My tank has parameters of ) ammonia, nitrate & nitrite, and a ph of 7.4. I also have slight salinity to give it a brakish water sort of feel.
I have a 10 gallon with One 1.45 inch figure 8 puffer.
As stated before, my fish will not eat. I have tried flakes and frozen krill, and I was going to try lake-found ramshorn snails, if that is acceptable. I cycled my tank last week, the forth week and first week after my cycle. I use tapwater treatment, the name I'm not sure of, I have OCD when it comes to stickers, and after I memorized how to use it I ripped the label off, but it does come in a large white bottle with a blue measure lid.
I have added the fish just 3 days ago.
My aquarium has been set up about a month, and the cycle is completely done. Frequent testing has proved this. I cycled it by leaving it alone for the first 2 weeks, then I added comets into the tank, but I removed them 2 days before my puffer purchase.
There, I think I covered everything. Now, onto the specifics of my case. My figure 8 puffer is doing great in the tank! He's swimming actively when I enter the room (he seems to just sit on a leaf or something when I'm gone, because when I enter the room he's sitting on a leaf). The only thing is he rubs his face on the walls of my tank often, and I mean VERY often. It's like his past time or something. He has developed a white sore on the front of his lower jaw and it is peeling at the bottom. I ahve just noticed this morning the sore, but I have seen the peeling before and dismissed it as stress induces and something that would go away within a short time. Also, my puffer will not eat! The first day he ate a few bites of frozen krill, enough to gorge his little belly, but he did so reluctantly.
Please, help me. I don't want to lose my puffy.
Eating & Mouth Sore
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.
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side19
- Green Spotted Puffer
- Posts: 464
- Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:00 pm
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- My Puffers: 1 Figure Eight Puffer (Tetraodon biocellatus), Ra
1 South American Puffer (Colomesus asellus), Cocha(aka. Dizzy) - Location (country): United States
- Location: Manchester, CT
Re: Eating & Mouth Sore
how long have you had him? it could take a while for him to get used to what ever you're trying to feed him and to settle in and start eating if he's new to the tank. as for the rubbing it could be from ich, fish tend to scratch themselves when they have it. do you notice little white dots all over his body and fins almost like someone passed over him with a salt shaker? the rubbing up against the glass could also just be him pressing too hard against the glass when he's swimming in front of it to see you. the peeling could be from pressing too hard against the glass. not sure about it but its a theory, and i'm not really sure how you would get it to stop doing that. little fishy invisible fence near the glass to prevent him from rubbing against it? haha. as far as feeding you could try some live ghost shrimp and see if it will start hunting them, or live snails could work, that how i got mine to start eating for me. hope some of this might have helped. welcome to the puffer world and enjoy the trip!
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Dadof4
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Re: Eating & Mouth Sore
Welcome to the forum and to the addictive world of puffers!
Please list your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Even though it sounds like you did a great job cycling the tank something could be going amiss...What are you adding to give the tank "slight salinity"?
Most Fig 8's will not take flake food and even if they do it is not good for them because it lacks some of the nutritional elements needed by your puffer. Blood worms, black worms, earth worms (can get them from a bait shop), and snails are more acceptable foods for him. Please see the feeding article in the Puffer library for additional ideas library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/.
Getting him fat and happy may also slow down the pacing and rubbing on the glass. Is he digging in to the substrate or rubbing on any other decor? Any salt like raised white spots?
Can you get a picture of the sore and post it so we can see it, just to make sure it's not something that wasn't caused by rubbing? The best treatment you can start is making sure your water parameters are perfect and you have pristine water.
Please list your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Even though it sounds like you did a great job cycling the tank something could be going amiss...What are you adding to give the tank "slight salinity"?
Most Fig 8's will not take flake food and even if they do it is not good for them because it lacks some of the nutritional elements needed by your puffer. Blood worms, black worms, earth worms (can get them from a bait shop), and snails are more acceptable foods for him. Please see the feeding article in the Puffer library for additional ideas library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/.
