Puffer poop

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.
User avatar
MrBlueFox
Puffer Fry
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2005 11:39 am
Location: Leicester, UK

Post by MrBlueFox »

I notice that you questioned "SG" in one of your earlier posts. If this is the case, then do you know how you made your tank "brackish"? Did you use salt, if so what kind and how much?

You could really help us out by posting a picture of your fish, then we could find out whether you do have a GSP or not. Either way it will put my mind at rest that you are providing the best conditions for your fish. It is commendable that you are now looking to do some research and make things better but prevention is always better than a cure.

It;'s the same with going to the doctors: you present with a cough. it may be just a cough but if you don't tell him you've had it for weeks and are now coughing up blood, he won't tell you you have lung cancer. All i'm saying is help the guys out here who devote endless (free) time to making sure all of our puffs are looked after in the best possible way. I'm not having a go, but like you're learning how to look after your puff, look after us too - I genuinely want to know your puff is gonna be physically and mentally in teh best possible care you can give him (else i'll come and steal him from you!) ;o)
Post Reply