I don't have any hard numbers for you but my GSP has been living by himself in a 5 gallon tank. I did a water change in the beginning of the week,and I use Stress Coat and Instant Ocean.
I noticed my puffer was floating near the top right side up this evening. He's done that a few times before but within a few minutes he's sunk back down and gotten on with his life. But today I got worried and transferred him to a little quarantine tank. He continued to float lifeless but after a few minutes of water motion he "came back to life" but instead of getting back to normal he would swim spastically around the tank seemingly without control, like a crazy person, then start floating again, or sink down to the bottom, breathe heavily for awhile, swim crazily and then float again. He's gone through this pattern about a dozen times within an hour (I've been staying by his side). For the past 15 minutes or so he's been down at the bottom as I frantically search here for some answers. But when I go over to him he is completely lifeless and I"m pretty sure this is the end.
I have no idea what happened/was happening to him! The symptoms for mycrobacterium and flukes and swimbladder just don't sem to match up. Does anyone know what happened to him?
Upsetting puffer death -mystery
Forum rules
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.
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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yunachin
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 1753
- Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2007 1:33 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: 1x A. Meleagris (Golden)
2x Tetraodon nigroviridis
1x Tetraodon lineatus
1x A. hispidus
2x Takifugu Ocellatus
9x Tetraodon biocellatus
1x Canthigaster solandri
1x Diodon Holocanthus
2x A. nigropunctatus
1x Tetraodon miurus
1x Irrubesco - Location (country): USA
- Location: SC
Re: Upsetting puffer death -mystery
I am sorry for your loss. The minimum suggested tank size for a GSP is 30 gallons though. How long have you had him?
E.Ridgeway
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
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C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
Re: Upsetting puffer death -mystery
Wow, this post was from October 16th! I'm so sorry we missed it. 
Sounds like a puffer in a too small, uncycled tank. If the OP writes back, maybe we can help you the next time around. Sorry again.
Sounds like a puffer in a too small, uncycled tank. If the OP writes back, maybe we can help you the next time around. Sorry again.You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Re: Upsetting puffer death -mystery
Actually the date was wrong, it was from today (Dec 6th). If it was from an uncycled tank what do you think it was that killed him? Do you think it was ammonia poisoning?
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
Re: Upsetting puffer death -mystery
Oh duh... don't mind me, I'm on painkillers. I was looking at the date you joined.
Yes--killed by it's own wastes. Now take some time to do research here on the care of this fish before you try another one. We'll help all we can.
Yes--killed by it's own wastes. Now take some time to do research here on the care of this fish before you try another one. We'll help all we can.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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manutius
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 1316
- Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:49 pm
- My Puffers: RIP Clooney the Mbu :(
- Location: Southend essex, UK
- Contact:
Re: Upsetting puffer death -mystery
Yeah sorry to hear that but no doubt you fell foul to the un-informed LFS staff. Don't beat yourself up about it though, just research before you make your next purchase, Good luck