The Puffer Forum

im sorry if this has been posted many times but i am beside myself and need some urgent advice.

i have three puffers, two of wich are fine but the other one is very sick. he started to turn grey with a silver, slimy back about 1 week ago. hes skinny and has eaten. he seems to sit at the top of the tank just staring. he does occasionaly swim to and from but always swims into the side of the tank.

i dont want his days to be over so any help is appreciated. i have put anti bacterial stuff in as told by the local fish shop but hes still just sitting there. the shop told me to end his days and put him in the frezzer as theres no return for him but i cannot do that. i dont want him to suffer and want him to get better

can anyone advise if its too late.

sam

Put him in the freezer!!!!!!!!!!!! What a horrific thing to do to a fish!

Bad LFS...

Anyway,

You have to give us more information...

answer as many of the questions in red (above) as possible...

what type of puffer is he, use the pufferpedia to help with id if you're not sure?


You really need to quarentine him if possible, to stop the others gettings sick... otherwise you could potentially lose them all.


Tell us as much info as possible, and maybe a photo even... then someone will be able to diagnose and suggest what to do next.

Putting fish in the freezer is one of the most humane ways to kill a fish.
Please answer all the questions in red so we can help you out.

Don't you mean inhumane?
Freezing causes them to die slowly and painfully.

I thought I remember PP saying something about making them OD on Clove oil, then freezing... still sounds bad.

please do answer the red questions, and possibly get a picture if you can.

With clove oil, they fall asleep, then go uncontious & then stop breathing. They'll never feel the cold.

Clove oil paralyzes local membranes slightly on contact and stops certain nerve impulses. This is why clove cigarettes were originally developed, they were a method of delivering euganol (clove oil) to the throat and lungs to help patients deal with pains, which it numbs through these effects. I would imagine a fish would be effected throughout its body, not just locally as with a human, as systemic uptake seems to be rapid for fish.

clove oil was what i was going to suggest, not the freezer. can't imagine that being nice at all.. it would take a long time too...





but no more details yet.... ?

I think the LFS advised her to post a message on here to gain some advise. I would happen to agree that putting the fish into the freezer isn't the best way to play things, however the LFS that I work for tend to advise along the freezing line (once again not a personal view) not wanting to get into a big debate or anything but i think the shop advising the customer to visit your puffer site could of been one of the best things to do? however there is not much info from the user. Of course not wanting to get into a big debate about how to euthanize fish. But if I ( as a puffer keeper ) can't advise a customer on what to do with their puffer I would suggest they join this site.

Oh a believe the fish was or is a F8 about 2" what is that blackness about?

S

Sam, How are the other 2 doing? Did the sick one die? It is always helpful to answer all the Qs above in red, so we can better diagnose your problem. A majority of the issues folks have with their puffers is improper cycling of the tank, before the fish is added or poor water conditions. If you do not kow the answers of those Qs, maybe your LFS can test your water for you. Knowing exactly how your tank was cycled is very important for us to know though.

i'm not the one with the sick fish.. i'm the LFS, we tested her water (assuming its the same person) which was fine, the black belly on looking on here (the puffer forum) looked like it could be an internal Bacteria issue, so advised on an interpet product which I have used in the past, thats pretty much the last thing we have heard. We dont sell pufferfish lightly, we ask the tanks to be over filtered and it to be atleast 6 month mature, its very rare that we ever have issues with the spotted or F8's, since buying a mbu and keeping puffers in other of my personal tanks I have found this site to be really usefull, hence why we advise out customers to use this site if they have questions we arent able to answer

S

I figured Vex was the LFS owner but I thought Sam (samboka ) was the poster with the sick fish. Black belly doesn't necessarily mean internal parasites or a bacterial problem. Without answers to the above Qs, we really can't tell what is going on with the puffer.