The Puffer Forum

the past couple of weeks when ive been cleaning their tank, they both go absolutely nuts man :S they didnt use dto do it,this has just started. the poor little things get so freaked out!! swim so so fast up and down the side of the tank, even sometimes jumping out the water cos they going so fast, then they usually just sit and hide under the heater, looking really dark and breathing really heavy.and then afterwards ya dont see anything at all of them for 2 days or so.is there anything i can do to make water change day a bit less stressfull for them?? feel awful seeing them like that.

I had a similar experience with my Celons

The larger one shot down the tank and did a vertical take off and clean over the side of the tank. It landed on the carpet with a bit of a thud, poor thing. I had it in a jug and back in the tank in about five seconds and was lucky it didn't puff up with air. Think it was too stunned.

No skin problems, that I can see - this was a week or so ago.

I'd just walked into the room and taken the top off the tank. They don't seem to panic if they've been watching me for a few minutes first before a water change.

ill give that a go next week then, cheers!! cant do them any good to get so stressed can it

I can't say I've ever had that experience with my irrubesco, however, BeeBoo, my Mbu, gets a bit freaky when I clean the tank, but only when I'm close to him. He will just about shoot out of the tank, and I think if the stress bars weren't there, maybe he would.
Sorry I don't have anything to tell you in regards to helping them to be calmer, not sure there's much you can do to be honest.

A silly suggestion, but don't wear any bright colors while doing the water change.. sometimes bright colors like reds can really freak them out.

When do they start freaking out? As soon as you approach? Once you start siphoning? When you siphon the gravel? Only as the water level gets low enough for the filter to splash? Only when you refill?

as soon as i take the lidoff they start getting a bit agitated, then they go crazy as soon as i lift any rocks or anything out. i always leave a couple of places at least for them to hide in though. will try the no bright clothes thing aswell!

Why are you taking the rocks, etc out? I'd be freaked out if a big hand came in and stole my sofa too!

they dont come out every time but dosent the sand underneath them need cleaning at least sometimes?? i would rather not take them out tbh!

I don't move all the rocks and things in my tank, but I do try to vacuum around them and as close to them as I can. I think that's good enough, unless there's like uneaten food stuck between the rocks, I would not take them out.

ok cheers ill leave them in now!!

pufferpuggirl wrote:I don't move all the rocks and things in my tank, but I do try to vacuum around them and as close to them as I can. I think that's good enough, unless there's like uneaten food stuck between the rocks, I would not take them out.

Could be where those planeria are hanging out.

I only have those worms in one tank ..... so I doubt not removing my rocks is the cause.

so now im confused is it best to leave them there, or move them??

Understood, I had worms in the Pacu tank, just a heads up in case yours are similar...

This was two weeks ago...

Mine were an inch long, and leech like. Just in that one tank, so far as I can tell.

They'd shown up when I hoover the gravel in this tank, but just once, in the transparent section of a uk python syphon set. I took the pH up a bit (you wouldn't believe where it got down to) and have not seen them since.

They looked nasty, parasitic. Hookworms?

Nematode like rather than planarian like...

???, anyone?



Just me, but i'd hoover them out if pos, to be on the safe side - no idea what they are but do we want to find out?

Now you've got me worried Mr Soggy because I thought they looked sort of leech like too. Thing is, this is a big tank, full of plants, and to try and get them all out, I'd have to basically take the entire tank apart, and I have nowhere to put my fish if I were to do something like that. I mean, they've probably been there a while and I only just noticed them since I am using the white bucket and not the black bucket. However, I am still watching my fish ever so closely because I don't want anything to happen to them.

It's always something !