The Puffer Forum

Water changes right now, will keep her alive.

Weirdly she perked up this morning and started to move about, while getting her colour back, I decided to get the Tetra SafeStart anyway, and have added it to the filter.

Here's hoping she gets better, do you think I should feed her now?

Never bad to offer food, as long as you clean up what she doesn't eat, immediately.

cycle is one of the "bacteria in a bottle" products that pet stores recommend but can actually harm more than help. i believe "dr. tims" and tetra safe start have been ones that have proven to work. i used to use cycle as well, until i was told the only thing i needed to add was prime to new water. i would get to another shop asap, if you can, and get a bottle of prime. its a very popular product and i dont think i have ever saw a shop not have it, unless it was just out of stock for that week til they got more

I live in the UK, not the US, no shops over here that I've been to (I've been to FS in Reading, Maidenhead, Farnham, Iver Heath, all over the place) sell Prime. I'll have to order it.

But for now, no water changes for 48 hours.

glad to hear she is overall starting to feel better even before the safe start. Hope the trend continues!

Her eyes seem to have cleared and she's got some colour back, however she's hiding by the side of the filter, is it because she feels safe there? Obviously she isn't 100% yet.

I feel like its due to you not feeding her and so the bioload in the tank is lighter thus you have better tank parameters. That's really good to hear it sounds like she is starting to get better then, probably does she have a cave to retreat to? Decent decor spread with sight breakage? Probably just feels comfortable there I guess puffers are weird.

She has a bridge which she can get under, although she hasn't really explored much because she's been ill/stressed.

I'll buy her a hidey hole or something so she can go in there and explore. As for feeding them bloodworm, what is the best way to do it? Just drop a few in there? She'll find it right?

Okay, a good way to get cheaper decor is to go off of craigslist just wash it well, I'm sure she will really appreciate having more stuff to look at when she gets better. You can just throw in a few I usually get my puffers attention first just to be sure.

Ok, I'll go have a look now, once again, massive thanks for the help.

not a problem glad to help, best of luck with her!

She came out for a bit, so I tried to feed her, she wasn't interested. One thing I did notice however is that she's now curling her tail while swimming, why is this?

She's now lying under her bridge, she's still not right

I think she has Ick, I'm getting her some treatment tomorrow, I've been reading up about it and am almost certain that's shat it is. Can someone recommend a treatment and guide me through it. I've just read up about RTR's salt method, will this be effective for my puffer?

Can you go into more detail about the tail curling? Is she moving around in helicopter like fashion? My puffer does that when he is looking at stuff and is curious. Does it seem like she is struggling to swim at all with her tail curled in or keeping balance? Or is she looking at the bridge and staring at it with her tail curled in? As for food the only reason I said to try and not feed during this time is because I usually wait until the puffer starts to beg me for food after helping them recover, not surprised she isn't fully ready to eat yet but should be ready by morning cause the safe start should have the tank mostly cycled by morning. I think if she doesn't eat tomorrow it'll be a much bigger worry

Ich looks like the puffer is covered with tiny white specks and they will often try and scratch themselves on the decor in a rubbing fashion which is another classic sign. If she does have ich its from before her immune system had it suppressed but the stress of the cycling tank brought it out don't worry though it's really easy to cute. Especially with RTR's salt method is really good and will cure your puffers in the safest way. Make sure to use table salt and to carry it out for 2 weeks even if the less speck is gone before then as the only way to make sure its dead. The other really important part is the heat, try and keep it up at 84 unless she is showing signs of strain because this speeds up the ich life cycle and gets them out of their immune to everything cyst form so you can treat it.



If she doesn't look better by tomorrow morning take your water to get tested at the lfs, also don't let them sell you stuff for treating ich. A lot of those products have chemicals in there that would be harmful to your puffer as they are much more sensitive to stuff then other fish, that is why we have the table salt heat method in place as a safer alternative. A lot of those products also contain copper and that stuff is horrible for fish especially puffers.

Yeah, it's definitely Ich, the white spots on her head, stomach and fin are bigger than ever.

She's also just lying at the bottom of the tank, when she swims, she sort of floats about with her tailed curled then hits the floor.