Bitten SAP

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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.
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puff_ball
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2007 5:37 pm

Bitten SAP

Post by puff_ball »

I came home yesterday evening and fed my fish. I was observing them and noticed that one of my SAPs was not eating which was very unusual. As I looked closer I noticed that it looked like he had bite marks on his back, near his tail. He can still swim around fine and I have now isolated him from the naughty offender. Has anyone dealt with a bitten fish before? As I say he is still swimming about fine and I'm hoping that he will now be able to recuperate and heal. It broke my heart to see :(
crazedpuffer
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Re: Bitten SAP

Post by crazedpuffer »

I'd treat him with a Pimafix Melafix combo just in case an infection occurs.
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Boxermom
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Re: Bitten SAP

Post by Boxermom »

Agreed.
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Myaj
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Re: Bitten SAP

Post by Myaj »

Melafix and clean water.

And you'd be better of isolating the puffer that's doing the biting, or he'll just pick someone else to chew on.
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puff_ball
Puffer Fry
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Re: Bitten SAP

Post by puff_ball »

Thanks for your replies :)
Is Melafix something I can buy in my LFS?
Unfortunately the biting puffer is a MBU so a bit too big to put in the trap. I was only housing them together shortly until the MBU's home was completely ready but I guess even 1 day was long enough for them to be together. The MBU is going back to the shop tomorrow as I'm worried it will attack it's new tankmates when transferred :( I'm gutted as I've wanted one for so long, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be!
crazedpuffer
Former Staff Member
Posts: 1755
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2005 11:57 pm
My Puffers: 1x Porcupine Puffer
1xValentini
Location: Long Island, NY

Re: Bitten SAP

Post by crazedpuffer »

What size tank did you ahve for the mbu? They need 1,000 gallons.
Also just about any pet store or fish store should have melafix.
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