The Puffer Forum

yep you probably guessed ziggy died 2 days ago
2 days ago i woke in the morning to find ziggy very unwell
sitting at the bottom of the tank almost lifeless and
had both of his fins sucked into his gills
i tested the water amm: <20, n02: 0, n03: 0
did a water change regardless incase it was some type of
contaminent making him sick.
ten minutes later he seemed a little better, his fins
were out and he was swimming normally
but i did notice all of his fins had a red tint to them.
so i quickly ran down to the lfs and asked what it could be
he suggested fluke or tape-worm so i brought some worming
stuff for him but by the time i got back it was too late
ziggy had wedged himself between the glass and heater
i quickly pulled the heater from the side of the tank but ziggy
just sank, i realised he was already dead and broke down.

does anybody know what could have happened?
he showed no signs of sickness at all untill that morning
about 4-5 months ago i treated him for tapeworm
which he did pass but he never got red fins or behaved like this

So sorry for your loss.
Something is wrong with your water - those figures do not add up in a correctly cycled tank, are you sure they are right?

I thought it was ammonia should be 0 and nitrate less than 20? I am also sorry for your loss. RIP Ziggy

Ajepalmer wrote:I thought it was ammonia should be 0 and nitrate less than 20? I am also sorry for your loss. RIP Ziggy

And you are right ammonia should be at 0

Sorry for your loss

im sorry x

splitadams wrote: does anybody know what could have happened?
he showed no signs of sickness at all untill that morning
about 4-5 months ago i treated him for tapeworm
which he did pass but he never got red fins or behaved like this

an uncycled tank doesnt have a good effect on a puffer

I noticed the OP was not a puffer fry..so I assumed that he/she should now about cycling..

So I did a search of the OP's past posts...and it appears that he/she had some trouble with the puffer in December..

Back then his tank appeared cycled...0, 0, <20...

But, the OP did not have this milk spot puff in Saltwater...but planned to put it in a marine tank after the OP moved to another house..

That was only in December...

So, I am wondering..did the OP ever put the puff in Salt water...when did the puff go into saltwater...

And I wonder if the transition to Saltwater Killed bacteria in the tank creating and un cycled tank?

Ajepalmer wrote:I thought it was ammonia should be 0 and nitrate less than 20? I am also sorry for your loss. RIP Ziggy

Ammonia should be 0

But Nitrates should be greater than 0 and < 20

I am not an expert..so this is just my understanding..so If I am wrong someone please Correct me!

I think bacteria converts nitrite into less toxic nitrate.....so the absence of Nitrate signals that the bacteria is not converting or that there is not enough bacteria to convert...hence their is no cycle of conversion going on = uncycled tank.

Must have been a typo???

the bacteria being killed off during a move or something makes sense, but if they knew enough about cycling a tank they should also know or if not ask about raising the salinity, what to do when changing filter media etc. that would cause a bacteria crash

RIP Ziggy

red colouration on fins could be ammonia poisoning... how long has there been some ammonia reading in the tank?

also I think Milk spotted needs to be complete marine or at least 1.020sg


I had my milk spotted in brackish around 1.012-1.015 growing well gaining good size...

but like splitadams one day just went bad and died....lasted for ayear or so


IMO they need to be introduced in a marine tank as soon as you get them....

Rip Ziggy.

sorry that was a typo cheers pp for realising.
and yes i had him in a fully cycled full marine tank,
have for the past 3 months.
i acctually think it may have been a contaminate
of some sort. i think maybe window cleaner
when my mums pops in for a visit she seems to wipe
everything down with heaps of windex

Poor Ziggy... Definitely could well be the cause. It is always suggested not to spray Windex in the room your fish is in & only on the cloth you use to clean the glass, not directly on the tank, to prevent overspray.