The Puffer Forum

has the snail died? maybe thats affected your ammonia?

No matter what the ammonia problem is never going to really go away with those conditions, maybe with multiple daily water changes. I have followed along with this and do truly believe you are trying your best but also truly believe that your not able to do what you "have to" do to properly care for these guys and if you care for them as much as you do you will try and find them new homes. If you can't have the bigger tank for them then why continue to make these fish suffer. Yes you have brought the ammonia down but it is always in your tank, which means your fish are slowly suffering. I know the attachment you have to these fish but don't you think it would be better for them not to suffer? There are lots of cool little fish out there that you could put in a 10g tank. A nice betta would look nice in a 10g and they can be personable too.

Not trying to be harsh with you or anything, as I said I believe you are trying your best but your attachment to these fish is doing them more harm than good and it should be time for you to realize that with the tank you have them in it's just not gonna work at all. I don't think you have put up a reading of 0 ammonia yet which does mean that your fish are suffering and that you will never fully get rid of the ammonia in that tank, just too small to handle that bioload.

I wish you good luck with this and truly do hope you realize whats best for the fish in this situation and find them new homes.

The OP is very aware of the requirements of the GSPs at this point.

Our objective is to keep them alive until the change over can occur. Walk her through the process, offer alternatives or step back.

back to topic

I'm not sure I see a future of a larger tank possible here, with her mother's attitude.

My mothers attitude is only a problem for the next 20 days. I will be moving back to my dorm where I will be able to move one of my boys to a 5g tank. I will then try my hardest to acquire two more 10g tanks but it will take some time. After that I will be moving out of the dorms in May. I WILL NOT BE MOVING BACK IN WITH MY MOTHER!!!!!!!!!! The tank size issue then will not be a problem. I have it lined up to buy a larger tank.

That's great to hear.

As for whether or not the snail is dead or alive. I believe it is still alive. It will open it's shell and close it every day. I have tried hiding it under the log so that maybe it would come out again but it won't. Just opens and closes it shell.


I tried to go to PetCo for live plants and snails. They would not sell me any plants. Said they would mess up the levels in the tank.. :/ and the snails she said were too large. And when I mentioned the ghost shrimp she said she would not sell them to me because they cannot sell fish to be eaten by other fish/animals... What do I do now?

What do they think the ghost shrimp are for??? They didn't have any of those pest snails on their plants?

She said if they get any pest snails they get rid of them quickly. And as for the ghost shrimp I am unsure what she thought they were for. :/ But she wouldn't sell them to me.

Maybe Petsmart?

The three Petsmarts near me have stopped giving me the snails now too. They also refused to sell me the small crabs they have and almost refused to sell me a couple mystery snails because I was planning on trying to feed them to my puffers. They said they won't sell me anything that I'm using as food for another fish. One of the stores that refused me the crabs did sell me the shrimp, though I didn't tell them what I wanted the shrimp for. The one store tried to refuse me the mystery snails because I previously asked for the pest snails. I just told them I had a separate tank set up for the snails (which I do, but still).

Just don't tell them why you need the snails

purplecandle wrote:Not to hijack..just wanted to mention..

If you can't have depression meds, B-vitamins can help take the edge off. Find a supplement that has all of the B vitamins, especially B-12.

If you need a quick fix immediately, and energy shot (with lots of vitamin B 12) can help a tiny bit. Dollar tree sells stacker 2's for a $1. They also have a little caffeine, so read the ingredients carefully and ask a pharmacist to make sure what you are taking does not interact with your current meds..

In some cases this can take the edge off, not take it away...

Also ease up off the vicodin. Is your doctor aware that your are depressed?

Do you know that Keppra has side affects of anxiety and depression? I have been told that vitamin B-6 can help with these side affects from this specific medicine.

Namenda is an Alzheimer medication, but can be used for anxiety..Does this medicine help you at all with depression? I know you had a brain trauma, but it still seems weird that you are taking this medicine. Are you taking this for pain?

Is your pain just from your injuries?

Sorry, I just got all in your business! It is just that you have some co-morbid issues going on here and I am a bit surprised at your medicines. You do not have to answer me!

Keppra is a necessity for most brain injured patients at minimum for the first year an possibly permanent if there was seizure activity post injury and depending on the type of brain injury. Namenda is also commonly seen post head injury to help with impulse control and personality control issues (damage to certain areas of the brain can cause these). As for the current depression, are you still currently seeing the neuropsychiatrist and if so is he/she aware that you are this depressed? This can be secondary to your head injury and because you're not seeing progression in your recovery. If you were treated in a trauma center that is level 2 or level 1 you should have been assigned to neuropsychiatry before you were discharged from the hospital. If they don't know you are this depressed you need to tell them. There are also other medications than Vicodin that you can take for the pain that can also help with the depression and are non-opioid based. Vicodin has a very high likelihood of memory loss as a side effect of any of the oral narcotic analgesics available, if you can get on some other medication that is adjunctive to the Vicodin you very well may be able to reduce the amount you are taking and get some of your memory back.....

I know this is an older post but I don't understand how I missed it and being a Trauma ICU RN I had to chime in on the meds. Hopefully this isn't repeat from newer posts.

that was my old post. I understood the nature of some of her medicines and why after a brain trauma she would take them. However, I was more concerned with her un-checked depression, which IMO seemed severe. As she said on MFK that without the GSPs she did not know what she would do...(Huge Red Flag). Depression (Especially Depression + Vicodin) is deadly so I was more or less trying to figure out some way to help her out or to get her to talk to her docs more about her depression. This is a really sad story for the OP and the puffers, that I hope ends well. And I hope she finds a doc that can help her.

Her mother seems extremely unsupportive too, which can add a lot to the depression.