Getting him fat and happy may also slow down the pacing and rubbing on the glass. Is he digging in to the substrate or rubbing on any other decor? Any salt like raised white spots?
Can you get a picture of the sore and post it so we can see it, just to make sure it's not something that wasn't caused by rubbing? The best treatment you can start is making sure your water parameters are perfect and you have pristine water.
"Darwin swings...annnnnnd a miss. Boy Jim, Chuck's suffered at the plate tonight. He's 0 for 3 and I'm not sure he's recovered from that shoulder pull a few weeks ago. I'll bet the front office is re-thinking that contract."
Re: Eating & Mouth Sore
OK, I already listed all of them as 0ppm for Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite.
Thank you for the feeding suggestions, but I was wondering if I could get lake-caught snails for him, or would I be running the risk of putting disease into the tank?
The sore is white and flat, slightly swollen, but nothing major. It takes up the entire lower "lip" for lack of better words. The flaking skin is directly below the sore. Also, I have been using quick cure for sore. I'm not sure if he has it, but when I added him to the tank, I did notice very, VERY tiny white dots, so I added it in just in case. If it was ich, it should be gone sometime today, possibly tomorrow, and I will update then.
The sore may be from pressing too hard on the glass, but I don't think it would be because he is trying to view me. He tends to look away from me and swim towards the back wall, not the front.
OH, and I almost forgot. He's been in my tank for only 3 days. I just thought his lack of eating since the first is a little strange and something to look into.
Thank you for the feeding suggestions, but I was wondering if I could get lake-caught snails for him, or would I be running the risk of putting disease into the tank?
The sore is white and flat, slightly swollen, but nothing major. It takes up the entire lower "lip" for lack of better words. The flaking skin is directly below the sore. Also, I have been using quick cure for sore. I'm not sure if he has it, but when I added him to the tank, I did notice very, VERY tiny white dots, so I added it in just in case. If it was ich, it should be gone sometime today, possibly tomorrow, and I will update then.
The sore may be from pressing too hard on the glass, but I don't think it would be because he is trying to view me. He tends to look away from me and swim towards the back wall, not the front.
OH, and I almost forgot. He's been in my tank for only 3 days. I just thought his lack of eating since the first is a little strange and something to look into.
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side19
- Green Spotted Puffer
- Posts: 464
- Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:00 pm
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- My Puffers: 1 Figure Eight Puffer (Tetraodon biocellatus), Ra
1 South American Puffer (Colomesus asellus), Cocha(aka. Dizzy) - Location (country): United States
- Location: Manchester, CT
Re: Eating & Mouth Sore
are the spots on his fins as well? if they're strictly on the body you could be seeing his spines. my f8 has little white dots all over his body and i figured out tis actually hit spines becuase they're not on his fins and he's not flicking against anything to indicate he has ich. a picture of the sore could help alot in seeing what it could be.
Re: Eating & Mouth Sore
I'm sorry, but I can not get a picture. I think what I was seeing at first were the spines, but now it seems he has developed ich, because I'm seeing the start of spots on his fins, so more quick cure should take care of that.
I will describe the sore the best I can: It is a white sore, and it is located across the entirety of his lower lip. There is a small patch of white skin that looked flaked off from his mouth at first, but now looks like it was pressed off with a great deal of pressure, and it still looks attached to the lip. There is a small darker spot between the main sore on his lip and the lower part that looks attached to the lip. He seems to be trying to avoid putting pressure on the sore currently, so I'm assuming it has caused him a great deal of pain.
If there is ANYTHING I can do to try to prevent further irritation of this sore, and preferably the healing of this sore, someone please let me know.
I will describe the sore the best I can: It is a white sore, and it is located across the entirety of his lower lip. There is a small patch of white skin that looked flaked off from his mouth at first, but now looks like it was pressed off with a great deal of pressure, and it still looks attached to the lip. There is a small darker spot between the main sore on his lip and the lower part that looks attached to the lip. He seems to be trying to avoid putting pressure on the sore currently, so I'm assuming it has caused him a great deal of pain.
