The Puffer Forum

Linus, my fahaka, is not doing well for some strange reason. On Friday, when it came time to eat, he took a couple of small nibbles on his shrimp and then completely ignored it. I left it in the tank overnight in case he wanted to eat (I feed in the evenings after work) then removed it in the morning. It was still untouched other than by the baby guppies and baby mollies. He's been hanging out at the surface a lot with his mouth skimming the surface. This morning, he appeared to have some strange spots on his skin, on his back. Not fungus looking, not ich, more like the skin had flaked off or something. I put some Melafix and Pimafix in the tank this morning, and added some extra Prime, just in case.

Ammonia-0
Nitrites-0
Nitrates-30
pH-7.8
120 gallons
Tankmates: Palembangensis (on one side with a divider between them), baby guppies and baby mollies (home-bred)
One humongous HOB filter on palembang's side, canister filter on his side
No recent changes other than the addition of the guppies and mollies over a month ago.

He's about 8" long now. I suspect he may be scraping himself on the artificial bogwood, which I will be removing tonight. He seems to not realize he's not still a tiny thing and tries to hide in the spaces, even though he has a large root structure to hide under. I'll replace them with more silk plants and another large root structure.

I'm completely gutted. I got home from work to find my beloved Linus had died. No idea why. Other than those few spots, he appeared to be perfectly healthy. Justin the palembang and everyone else appear to be fine. His underside was soft, didn't seem impacted or anything, nothing obvious at all. In three days' time, he went from appearing to be perfectly healthy to dying.

Sorry to hear that, such a shame, at least you gave him a good life albeit short.

Sorry for your loss.

Thats so sad. I'm sorry about Linus, he was a very pretty puffer. Are you going to get another Fahaka or no?

Sorry to hear that, its so frustrating when we have no idea why we lose our friends

flamesofifreet wrote:Are you going to get another Fahaka or no?

Thank you everyone. I'm totally heartbroken about losing him. As far as getting another one, its highly likely if/when my LFS gets one that I'll attempt keeping another one. Their stock list shows something called a striped puffer in the freshwater list, but I'm not sure what that is.

Wow, I'm so sorry for your loss!

Are you going to do an autopsy? Maybe Puffer Queen could tell you what to look for.

Sorry to hear about Linus, sounds like you did everything you could.

Awww! I'm so sorry to hear that! Sorry for your loss!
Linus was one of my favorite puffers in here. He was a great fish!

So sorry to hear that Boxermom. Fahaka's are one of the prettiest puffers, a dream puffer for me, but I don't have the room for the tank one needs right now.

Pufferpunk wrote:Are you going to do an autopsy? Maybe Puffer Queen could tell you what to look for.

I wouldn't have a clue what to look for, and don't think I could cut him open even if I did. I'm not that clinical and am far too emotionally involved. I took some photos of him, then carefully wrapped him and dug him a small grave.

so sorry for your loss

Oh no, not Linus! The poor little (okay, not so little anymore) guy.

I'm so sorry Tina. What a loss. I wonder if your local water had something changed in it.. call the city (or wherever your water comes from) and ask if they added any treatments or anything to it.

If you froze the body, you *could* send it out for an autopsy I believe. It might be a good thing to do. Remember when I lost my one SAP for no apparent reason? I did a sloppy autopsy myself and found he'd eaten a box elder beetle (must have fallen into the tank) and apparently couldn't digest it, it was blocking him and was completely undigested (or maybe it had a mild toxin to him? I don't know). I felt better knowing there was a reason for it.

*edit* Ah I see he was buried already. Again, I'm so sorry you lost him Tina.

I autopsied a pignose that died after only having him for 6 wks. His liver was dark yellow & hard as a rock. I didn't need a vet's certificate to know that wasn't right.