The Puffer Forum

TriniGirl wrote:I have been doing twice daily water changes on the sick puffers QT tank because I was getting a little bit of ammonia. He is still very stressed in the little 33G and I think I should move him back to the 90G QT and do baths instead. Only problem then, is catching him everyday, he really freaks out when I put any containers in the tank to catch him with. Still might be less stressful for him in the long run though.

If there are other fish in the other QT, I would not move the puffer. Sick fish are vulnerable and other fish sense that the sick fish is weak.....this is stressful and will often lead to healthy fish picking on or intimidating the sick fish.

I use cycled air driven sponge filters in my hospital tanks with hyposalinity without problems. How did you cycle the filter and for how long was the filter cycled?

The filter (sponge) was cycled in the sump of my display. Its there just to be used if needed for QT. I guess its been in the sump about 3 months.

Anyways, he has been in QT with the medication for 5 days now. His fin looked great until this morning. It looks even worse all of a sudden. The black is more than half way down his fin now on one side. The other side looks good still. He doesnt seem too stressed anymore but its really starting to worry me.

TriniGirl wrote:The filter (sponge) was cycled in the sump of my display. Its there just to be used if needed for QT. I guess its been in the sump about 3 months.

Was the sponge floating in the sump or in a functioning filter?

Anyways, he has been in QT with the medication for 5 days now. His fin looked great until this morning. It looks even worse all of a sudden. The black is more than half way down his fin now on one side. The other side looks good still. He doesnt seem too stressed anymore but its really starting to worry me.

What are the current water parameters ?

The sponge was in the hang on filter Im using for QT now...it was used on the side of the refugium. I had it there for an emergency like this (friends told me it was a good idea).

The current params:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 30
Nitrate 10

But I just did a 50% water change. Before that there were traces of ammonia.

The traces of ammonia and elevated nitrites could be contributing to the swing in puffer condition. Adding antibiotics to the tank affects the biological filtration.....this is why I do baths. Any chance of obtaining another cycled filter for the QT? Might consider doing baths?

Any current pics?

I will take pics tonight. His tail fin is once again looking much better. Just black on the very back edge now. I am going to do two water changes a day instead of one and see if that helps with the water quality. I think I will finish up this treatment in the QT and then if its not all better, do baths. I think that even though hes a pain to catch because he really, really freaks out when I catch him with a bucket, it may be easier than this. I may be able to fins another cycled filter for the QT as well though.

The other thing about the ammonia and nitrite readings is that i used Amquel in the tank which I have heard can give you bad readings. Also, this is technically brackish water and I only have marine test kits, not sure how accurate these could be in 1.010??? Probably not. Would freshwater kits work better?

I was talking to a friend tonight and mentioned what had been happening with my puffer. He had the same thing happen with his puffers tail on two different occasions, both times when the puffer was being treated with hypo. Is there any way that during hypo there could be a cause for this? Some different than usual bacteria?

Both times that this happened to his puffer, the infection went away once the puffer was acclimated back to marine conditions. Does this make any sense or is it just a coincidence?

I guess thats a no to those questions then...

Update, Its been another week and his tail is much better. It only has a slight but if black on the tip. Im surprised after this long though, that its still there at all. So he has been medicated for over a week and two days ago, he stopped eating at all. Ive tried all his favorite foods but he will not take anything. Is this normal when medicating? His belly is getting a bit thin...it looks sad, I have never seen him like this. Any ideas?

TriniGirl wrote:I will take pics tonight. His tail fin is once again looking much better. Just black on the very back edge now. I am going to do two water changes a day instead of one and see if that helps with the water quality. I think I will finish up this treatment in the QT and then if its not all better, do baths. I think that even though hes a pain to catch because he really, really freaks out when I catch him with a bucket, it may be easier than this. I may be able to fins another cycled filter for the QT as well though.

The other thing about the ammonia and nitrite readings is that i used Amquel in the tank which I have heard can give you bad readings. Also, this is technically brackish water and I only have marine test kits, not sure how accurate these could be in 1.010??? Probably not. Would freshwater kits work better?

okay to use the saltwater kits while using hyposalinity.

TriniGirl wrote:I was talking to a friend tonight and mentioned what had been happening with my puffer. He had the same thing happen with his puffers tail on two different occasions, both times when the puffer was being treated with hypo. Is there any way that during hypo there could be a cause for this? Some different than usual bacteria?

Both times that this happened to his puffer, the infection went away once the puffer was acclimated back to marine conditions. Does this make any sense or is it just a coincidence?

my answer/question is still the same - what are the water parameters when the tail looks the worse?
Swings in pH and ammonia could be the problem.

TriniGirl wrote:I guess thats a no to those questions then...

Update, Its been another week and his tail is much better. It only has a slight but if black on the tip. Im surprised after this long though, that its still there at all. So he has been medicated for over a week and two days ago, he stopped eating at all. Ive tried all his favorite foods but he will not take anything. Is this normal when medicating? His belly is getting a bit thin...it looks sad, I have never seen him like this. Any ideas?

Swings in water quality can affect appetite.
I have not seen hyposalinity causing anorexia.