The Puffer Forum

I will see if any LFS around me has frozen or live worms. I fed Alf some medicated baby shrimp tonight, he didn't gobble them up like he usually does but at least he ate some! for the next couple of days I'll feed him only medicated food, I'll try adding some garlic powder to the mix see if likes it more, when all is well and he "fattens" up I'll definitely post some pics.

As long as he swallows some of it.

Nice coverage, all! The porker will perk up soon! : )

I actually witnessed him poo today and it was more solid than usual, so I'm assuming he is either eating more or something is working. Also there were white spots in it and I was wondering if those were parasites or maybe pieces of shell. I also just noticed one of his eyes is slightly cloudy and I was wondering if that's a whole other issue. I feel I didn't get the healthiest puffer, but he seems to be happy since everytime i see him he is bright green

Alf is not doing so well this morning. He was pretty much black this morning and I did a 60% water change this morning and rearranged all his scenery (I usually do this thursday, but my class schedule for the summer did not permit me to do so). I did a water test after the water settled down and found my ammonia was .25 ppm which scares me a little seeing as how I just performed a water change. He is still in my 10 gallon with a South American bumblebee catfish and 2 kuhli loaches. I am going to buy a 20 long this week just for him and finally make his water brackish, but if he doesn't make it I don't know what I'm going to do. He just lays at the bottom of the tank all black which is unusual while I'm in the room. I used Jack's water conditioner last night when I prepared his buckets of water. My aquarium has been set up for about 6 months or a little more and I did a cycle by taking water from a 5 gallon I had set up for a while before that with mollies in it. I'm wondering if possibly he is reacting to the parasite treatment I gave him. Yesterday was his 3rd and final treatment, or should I continue treatments? He wouldn't even react to snails I dropped directly in front of his face. Please help.

Water from an established system does nothing to cycle a tank, as the bacteria you need lives on surfaces, like filter media, substrate, decor, glass, etc. See if you can get some Tetra's Safestart (no other product!) to add to the filter & when you move the puffer to the 20g, use the filter from that tank for it. If I were you, I'd work on getting a 30g (minimally), as you'll just be upgrading again. Better sooner, than later! I'd also up those WC up to 80% (2x/day, if necessary). Use Prime to condition the water.

I have that 38 gallon but I can't set it up, it is apparently too big. The 20 gallon long is just gonna be temporary until I move out. I plan on buying a new filter and running it with my current filter to build up some bacteria before I set up the 20 gallon and using the new one on the 20 gallon to see if that helps cycle it faster. And I'm gonna move half the decorations to the 20 as well, but anyway my puffer is laying on the ground by the filter breathing heavy and very very dark. Also I saw my heater was putting off heat waves in the water it looked like I'm assuming that is not good

You don't have time for this. it'll take 6-8 weeks to seed another filter. Use Tetra's Safestart & add it directly to the filter.

Alf has died. I'm not entirely sure what happened over the course of last night but he was happy as ever when I put him to bed. He must have ate a bad snail

I'm sorry

Well I guess its what I get for buying a sickly looking one hoping I can make it better... It was quite sad though...

Aww.. Yeah, he didn't seem healthy. Bringing fish back to life from very poor conditions should only be attempted by advanced hobbyists. Don't feel guilty for buying a healthy fish over a sickly one, get the healthiest one possible. It's very difficult and stressful to nurse sick fish.

sevenyearnight wrote:It's very difficult and stressful to nurse sick fish.

You can certainly say that again. Boy, is it ever. And it only has about a 10% success rate (at least for me) lol.

Live redworms. You buy them wherever ppl sell fishing supplies. Sold as bait.

Salmon wrote:Alf has died. I'm not entirely sure what happened over the course of last night but he was happy as ever when I put him to bed. He must have ate a bad snail

I think it was the overstocked tank. The ammonia and/or nitrite probably skyrocketed. Even a little ammonia/nitrite can be deadly, though.