The Puffer Forum

Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, but I feel so incredibly terrible.

You see, my F-8 puffer, whom I had for only 2 months, died this morning. I cannot, for the life of me figure out why. He seemed completly fine. There are so many things of course, that could have gone wrong, but I don't know what.

I have never been this upset over a fish, ever. All of my other tanks are flourishing.. why did my Bumble die? I feel like such a failure. I feel so terrible that I couldn't care for him properly.

My boyfriend wants to get another puff, but I don't know if I can bring myself to it. If I could only keep him alive for two months, why should i get another one?

So sorry about that.
Can someone move this to the hospital forum?
Ok, Lunarflame...before you dismantle the tank, can you get us the water params, feeding and water change schedule, tankmates...all the details of the tank, and we'll try and work out what happened to Bumble so's you can prevent it happening again.
Everyone here has lost at least one puffer, so don't beat yourself up. It's hard not to, but you can't control these things, and fish do die for unknown reasons sometimes. However, if we can work out what it was, then you'll have learnt something that'll make you a better fishkeeper in the future.
Sorry for your loss.
Pami.

Ammonia 0, nitrites 0.

Ph 7.2, SG 1.005

He was fed 3 snails every other day. I believe that on my other post, we figured out that he likely had an internal parasite.

My LPS just got more f8's in, and they are in quarentine.

How should i ensure that a new puffer dosent have internal parasites? how do i treat them?

Even a nice fat puffer in the store could show signs of IPs weeks or even months later, so it's hard to tell, but definately start out w/a fat, alert, happy-looking puffer.

See: http://www.thepufferforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=7

Ok, I used my admin powers, hopefully for good, since I didn't like the title of that post since it was untrue.
Bad luck, and yes, ignorance, but not failure.
It's obvious you care and you are learning and asking the right questions.
We all know how you feel, having been there ourselves when we lost our puffers, and let me tell you a LOT of us here have lost our first few puffers before learning how to take care of them.

And for that matter, we still lose fish. When you deal with wild caught specimens, you cannot save them all. But when you get one established and stable, they are your buddy for a l_o_n_g time. I have never regreted a fish that I brought home, I only regret the ones that I did not, or could not or would not get.

thanks for the support everyone. I am getting over my loss, and realizing that I did what I could with what i knew. Im glad I know better now.

I don't know when I will get anotehr puff, but I know I will someday, and when I do, I will know even more on how to properly care for it.