The Puffer Forum

My baby fahaka puffer is breathing really hard and is bloated and has some kind of red patches on his body i have the light turned of and a towel drapped over the tank for now to try to keep him calm. What should i do? I just did a water change could i have done something wrong?

sorry I replied but timed out....

This should be moved to the hospital ...

here is the cut and paste version:

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 have a 75 gallon fish tank we have been feeding him frozen blood worms frozen krill and baby apple snails since he is so small. I just did and water change before he started to act sick. I added in some buffer for the water and stress zymes. The red patches on his body have gone away but he is still breathing really hard i check the temp in water and is seemed really cold i checked the heater and is was not working for some reason but it is up and running now.

Try giving him another water change using a good dechorinator and none of that "snake oil" stuff like buffers and stress zyme. Something like Wardley's Chlor Out, Amquel or Prime is all you need.

Fish will adjust to your water and do best without you trying to add all kinds of chemicals to make it "perfect", all you do is irritate them with constantly adjusting water levels. Dechlorinating city water is all you should have to do, unless your water is super soft with an extremely low KH.

That said, red patches on the skin is usually ammonia burns from an uncycled tank.. but when you put in things like Stress Zyme all bets are off.. puffers especially have no scales to protect their skin and are very sensitive to things like medications and products that "enhance the slime coat".. by irritating it.

Another idea, once you've ruled out ammonia and nitrites by testing your water (or have a local fish store test it for you), is that you did the water change with a bucket that had some chemical in it, like floor cleaner, etc?

could your O2 be low? causing your fish to stress and breath hard. Do you have plants, or an air stone?

Yes, please post all your water parameters: ammonia, nitrite, nitrate pH.

I have two air stones in the tank with him I want more but i need a better air pump first. I also clean the tank with a python i don't use buckets and I have really soft water thats why i add malawi victorian buffer. Thats good to know about the stress zymes i won't add that anymore. I also am breeding my own apple snails to save on money and i have a ton of them so i noticed that the decorative caves and things i had in the puffers tank were really dirty so i took them out and put them in with the snails for a day to see if they could clean them up a bit which they did, then i put them back while i was doing the water change, could that of somehow made him sick. That is the only thing i have done different. i am starting to get really worried about him he is still swimming around but he is acting like he is kind of out it bummping in to things.

Prime sign of nitrite poisoning.

okay i just went and got some test strips my Ph is 8.4, Alkalinity is 300 and my water is to soft it shows my water hardness is at zero, nitrate and nitrite looks good.

It would be good to post the readings of ammonia, nitrate and nitrite if possible. BTW test strip have been known to give false readings the liquid test kits are must more reliable.

i know i had to go to wal-mart all the fish stores are closed people at wal-mart were really grouchy and this was all they had. i guess its just going to have to wait till the morning thank you guys for your help i hope the little guy makes it through the night. i will let you know the results in the morning.

Update??

I just wanted to add that I would not trust test strips as far as I could throw them. I consider them useless, especially when establishing a new tank.
Sorry, just had to add my 2 cents worth.

Well he is still alive the water temp is back to normal he is still breathing really hard he is not doing good at all. I don't know what to do. I can't figure out what is wrong.

Water changes are always good, especially with signs of nitrite poisoning.

Can you test the water a few times with the strips all at once and give us the average readings (numbers, not just good or bad)?

Is he the only fish in the tank? What is your filtration and surface movement like?