The Puffer Forum

I have three Tetraodon Abei in a 75G planted tank. The tank also houses about 30 Harlequin Rasborae, 15 Cardinal Tetras, a single Otto Cat, a single Siamese Algae Eater and a few Marbled Crayfish. The Crayfish are puffer food and the other fish are all to fast to become food so they are a nice addition. Anyway, today I thought I’d drop in some blanched peas for the Crays who have managed to survive and low and behold the Abei’s went after the peas. At first I thought they were just attracted to the movement and would spit out the peas when they got a taste but they did not. The actually ate some and then went looking for more. Anyone seen this before? Is there any reason they should not eat peas?

Many puffer seem to like peas. Some of mine ate algae wafers too.
How large is that tank & how long have you had the 3 puffers together?

Many puffer seem to like peas. Some of mine ate algae wafers too.
How large is that tank & how long have you had the 3 puffers together?

He said it's a 75 gallon planted.

Last night some time the tank crashed and EVERYTHING died., without exception. I am too pissed off to write about it now.

did you not cycle?

The Bruce wrote:did you not cycle?

The tank was up and running for months with lots of stock before I added the Abei's. It seems to be a mystery. Some kind of contaminant must have been introduced. Even the worst crash or spike isn't going to kill off that many fish that quickly. It was literally 10 hours from all is well to all is dead. Totally pisses me off. I really liked that set up and I hate to see animals of any kind die unnecessarily. I took out the dead stock today and cleaned out the filters and overflows and just left it running to keep the plants alive until I decide what to do.

This is totally weird... how are your other tanks?

The only things I did within a 24 hour period of this mystery was to feed the tank some peas...which I had never done to this tank before. I fed all three of my tanks from the same bowl of peas and nothing happened in the other two tanks....so that is not likely the cause.
I also added a bit of fertilizer from the same container that I have been using for months before on this tank with no adverse effect....so I don't think that is the cause either.
For the life of me I can't figure it out. I have not tested the water but even the most severe spike/drop isn't going to kill ALL the fish that quickly. Some contaminant MUST have been introduced to the tank somehow. I really can't think of what might .....wait a second....I had been Urban Mining...(garbage picking) late Monday night ....I don't recall putting my hands in the tank but I guess it is possible that I had some contaminant on my hands and reached in to adjust a filter intake or some such minor thing....
That is the best idea I have so far....I can easily imagine picking up a contaminant while Mining....hmmm

The only other suggestion I could think of is that, somehow, one of the Abei puffers died AND had stored-away toxins in him/her. Then, one of two things happened:

1) The toxin was released and killed all of the fish.
2) The toxin was released into the dead puffer's flesh, and all of the fish ate parts of the Abei (which fish often do), which resulted in their demise.

It's not an out-of-the-question theory, but it's difficult to prove true/false.

I am beginning to suspect the fertilizers because many of the plants melted today and the tank had a distinct yellow tint and a bad smell. I know I dosed much more than I usually do because I did not measure, I just poured some in. I remember thinking "ooops that was more than I had intended to add" I did a 100% water change and took out about 60% of the plants because they were dead or dying. The water looks much better now but I am going to wait some time before I put any fish in it.

What fertilizers do you use? Do you use it in your other tanks or aren't they planted?

The fertilizers are an old bottle of Seachem Flourish I got for free about a year ago. It was open and partly used then so if this stuff "expires" it may be too old. I did not put any in my other tanks even though they are planted as well.
Brian
by the way....I love Chicago! I went there once for three days ( I won an International Design Competition) and fell in love with the place.

I am going to start a new thread to try to figure out what poisoned my tank.