The Puffer Forum

Hi
I came down this morning to see a sad looking miurus puffer in a very cool tank!! My heater must have packed up and the temperature was reading 20'c.Its usually about 27'c . Fortunately I keep spares and I have replaced the heater and slowly brought the temperature back up using warm water mixed with tank water. My puffer looks ok, although he keeps undigging and redigging himself so I am thinking that maybe his sand is a bit cold!! But my biggest concern is what the drop in temerature will have done to the bacterial colony!!
I hope everyone has had a good easter weekend
Regards
Sue

Temperature fluctuations can be bad over time but since you caught it over a couple of hours I think that everything will be okay. Just keep an eye on him for a day or so.

After cleaning the tank one day I forgot to plug in the heater. It was about 18 hours before I noticed it. The next morning when I check temps on the tanks my puffer tank was off. I check the heater and there it laid unplugged. I just plugged it back in and within a few hours the temp was back up and all was good. I still have those two puffers. I also did this just a few days ago on another tank. After quite a chill everyone is fine. Thank goodness I check my temps every morning! Hope everything turns out ok for you also.

I've forgotten to replug the heater several times in my tanks (both with puffers and others, including discuses), and I never have experienced problems afterward.

But I did get some funny pictures in my head, when thinking about your puffer trying to burry in the cold sand. *Eeeeeek! It's cold, mum!*

Usually, if your fish is healthy, slow temp changes won't do any harm. Sudden blasts of cold have been known to trigger ich outbreaks, but that may have more to do with the shock to the fish's system more than anything else, reduced immune system and all.

I would bet your guy will be just fine, and the bacteria should be safe as well.

He seems fine and very hungry too bless him. I am just glad it happened now and not when we were away although I have warned my puffer sitter friend and told her where i keep all my spares too
Hopefully we got away with it this time
Thanks
sue

Well, I imagine they would experience temperature fluctuations during rainy/cloudy/windy periods, so brief temperature drops aren't a major problem unless they're under ice, hehe.

speaking of which, I did the same thing just opposite. I have my 55 gallon set up with a 150 watt top fin heater. I thought I read somewhere that you need 5 watts per gallon to heat a tank to about 85 degrees so I cranked my 150 up and let it sit overnight thinking it would at the very least keep the tank temp consitant overnight.

Well when I got home my wife informed me I almost had fish soup. Evidently the temp was upward of 95 + degrees!!!

My wife took the heater out. I was baffled and still am.

My little 1" puffer was fine and still is. He didnt seem to mind the heat at all. Hes a hearty little bloke!!!

I did a WC on my 125g tank with icy cold water once. I mean, it was COLD!!! All the fish were laying on their sides not moving. I drained about 1/3 the water & filled it with just hot. I lost 1 fish.

why was it so cold?

I have a special spigot just for WC & making RO water (same spigot, seperate valves). I only use cold water for making RO water. I forgot to change it over to warm, before switching on the valve for filling the tank.

gotcha. that sucks