The Puffer Forum

Thanks Lesley, and thank you Tracy. I just thought he was doing so well. His colouring was good, his eye socket had healed over and he had a great appetite. Whatever it was, it hit him quick. I just can't figure out what went wrong. If it was the glass cleaner that got into the tank, it seems like I would have been able to save him, as it couldn't have been that much .... I just don't know. But it would make me feel better if I could figure it out, if nothing else, than for future reference.
That's the downside to keeping puffers, you get so attached to them, and in a short time something can happen to snatch them away from you.

sorry about the puff thing is you might not have ever been able to help him no matter what you did. do you know how he lost his eye? if not theres probably countless things that could have happened and no telling what other damage was done inside of him when he went through whatever it was that messed his eye up

if your going to keep it as brackish and plan on getting something for the tank soon since the filter is matured, make sure you put some sort of ammonia source to keep the BB going. why not keep the brackish going and get another GSP and acclimate him up over a couple hours? was this your only GSP?

Sorry he didn't make it

Poor Uno! Usually, when they start the "death roll", they rarely come back from that but there was recently someone's puffer who did & I was really surprised. Remember, no matter what you do with this tank (FW or BW), you must continue to feed the bacteria in there, to keep it alive.

Oh, that sucks, I'm so sorry you lost him
Being the nervous Nelly that I am, if it was me, I'd clean out the whole tank, sterilize what I could, and toss out what I couldn't. That way, I could be sure that if whatever got Uno was contagious, it wouldn't get the next guy. Especially since it's a piece of cake cycling when you have other tanks going

I'd do the same thing as Carmen. Better safe than sorry and that way you know you'll have eliminated whatever got him.

Pufferpunk wrote:Poor Uno! Usually, when they start the "death roll", they rarely come back from that but there was recently someone's puffer who did & I was really surprised. Remember, no matter what you do with this tank (FW or BW), you must continue to feed the bacteria in there, to keep it alive.

Yeah, I sort of had that feeling when he was rolling last night that he wasn't going to last long, but darn, I felt so helpless and just wished there was something I could have done for him.
I felt so good about saving him after his eye was taken (the story was that the puffer was kept in freshwater not brackish - and that's what the woman said caused the eye to go, but we found out through talking to her that her son also had some sort of marine eel in the tank with Uno, and I say that eel took the eye out. Funny how it healed up quickly once I got him and started Melafix, even though she claimed the injury wasn't fresh), it's just a shame I couldn't give him a longer life.

Anyway, I'm not certain what I'm going to do with that tank for right now, but I will keep feeding the bacteria just in case I decide to get another. Uno wasn't my only GSP, I've got 2 others living with my Ceylons, and I am not going to remove them (they are growing like weeds), so I will think about what I want to get to put in Uno's tank.

Sorry to hear about Uno

pufferpuggirl wrote: Uno wasn't my only GSP, I've got 2 others living with my Ceylons, and I am not going to remove them (they are growing like weeds), so I will think about what I want to get to put in Uno's tank.

i should have noticed the list and the "4x T nigroviridis" written in there lol

sorry to hear that suzanne ,i'm sure you did your best for him but you can't save them all, at least you gave him a good chance not many people would have taken on a puffer with one eye ,sometimes fish do just die and it's not always because of something we have done

Thanks everyone for your kind words and understanding.

that is so sad. Sorry for the late reply. I don't know what to say. Sorry for your loss. I know you did your best

sorry to hear about uno passing

Well unfortunately this is the downside to keeping puffers. We think we know a lot about them, but in reality I think we know very little. I would have done anything to help Uno, but I honestly didn't know what to do. The tank is stable now, so I suppose it's quite possible that over-spray from the glass cleaner got into the tank and maybe Uno got a bit much of it and that's what pushed him over the edge, I don't know.

One thing I would like to point out/ask is. How large is he? 1.010 salinity is proper for a 1 1/2 inch puffer or so. When hes an adult he should be in 1.020/1.022

Good luck and I hope he makes it through this. Any amount of ammonia and nitrite can harm them. I had a small ammonia spike of .25 in my 45g and lost 5 platys within a 24 hour period. Weakened fish+ammonia=death.