The Puffer Forum

Hey again Looks like one of my puffers is breathin heavy on one side of its body other then the other should I be worried or is this normal? and is there something I can do to prevent this?

Moved to hospital, please answer the questions at the top of the page in red.

do a large water change whilst finding out what your parameters are.. heavy breathing can be a sign of ammonia/nitrite poisoning or can be a sign of lack of oxygen...

a water change will lower the toxins in the water and give us time to check through other possibilities.

Thanks for replying I am going out tonight to get a test kit so I will post the numbers tommorow. I have the salt at 1.005 on the hydrometer using instant ocean sea salt and its a 55 gal tank with three green spot puffers That I have had for about five days they are about 1.25 to 1.5 inches long. I am feeding them brine shrimp but I am going to switch it up with something else. I used cycle, Tap water conditioner and waste control when I set up the tank.It had been running for about three weeks before I put the fish in.I also have the heater set at 84.I cant understand why they are only breathing on the one side and heavy it looks. I think it may have been because I over fed not removing the scraps of brine shrimp.Any more info is greatly appreciated. Thanks for all the help.

I would lower the temp down to around 79 ish. Do the WC today if you can. Let us know if it helps.

I just got back from our local fish store here and it seems I do have a small amount of nitrate in my water. The store told me to hold off on feeding for a day and do 1/4 of a water change again. Is this everything I can do? or is there more I just want them to get better. I also lowered my water level so that the filter run off current splashes to make bubbles so it puts more oxygen in the water.

Did you lower the temp?

Yes I lowered it to 79. I think one is on its way out it really looks skinny alot skinnier then the other and it is got its mouth sticking out of water. I was told to stop feeding for one day should I feed him? He looks extremely sick.

The thin gsp sounds like it has IP's. Do a search here in the hospital section to find some topics on IP's as they should help you with treating all of them for IP's. I believe jungle clear is one decent brand. Do it asap and keep feeding. Do 50% water changes until your parameters are right. What is the ammonia and nitrite at?

Well one died he just didnt seem right from the beggining alot skinnier then the others. The other two I have seem to be doing very well now swimming all over the tank and are not breathing heavy anymore thanks for all the Help.

The skinny one no doubt, had internal parasites. You still need to treat the remaining fish. See the article in our Library. Check out the feeding articles too.

What are your persent water parameters?