The Puffer Forum

So, Abe hasn't been doing to well the past couple of days. He's had laboured breathing and overall very inactive. I couldn't really figure out what the problem was until today. This morning his eye was all swollen shut, and at that point I knew something was seriously wrong.

Turns out that both his heater AND thermometer were broken, and his water was close to the 92F range!!! I immediately dumped in cold water and brought the temp down to 84F (using the old-style thermometer instead of the digital one). He seemed to perk up a bit once the temp started to drop, so I'm hoping he'll start recovering now.

That stupid heater is new, too (only about 3 months old)!! I'm so tired of heaters breaking and whatnot, considering this has happened so many times to me. And it's not like I bought a cheap one, either.

Poor Abe! Hope he recovers quickly.
What brand heater was it?

Oh No! I'm sorry mishaps seem to be happening to you a lot. Poor baby I hope he keeps doing better.

Wow! Glad you figured it out when you did. I hope he starts to get better soon. I hate those digital thermometers, they seem to only work for a short time. IMO they are worthless. What kind of heater did you get? It should have some kind of warranty on it. If I'm right most are for 6 months to a year. I personally like the jager heaters. I have them in all my tanks.

I seem to have the worst luck with heaters, too. Darn near every Tetra I've bought has failed in some way or another, so I started buying Aqueon. Now one of those is acting up: the other day I checked the temps in my Ceylon's tank because the water felt pretty warm to the touch, and it was 86F - and the heater was still on! This, even though it was set to 80F. Maybe my next one will be a Marineland. (The puffer was fine by the way, the heat didn't even seem to phase him at all.) Anyway I hope Abe hangs in there for you.

I lost a whole group of Corydoras arcuatus to a fawlty heater once. The feeling when you find every fish floating upside down with bloated bellies...oh, the horror!

I'm keeping everything crossed for Abe. I hope he pulls through!

Hope he recovers quickly Agnate

Do you have any pix/vids of his current condition (without trying to sound to morbid!)

ps I typed a g n a t e and pressed submit and commodore came up in from of it?!

Nah, I don't have any pics or vids of him right now. He looks fine with the exception of his eye (which is swollen shut).

The heater is a Hydor (which I presumed was good quality). Maybe I'll switch to the Jager ones.

Also, the Commodore thing was me just having too much fun with the word filters.

Agnate wrote:Nah, I don't have any pics or vids of him right now. He looks fine with the exception of his eye (which is swollen shut).

The heater is a Hydor (which I presumed was good quality). Maybe I'll switch to the Jager ones.

Also, the Commodore thing was me just having too much fun with the word filters.

Sorry to say I had one of the hydor heaters also. That's the reason I switched to Jager. I think it lasted just about 3 months.

marksrush wrote:I seem to have the worst luck with heaters, too. Darn near every Tetra I've bought has failed in some way or another, so I started buying Aqueon. Now one of those is acting up: the other day I checked the temps in my Ceylon's tank because the water felt pretty warm to the touch, and it was 86F - and the heater was still on! This, even though it was set to 80F. Maybe my next one will be a Marineland. (The puffer was fine by the way, the heat didn't even seem to phase him at all.) Anyway I hope Abe hangs in there for you.

Our LFS carries Aqueon products and I was a little skeptical about using their heaters but I have been pleasantly surprised. Not too expensive and not bad quality either, no problems with them at all, yet....

Here's keeping my finger crossed and wishing Abe a quick recovery!

Poor baby! I hope he feels better.

The only problem I've ever had with heaters is me blowing them up!

sucks to hear that about Abe, and its amazing to hear how many people here have problems with heaters... i never thought they would break down that easily...

Oh no! I hope Abe's doing better! It's really lame that your heater failed considering that it's supposed to a nice one.

The annoying part is that it wasn't ONLY the heater that failed, but also my thermometer. I already knew that heaters could be finicky, so I bought a relatively expensive thermometer (compared to a glass one anyways) to make sure that, if the temp increased, I'd know about it right away. Now I'm incredibly skeptical of every thermometer...