The Puffer Forum

Ok so since my little ordeal with an algae infestation i have heavily cut back on my light in my tank. Now today I noticed both of my puffers have darkened up a lot and have been acting very sluggish. One was eating a little and the other tried to eat only one worm and seemed to be having trouble even with that (seemed like he was possibly having trouble seeing). My water paramiters seem very good at the moment. Nitrites at 0 Ammonia at 0 and my salinity is at 1.004. would this simply be an effect of the change in light schedule? The only other thing that I can think of is possibly a cave i just put in the tank after the last water change has possibly made them lazy(can that happen?). Anyway any advice would be appreciated I wnat to take care of this while they are still doing ok.

A darkened tank may cause the puffers to rest more or at different times than you are used to seeing when the tank is well lit. The cave may give them a hiding place but should not make them lazy.

What is your nitrAte reading? Is 1.004 your typical SG for this tank? Water change regimine and last PWC?

Do the puffs brighten up and begin to swim normally after a few minutes when lights in the room/tank are turned up?

Not sure on nitrate i dont have a tester for it. One puff is swimming around now but the other is still lazing around. SG has been at .004 since last thursday (last 25% WC), it was previously .002. I was planning on brining it up by .002 per week till i got to .006 until they got bigger.

OK, you really should invest in a nitrate test kit. Once a tank is cycled, nitrates and SG are what need to be monitored mostly. Ammonia and nitrites should remain at zero unless something goes wrong (dead fish/plants in the tank, crash, etc.)

What and how much are you feeding and are the puffs eating OK?
Did you vac the substrate during the last PWC?

I'm guessing that the algae is dieing off and may be causing the nitrates to rise. Hard to say w/o nitrate test results though. Suggest cutting way back on feeding for a few days and do another PWC ASAP. How big is the tank again and how big are the puffs?

Sorry for so many questions, but this could be a non-issue or something serious and details are needed to help diagnose the situation.

2 puffs in a 20 gallon tank, both are still under 1" but growing. I did vac less than 1 week ago in my last PWC but I will do another tomorrow. Like I mentioned above one puff is eating (not as much as I would like) and the other is eating very very little. They have been eating once a day recently.

OK. Your puffs may be fine and others may jump in with additional suggestions but lacking nitrate readings, a PWC change is always a good idea when anything doesn't look right in your tank. If you can scrape off some of the algae and vaccuum that out with your PWC, so much the better. Maybe even remove and clean any plastic plants that have algae growing on them.

Do try to get a nitrate test kit soon, keep an eye on the puffers and keep us infomed of any changes.

This is very sad. Both of my puffs died today. There was no indication at all. Im taking water samples and whatnot to the LFS now to see if theres anything that I didnt see happening.

we cant find any trouble. This is really discouraging for me im gonna go do a 50% WC and clean everything out. Im gonna take a break from puffers I guess. I want to keep brackish water so I can come back to puffers later once I have some more experience Any reccomendations of hardier Brackish water fish?

Two fish don't happen to die at the same time for no reason. Did the LFS happen to provide you with numeric readings for your water parameters? Were any chemicals sprayed around the tank or in the general area recently?

no they did not give me any numbers. But my own test kit shows 0 Ammonia and Nitrite so the only other thing could be nitrate that I coud think of. but i did a PWC less than a week ago so that would be surprising. The only thing i could think of killing them is bad worms or shrimp that I have fed them recently. Im gonna go get a nitrate test kit right now.

nitrates are 7.5.. My guess is internal parasites. Its all i could imagine at this point.