpunk »

Your tank is set up all wrong for marine conditions. You should be using aragonite sand, live rock (1.5-2lb/gal) & a good protein skimmer. You could reduce your WC to probably 25%/week with that. This is the whole reason we recommend going marine with them.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
jus85411
Mbu Puffer
Posts: 1116
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:28 pm
Gender: Male
My Puffers: none currently :(
Location (country): USA
Location: Philadelphia Area

Re: Help, my puffer seems to be blind....

Post by jus85411 »

i havent seen the videos yet, they dont play very well on the network at work. they will load up but only like a couple seconds at a time...
Post Reply