I went to my local Worlds of water over the weekend... they're normally really good and i trust the main guys very much...
but they had taken time off for christmas and the whole place was falling apart.
They had a ceylon/topaz puffer in a cichlid display tank and it was sat on the bottom, almost jet black... I couldn't believe it!
Spoke to the manager and he took me to the 'sick' tanks and they had at least 20 ceylons in various states of dying.. it was horrendous.. some had no fins, others were bleeding from their back ends... one was floating upside down.. cloudy eyes... sunken tummies... two were dead.
He said apparently they had come in in that state as they had taken a risk and ordered them from a previously untested source....
so they had put them in a quarentine tank as they were unsellable.
They had come in as freshwater fish, he showed me the invoice... and i'm telling you these ceylons were 5/6 inches long!
SO... i made them take the dead ones out immediately, and gave them a lecture about nitrates and puffers.. i than made them split the really ill (lost cause ones) from the ones that were a bit less raggedy and put them in seperate tanks...
They are now raising the salinity slowly after i convinced them they were NOT freshwater fish- thanks to this forum..
they are also being treating with melafix and primafix....
So hopefully they will be able to save some at least (apparently they are looking brighter and there is now the odd white belly in there so fingers crossed!)
Please wish the brave puffers luck.. i hope some will recover at least.
(It may be a bit sad but i did shed a little tear at the state of them.... i've never seen anything so brutal. Poor puffs)
20 very sick ceylons- so upsetting
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.
- t1gerbee
- Fahaka Puffer
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20 very sick ceylons- so upsetting
1 x 90G Juv stars and stripes puffer, Ceylon Puffer + GSP + 2 black clowns
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1 x 30G 1 x Blind goldfish

Re: 20 very sick ceylons- so upsetting
Great job in saving them. They are gonna grow up big and look so cute now thanks to you!!- Mareva
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 174
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Re: 20 very sick ceylons- so upsetting
Wow, that is so sad!
They're lucky you happened to come by! 5-6 inches puffers... poor things! I hope some of them make it!
Keep us posted.
They're lucky you happened to come by! 5-6 inches puffers... poor things! I hope some of them make it!
Keep us posted.
-
crazedpuffer
- Former Staff Member
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Re: 20 very sick ceylons- so upsetting
Aww thats terrible!
- CtHM
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Re: 20 very sick ceylons- so upsetting
Well, atleast your LFS can admit it doesn't know everything, and that not all sources they get fish from know everything. Great job though, I hope the "saveable" one will be saved back to health =]
"Little fishies go 'pook pook pook' "
~Lenore
~Lenore
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Re: 20 very sick ceylons- so upsetting
Yea! TPF is saving more puffers! Thanks!
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!"