The Puffer Forum

ok , i bought him 4 weeks ago from a exotic shop for 69 bucks he is 4inches What i am writing about is it took him 2 days to get over the transfer and then he was swimmimg all over. He was in a 10 gallon tank and now he is in a 29 gal tank. ok so he was eating 2 dried krill a day swimming for them also went and got him ghost shrimp he eat a few of those and loved um. he has a much happier home now and i hae a cave for hima nd real plants too. ok so the feeding went on for 2 weeks he ate good and never had a problem then one day 5 days ago he wouldnt come out of his cave when i put his food in there like he did usually so i checked water perimeters. the ph was high and trate was high so i did a partial water change and that helped the numbers like it always does so i have been checking his water for these 5 dyas and the ph is 8 trate is 0 tries 0 ammonia 0 so his water i guess is good i added some salt like he likes that i read anyway. So now what he hasnt eaten anything in 5 days there are still some ghost shrimp in there from a weeka go he hasnt touched them and he wont come out of his cave for nothin. Did i do something wrong or do i need to do somethin different. i dont want him to be unhappy it just kills me. please get back to me

0 nitrate is normally a sign of an uncycled tank. Also they are 100% FW fish, do a 50% water change to get some salt out and test your water again and see if any numbers change.

if its just aquarium salt and just a tiny bit it prob wouldnt hurt anything.

but yea zero nitrate is somthing to worry about. either your doing an insane amount of water changes, or your test kit isnt working right. i would do as crazed said and do another water change with just plain freshwater and i would try feeding with frozen bloodworms and some of the other more meaty food that the dried krill to see if he will take them. try some shrimp maybe, i mean like the raw kind you get at a grocery store (my puffers LOVES the stuff)

cobra1713 wrote:if its just aquarium salt and just a tiny bit it prob wouldnt hurt anything.

but yea zero nitrate is somthing to worry about. either your doing an insane amount of water changes, or your test kit isnt working right. i would do as crazed said and do another water change with just plain freshwater and i would try feeding with frozen bloodworms and some of the other more meaty food that the dried krill to see if he will take them. try some shrimp maybe, i mean like the raw kind you get at a grocery store (my puffers LOVES the stuff)

the numbers were a lot higher i did a water change and thats what gave me the 0s on the test. i use an expensive tube kit. he never cared for bloodworms it was the krill he liked all along and ghost shrimp. well he came out of his cave the other day wedged himself between a plant and the glass and lets say may he rest in peace. i am so heart broken. it is my fault maybe i panicked and changed to much water when i got those high numbers.? i dont know but i never seen him poop with all the food he ate. i guess i will stick to the cheaper fish.

Large water changes don't harm fish unless the tank has had only small water changes or none at all over a long period of time, causing the water in the tank to be very different from the fresh water and shocking the fish. Relatively new tanks and well maintained tanks do not have this issue.

Sorry about your loss fishlover .

no dont think of it as your fault, even knowing to do a water cahnge and watching for nitrates is a very good thing in itself! and the hairy puffer is a puffer remember, and one of the more exotic ones so they may not be the hardiest of the puffers, and being scalesless they are epecially sensitive to nitrates and any nitrite and amonia so you did the right thing doing a water change, you could have never known this was going to happen but i guarentee that if you would have not done a water change and let the levels of nitrates or any nitrite or amonia build up then he would have eventually died from it!

and also if you never saw him poo you can not rule out things like internal parasite, which could have caused him to be even more sensitive than normal!

im sorry for your loss but you did the right thing so dont get discouraged about keeping fish or puffers! i lost a pair of exotic plecos when i first started and they were my first expensive fish and they both died after a week and a half and i almost gave up on fish keeping all together and i am so glad i didnt, i have found so much more fun with keeping fish since i kept going!