Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
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.
-
TurboPuffer
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:53 am
Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
Hey everyone, I never got to introduce myself properly to this site, but I need help now and can get a chance to chat with some of you and hopefully save the little guy. I had 2 ceylon puffers in a 40 gallon tank, later on I realized they need much more space down the road, still small about 3.5" in size. So I knew I had to upgrade later on. So anyways, I didnt do enough water changes recently and nitrates got up high for a week or so. Until I did a test and found nitrates around 50ish. I changed 60% of the water and got it under control, however what got me to check the water is one of the puffers wasnt eating, he was bumping into things and not eating. this went on for a few days and I used mela fix hoping it'd help but he died a few days ago. after that one died, my other puffer is doing the same thing, but his belly is getting darker everyday, it's greyish most of the time. and he doesnt eat anything. just swims a little bit and stays at the bottom of the tank most of the day where before he used to swim all the time. He looks healthy and his poop is blackish as it always was. there were a few small fish in there that they killed recently and I hadnt noticed until I saw a piece of one of the dead fish floating, it looked rotten. I wonder if they bit it and got poisoned or it might not even be related. So no Nitrates are down to 10, no ammonia or nitrite. tank is pretty clean and I dont know what else to do, I really wanna save him as it was a gift from the girlfriend which makes him more special! Please let me know asap as this has been going on for 2 days now. the other fish died in about 5-7 days after acting weird like this.
-
TurboPuffer
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:53 am
Re: Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
oh and I forgot to mention he still lives in freshwater. I was planning on converting to brakish slowly starting the next water change.
-
Sponge bob
- Mbu Puffer
- Posts: 1185
- Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 9:50 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location (country): United States of America, North America
- Location: Long Island, New york
Re: Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
Is your puffer skinny?
I would get him to brackish now
Do another w/c. Get everything to 0(pH not to 0 DUH)
If he is pretty skinny, Treat him with internal pariste guard.
Belly could be black/gray due to loss of his friend or stress to do spikes of nitrates.
I would get him to brackish now
Do another w/c. Get everything to 0(pH not to 0 DUH)
If he is pretty skinny, Treat him with internal pariste guard.
Belly could be black/gray due to loss of his friend or stress to do spikes of nitrates.
-
edmlfc1
- Mbu Puffer
- Posts: 2011
- Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2007 5:03 pm
- My Puffers: Elvis (Stars & Stripes) R.I.P. 9/11/11
125G:Fahaka (Annabelle) - Location (country): U.S.A.
- Location: Texas
Re: Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
Start raising his sg by .002 each week. At 3.5" he really needs brackish water. The water param. sound good. Nitrates at 10 is not bad. Try to keep it there.
When raising the sg make sure you use marine salt not aquarium salt. And if you buy a hydrometer make sure it starts at 1.000.
When raising the sg make sure you use marine salt not aquarium salt. And if you buy a hydrometer make sure it starts at 1.000.
Need to know what kind of puffer you have? Click on Puffer ID.....Puffer ID: ug.php/v/PufferPedia/
What to feed your puffer? Click on Feeding......
Feeding: library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/
Have a GSP, need more information......Click on GSP Article.....
GSP Article: library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
What to feed your puffer? Click on Feeding......
Feeding: library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/
Have a GSP, need more information......Click on GSP Article.....
GSP Article: library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
-
TurboPuffer
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:53 am
Re: Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
He isnt skinny at all, he's a big guy he was much bigger than his friend. Right now his belly is whitish grey. I will start with the salt starting today. So either he could be stressed from losing his friend or the nitrate spikes? How do I know if he'll eat and not die on me? he looks healthy other than the belly and not eating thing.
-
Sponge bob
- Mbu Puffer
- Posts: 1185
- Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 9:50 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location (country): United States of America, North America
- Location: Long Island, New york
Re: Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
Watch him eat,if he does not eat treat him for ip.
Same thing with GSP, there bellys change color due to stress and mood.
Same thing with GSP, there bellys change color due to stress and mood.
-
julianchan
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 709
- Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2008 4:25 am
- My Puffers: 1 GSP Elevator.....Lord Vator to everyone else...
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
Re: Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
You can try and coax him to eat by lacing your food in garlic juice...
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32987
- 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: Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
Try a live earthworm. If he passes that up, then you know he's really sick.
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!"
-
TurboPuffer
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:53 am
Re: Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
well i called up all the local big al stores and the closest match were gsp's. So i went to check em out and they had about 10-15 in a small 20 gallon. Most of them were small and had really black bellys. However i found 2 with white bellys, 1 is as big as my ceylon and the other slightly smaller. I had to have them 
in the tank they get along so well with myw ceylon and now the ceylon has a white belly and is swimming around with the gsps. He also ate a bit of bloodworms. I have to get a bigger tank for them soon. Hopefully he eats properly today. Ill let u all know wat happens
in the tank they get along so well with myw ceylon and now the ceylon has a white belly and is swimming around with the gsps. He also ate a bit of bloodworms. I have to get a bigger tank for them soon. Hopefully he eats properly today. Ill let u all know wat happens
Re: Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
Hi Turbopuffer welcome. Just a few questions for you, your tank is cycled, correct? Is your tank at fresh water, brackish or marine? With two gsp and a ceylon you do realize that you are going to need a 90 gallon tank for them? I do believe your first ceylon probably died from nitrate poisoning that is what happens they go blind. Once bitten with the puffer bug it is hard to break free, but you have come to the right place for information about these guys.
-
TurboPuffer
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:53 am
Re: Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
yep its cycled and still fresh water. I have all the proper stuff to convert to brakish slowly starting today. I realize i need a bigger tank and i will for sure upgrade. They are still young so i hope theyre fine for now. I think i may have saved my other ceylon cause the symptons have disappeared since i added the gsps. I also have 4 pea puffers in a 15 gal tank. I love these guys. This is a great site and thanks for the help so far guys.
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32987
- 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: Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
Awwww, so he was just depressed?
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!"
-
edmlfc1
- Mbu Puffer
- Posts: 2011
- Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2007 5:03 pm
- My Puffers: Elvis (Stars & Stripes) R.I.P. 9/11/11
125G:Fahaka (Annabelle) - Location (country): U.S.A.
- Location: Texas
Re: Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
Believe it or not they can get very depressed. When I had my two GSP's I had to seperate them to treat one for a cloudy eye. Both of the stopped eating and went dark on me. The day I put them back in the tank together they brightened up and started eating. Then one died later on and the other didn't eat for 9 days. Finally got him to eat again. I would have never believed it if I didn't see if for myself.
Need to know what kind of puffer you have? Click on Puffer ID.....Puffer ID: ug.php/v/PufferPedia/
What to feed your puffer? Click on Feeding......
Feeding: library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/
Have a GSP, need more information......Click on GSP Article.....
GSP Article: library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
What to feed your puffer? Click on Feeding......
Feeding: library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/
Have a GSP, need more information......Click on GSP Article.....
GSP Article: library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
-
Sponge bob
- Mbu Puffer
- Posts: 1185
- Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 9:50 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location (country): United States of America, North America
- Location: Long Island, New york
Re: Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
I was right. He was sad
-
TurboPuffer
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:53 am
Re: Sick Ceylon Puffer, please help before he dies!
yes today when I got home from work I fed him half a cube of blood worms, he ate it all by himself. his tummy was still not big as before. so just 5 min ago he ate a full cube of blood works and the gsps ate the left overs as they're bellys are way full from the fish store still lol. the ceylon is very happy now. I guess he missed his buddy. seems like the 40gal doesnt seem to upset him as much as not having any friends.