The Puffer Forum

One of my DPs seems to be suddenly sick.. the other two look perfectly fine- a bit thin (they were thin when they were delivered, they are now starting to develop their little chubby bellies), but very active and vibrant.
He's very dark and listless... he swam by the filter and stuck to it! I had to jiggle the filter a little bit just to make sure he wasn't dead... and right after that he found a leaf to kind of laze around on. Before that, I saw him resting on one of my plants, and I thought "aww, how cute, he's sleeping..." only to look closer to see him gasping! He was always the shier one.. eating after the other two female ones did (i save bloodworms for him so he gets the same amount they did), and he's usually hiding around the back part of the tank near the bottom. Today he seemed a bit "twitchy" as well.
I usually see all three of them at feeding time, but today (much to my distress) I only saw the two healthier ones.
I didnt notice any type of aesthetic anomalies right away... I'll have to scout around the tank for a while to find him.

1) I dont have a test kit yet, but I'm planning on buying one as soon as my financial aid disbursement comes through, which should be within the week.

2) Heavily planted 10 gallon, 3 DPs, two of which look/act healthy

3) I feed them frozen bloodworms, no more than 1/2 a cube a day. I change their water 40-50% every week... there is also a high rate of evaporation due to what i'm guessing is the climate here (lots of condensation in the tank), I'm talking about over an inch every 2 days.. they get clean water when I "refill" their tank then. I've used AquaSafe and SafeStart, nothing more.

4) Other than refilling their water after it drops below a certain point, nothing.

5) No more than a month. Ive had these guys for two weeks tops... I cycled it using SafeStart.

I really want him to get better!

Without you testing your water, its hard to know if its an ammonia problem or something of that sort.

But to be safe, I'd do extra water changes over the next couple of days and see if that helps. Clean water is always a good thing.

Do you know if the other two are picking on this one at all?

Will do, ma'am!
Ive been watching him, and i've seen no aggression from the other two.
I just isolated him (in a bowl ive never used to eat, totally clean).. and he looks DEATHLY thin! Like he's never eaten at all! I defrosted a small amount of bloodworms, but he doesnt seem to be taking any. His fins are constantly moving, and it looks like he's gasping... he just kind of flows along with the current. He's also very, very dark.
I'm hoping he'll warm up to the bloodworms soon, and that its not too late for him...

Omg, I just watched him take his last breath. He started gasping, I looked down, and before you know it... he stopped.
Hopefully I can spot sickness in a fish faster next time... and though I've lost a cute little thing, at least I learned something out of it...

That's too bad.

Sometimes these poor little guys are just way too stressed from all the transport and everything they go through at the retail level, and there's not much you can do for them other than keep them the best you can for their last few days.

Keep an eye on the other two for signs of losing weight, white and/or stringy feces, etc... there's always a good chance it could be internal parasites.

I certainly will. They do seem to be putting on weight, which is good, but I'll keep checking.

Oh, dear. I'm sorry.

It's important to get a test kit *before* you get the puffers.

Yeah, that does make sense, doesn't it... I guess I was too excited for the little girls and I completely forgot.

Also, is it normal for a puffer to just kinda... chill out near the heater? Ever since I moved the heater to get to the sick one easier, one of them has been utterly fascinated by it! I haven't seen her move to another area since she discovered it.

Lots of fish have a favorite spot. James Bond sleeps under the rock cave, and before I took the ugly thing out, Thumbelina liked to sleep on the blue plastic coral. Then she slept on the hornwort. Now that the hornwort is dead, I have no idea where she sleeps. Many fish do like to stake out a spot to call their own. Your little girl has just moved house and called dibs on the best bedroom before the other girl could get it.

I'm very sorry for the loss of your little puffer.

Oh no!! That's too bad.

Bullet sleeps under my stump thing, and Bug, I think she sleeps in my fake red anenome, but sometimes she sleeps next to Bullet.