The run down:
I've had my procupine in this tank for about 3 months. Up until about 3 weeks ago he was happy go lucky. ate everything put into the tank. Played with me at the glass as long as I would sit there with him and when he saw the green net he came a runnin. recently he has been very lazy, lays on the bottom of the tank or on a rock. Still pretty interested in eating, but nothing like before. breathing seems to be labored from time to time. Almost refuses to play at the glass with me. I added the dog face 5 weeks ago and he seems to be fine aside from being a little twitchy every now and then and rubbing his gills on the sand and rock sometimes. Did the addition of the dog face make my porc start acting like thing? if so he waited a while to start showing these signs.
I was running the tank at 80deg and 1.026 Sg. I lowered the temp to 78 and the Sg to 1.024 and a day or so later he started acting a little better, but nothing like before. A couple of weeks after adding the DF the ammonia spiked a bit and I did 20% water changes everyother day for about 10 days. That fixed the ammonia problem.
Both puffers are about 5" long. They are in a 29G tank (I know its to small, but i have a 120g i'm getting ready to cycle) with 3 large hermit crabs, 3 turbo snails, 10-12lbs of live rock, and 60lbs of live sand.
There are no external signs of parasites or disease. I'm confused! He responded well to the drop in temp and Sg.
Diet: EVERYTHING (haha) they eat better than I do. live= crayfish, ghost shrimp, crabs, guppys, minnows, bamboo shrimp(when the lfs is out of crayfish)/ frozen= krill, silversides, bloodworms
Conditions:
PH - 8.3
Ammonia - 0-0.1
Nitrates - 10-15
Nitrites - .75-1
SG - 1.024
Temp - 78
Please help! StayPuff (porc) is my buddy.
porc and dog face not quite right
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
-
Dustin901
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 4:57 pm
- My Puffers: 125g (Ms Puff) 12" Porc/mixed reef
29g 6" Mantis Shrimp - Location (country): US
- Location: Memphis, TN
porc and dog face not quite right
125g-60g sump/refugium-RO200 skimmer-Mag12 return-Mag7 closed loop-T5's everywhere
12" Porcupine Puffer (Ms Puff), various reef fishes, mixed reef
29g-20g sump-custom skimmer-Mag5 return-Custom LED's
6" Peacock Mantis Shrimp, various damsels, fiddlers, and crayfish <-the consumables
12" Porcupine Puffer (Ms Puff), various reef fishes, mixed reef
29g-20g sump-custom skimmer-Mag5 return-Custom LED's
6" Peacock Mantis Shrimp, various damsels, fiddlers, and crayfish <-the consumables
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32976
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
Re: porc and dog face not quite right
Your problem is 2 5" puffers in a 29g tank. Why did you get another puffer knowingthe tank is too small? Please return the DF puffer 120g is the perfect size for a single porc with a few SMALL tankmates. Please cycle that 120g ASAP for the porc.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
-
MatthewLaw
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 198
- Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:29 pm
Re: porc and dog face not quite right
it seems like your tank cant keep 
wih the waste that the porcupine and dogface are making. think of craming 20 people into a telephone booth! so the amonia rises, nitrite rises, nitrate rises, and eventually the fish really start suffering.
get that 120g cycled ASAP. puffers are very sensitive to water conditions so that new tank should be your #1 prioirty. if you cant get it up fast enough, maybe have someone/fish store hold one of the puffers while it sets up?
wih the waste that the porcupine and dogface are making. think of craming 20 people into a telephone booth! so the amonia rises, nitrite rises, nitrate rises, and eventually the fish really start suffering.get that 120g cycled ASAP. puffers are very sensitive to water conditions so that new tank should be your #1 prioirty. if you cant get it up fast enough, maybe have someone/fish store hold one of the puffers while it sets up?