The Puffer Forum

I thought Metafix is reef tank safe? That it won't harm the tank. What kind of anti-bacterial meds should I get and how do I obtain them? Treat him in a separate tank with the anti-bacterial meds or add into the current tank?

And your suggestion about the sand bed, why lower to 1"? Is there a reason other than to give the inhabitants more room? Deeper sand bed I always thought would aid in bacterial colonization and help buffer phosphates. I do clean the sand pretty well every time I do a WC.

I hear your suggestion about moving to a 55 gallon tank, but I don't have 500-1k to dish out and the time to set one up right now. You are telling me to pretty much get a new tank and new set-up. Would need a new sump, protein skimmer, lights, everything. That's not possible or reasonable at the moment. That's not going to solve anything current other than give him more room right now. Note I've had him in this tank for 6 years. Until now he's had no problems.

I appreciate the input and help, but please be reasonable. I wanted input and help on the direct root of the problem, not personal preferences on how big a tank should be for a puffer. I told you, he's like an inch big maybe under 2 inches. I've had him for 6 years in this same set up. The problem is NOT that it is too small of a tank at the moment. I know what it should be if he was 3-4 inches or even 5-6 inches. He's not. I'm not here to fight the "tang police"

Petco is having a $1/g sale right now. All you need is a tank, stand & cheap lights. Check Craigslist, too.

3" is NOT a DSB. It is somewhere in-between a shallow & deep bed. All it's doing with that much rock crammed into a 29g is trapping debris. As you can tell, it's not helping your nitrate issues at all! Also, anything in-between the 2 depths is trapping toxic methane bubbles in it. 1" is what you need in anything smaller than a 75g tank.

Pufferpunk wrote:Petco is having a $1/g sale right now.

Sale starts on the 29th, so a few days still.

Thanks guys for all the help. @Pufferpunk, I appreciate that explanation to the DSB, I was a little confused when you told me to make it 1" but what you said makes sense.

Update: I took out about and 1"-2" of the sand when I made a 50% water change (Took Puff and my other clown out and into large bowls when I did). Cleaned the rock and everything.

As for Puff, I don't know how much longer he will last. The large white bump on the left side of him has grown and now near the insertion point of his fin looks like an ulcer. His fin near there is deteriorating and a nasty hole is starting to form. Skin from around that region is dying and looks like a peeling sunburn. His mouth is completely gone and his beak is exposed. In essence, he looks borderline a zombie fish. I'm extremely heartbroken and sad but I do not want him to suffer anymore as I don't think he can recover from this. Even if he does, what will be his quality of life.

I am open to any dramatic suggestions. I'm going to get a another tank hopefully later tonight, but I don't think it will be soon enough. I just got off work. My local fish store didn't really have any real anti-bacterial other than like metafix and some other oil based stuff. Is there a specific name of the anti-bacterial meds I should use or be looking for to buy and administer?

At this point, I feel it's best to euthanize. Go to the drugstore & you will find clove oil in the toothpaste isle. It's used for toothaches. Put him in a bowl of tank water & add an entire dropperful of the clove oil. He will go to sleep & then die of an overdose. You should freeze him afterwards. So sorry...

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... yeah I think that is the best option right now. I didn't want to have to come to that but I don't really see any other choice. He's now swimming and rotating around in circles while facing up (like a ballerina twirling). I'm about to go pick it up, I just wish I knew what happened. Thank you for all your help

Update: He's now in a better place, I couldn't see him suffer anymore and his condition kept on getting worse. I took your advice and used clove oil (eugenol) and he's resting peacefully in my freezer :'( ....Thanks again for the advice and help

No more pain for him, was the right thing to do

There is apparently a basic misunderstanding of sand beds and DSBs: Shallow sand beds are to block reflections from the bottom glass and give the livestock a more natural environment, at least in appearance. This format should be well-stirred and surface vacuumed at least weekly.

DSB are natural processors of nitrate and other metabolites via low-oxygen reduction of potentially harmful metabolites. These are never, repeat never disturbed other than very light surface vacuuming. It takes many weeks to months to establish this low-oxygen environment, and disturbance of it can and will release toxic levels of such metabolites into the water column. Fish or other residents prone to deep digging are specifically excluded from such tanks.

Plenum tanks are semi-hybrids between shallow sand beds and DSBs. They avoid the possibility of tank-water release of toxic metabolites by not developing the very low oxygen levels of DSBs, restricting their reduction to safer levels, but these also are best without diggers in the tank.

When working with too-small for the inhabitants tanks, only the cosmetic shallow and well cleaned sand bases should be used. Tank water volume is far too important to the fish. Without adequate water volume to achieve nearly full adult size within 2-3 years, the fish housed are likely to be permanently stunted. This is the basic fallacy in "moving tank size up as it is needed" - more often than not, the fish end up smaller than they should be. Fish never stop growing (unlike many land animals), but beyond sexual maturity, the growth rate is very much slower than for the sexually immature fish. Full maximum adult size requires space for rapid pre-sexual maturity growth. If that phase is missed, the fish will never achieve full size.

FWIW, HTH

FWIW, HTH