If there is ANYTHING I can do to try to prevent further irritation of this sore, and preferably the healing of this sore, someone please let me know.
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side19
- Green Spotted Puffer
- Posts: 464
- Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:00 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: 1 Figure Eight Puffer (Tetraodon biocellatus), Ra
1 South American Puffer (Colomesus asellus), Cocha(aka. Dizzy) - Location (country): United States
- Location: Manchester, CT
Re: Eating & Mouth Sore
could try treating with some melafix just to prevent infection and ease the pain a little. just keep the water as clean as possible, and make sure he's eating well. other than that i'm not sure what else to do. good luck, i hope it gets better. keep us updated.
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diverchic
- Green Spotted Puffer
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Re: Eating & Mouth Sore
I've no idea but wanted to say I hope it's better soon.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Eating & Mouth Sore
What kind of salt are you using? You need to be using marine salt & you need a hydrometer to measure the amount. If you are seeing no nitrate, then the tank isn't cycled properly. What test kits are you using?
Please read the feeding article linked above. There is also a good article on F8s in our library & a good one on cycling, so you better understand the process. Also read the one on treating Ich, in the Hospital section of the Library.
Please read the feeding article linked above. There is also a good article on F8s in our library & a good one on cycling, so you better understand the process. Also read the one on treating Ich, in the Hospital section of the Library.
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!"
Re: Eating & Mouth Sore
pufferpunk, I have a 10 gallon nano reef going, so I know all about salt. I also own two different refractometers so I can get two different readings on my salt content and average out the middle number.
To your nitrate comment, I am partially colorblind, so I had my roommate double check the colors I was receiving from all of my tests. It turns out I have a very minute amount of nitrate, about 5ppm.
I have read the article on acceptable foods, and I plan on going to my local lake, because I live in Maine and the lake I live near is under incredibly strict pollution protection, being one of the few class A lakes left in Maine, and harvesting rams horn snails.
To your nitrate comment, I am partially colorblind, so I had my roommate double check the colors I was receiving from all of my tests. It turns out I have a very minute amount of nitrate, about 5ppm.
I have read the article on acceptable foods, and I plan on going to my local lake, because I live in Maine and the lake I live near is under incredibly strict pollution protection, being one of the few class A lakes left in Maine, and harvesting rams horn snails.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Eating & Mouth Sore
Sounds good! I'd go with the Melafix for now. Still read those articles--very informative!
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!"
Re: Eating & Mouth Sore
My puffer has stopped rubbing it's nose on the glass for now, because he seems to be moving more towards the middle of the tank, exploring the driftwood and plants. I'm really hoping that he stays in the middle, giving his sore time to heal and, hopefully, making him able to eat.
Does anyone have any special methods that they use to introduce their frozen foods? I've been using a metal skewer with a wooden handle, and it might be scaring the fish away, so I was wondering about other methods.
Does anyone have any special methods that they use to introduce their frozen foods? I've been using a metal skewer with a wooden handle, and it might be scaring the fish away, so I was wondering about other methods.
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pufferpuggirl
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Re: Eating & Mouth Sore
Some people tie a string to the food, and dangle it. Have you tried regular bloodworms for your puffer yet? Most puffers love them, so I would try those to see if he takes them or not.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Eating & Mouth Sore
Great article on that in our Library too! 
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!"
Re: Eating & Mouth Sore
OK, I have FINALLY fully diagnosed my puffer. He has a fungal infection! He's still swimming around, but he is now covered (almost completely, but his skin is still very visible) with a white fungus and one of his eyes has a white film over it. I am hoping that this will cure him for good, and I am DEFINITELY hoping that he doesn't die. If your religious, pray for this puffer.
I will post back tomorrow morning his status, weather improved or otherwise.
I will post back tomorrow morning his status, weather improved or otherwise.