The Puffer Forum

46g 6 f8's, dragon goby, 7 bumblebee gobies...tanks been set up for years. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, >5 nitrate salinity .006 (normally)

So Sunday boyfriend does my water change...you know the regular 50% but adds back 10 gallons of full SW. I didn't know until yesterday after work when one of my puffers is acting listless. I check my perams and use my hydrometer (I know not very accurate but the only thing I have) and its .014...I immediatly removed 10g and add back full FW that takes it down to .010 (according to hydrometer). Today I check it again and its still at .010, my smallest puffer is a live but i wouldn't say happy.

I buy my SW purified from the Seattle Aquarium and have these 5g jugs that I keep it in...all the water I syphoned out yesterday is currently in them...can I keep the water or is it officially waste water?

Two questions...

Can I risk another big water change to bring back down the salinity to normal?
Can I store the removed water for future water changes without it becoming all stagnant?

Even though they may not be happy about the extra salt...more than likely they are more bothered by amonia....

That much of a salt change probably killed all of your bacteria and your tank is probably not cycled...

Yes, change your water..til it is cycled..

No do not save it, it is probably contaminated with ammonia..

The liklihood is that there will be some ammonia in the water and so unsuitable to be used again.

I going to hazard a guess and say that you are in the process of a mini-cycle and your puffer is reacting to the dip in water quality and not the salinity - brackish species are used to salinity changes in the wild but puffers do not handle poor water quality well at all, I'd recommend large (80-90%) daily water changes until you can be sure that you are not going through a mini-cycle.

I know it's a bit late for the advice now but you should only change salinity very gradually, most people recommend no more than + or - SG0.002, the reason being that the nitrifying bacteria cannot handle big swings and die off.

Good luck and I hope everything goes ok.

Even though your boyfriend meant well, I think he deserves

I agree, but what is the current SG after he delved into the hobby? Prior it was .oo6

Sorry I didn't get back yesterday I ended up going home a half day early from work to check on my fishes and I don’t have a computer at home right now so couldn’t update you guys.

Got home tested the water 0 ammonia 0 nitrites >5 nitrates .010 salinity. Did a water change of 5 gallons and replaced it with FW...salinity went down maybe a tenth so .009.

I tested the water again this morning and everything is still kosher but I dosed with Prime just in case. I don’t think I lost any significant amount of bacteria. I’m running a Cascade 700 Canister and a HOB AquaClear 50; with tons of ceramic rings.

My little guy hasn’t eaten and doesn’t look emaciated but doesn’t have a round belly either. I fed mysis shrimp and live tubifex worms last night everyone ate except him as far as I could tell. This morning I offered an oyster…no one touched that; still full?? I thought maybe because it had been frozen it was bad so I took it out and put it in my GSP tank and they massacred it. I’m going to take in a water sample to the LFS to have them check the salinity with a refractometer this evening.

I still think there is a good chance I’ll lose him. I mean he still swims strong but mostly just hovers in one spot or lays on the sand like my GSP’s do. He’s just acting funny; I wish I could get him to eat.

Any advice?

It doesn't matter how much filter media you've got if the bacteria's been killed off.

Is his belly dark? That's another sign of something wrong. You only carried out a 10% water change yesterday, carry out the 90% change and see if he perks up in the pure water.

As an aside: My F8's will rest or hover most of the time and don't swim around much and are completely healthy.

Why do a 90% water change when there is no evidence that there is any problem with my bacteria or evidence of an inactive nitrifying cycle? I don't want to take my tank from .006 to .014 to .010 and bam back to .006 I think I'm more comfortable doing daily 10% water changes to get back to .006. rather than stress the fish and bacteria totally causing a huge bacterial bloom and a full cycle. I can dose with prime until I get back down to the correct salinity but again my numbers are completely normal.

I don't mean to be a brat I welcome all ideas but I just want to make him feel better.

To answer your question his colors are normal, white as ever belly. He is not acting normally for him...he is lethargic and doesn't eat. My F8's are constantly flying around the tank...he used to tag right along with the big boys until Sunday (he's the smallest). Now he just hangs back by the spray bar or lays on the bottom. Everyone else in the tank is 100%, no heavy breathing, no off colors, no flashing, no erratic swimming, everyone’s eating, playing and pooing normally. The bbgs are continuing to fight with each other and the dragon goby is digging and rearranging my tank like always.

What do you all think about setting up a 10g hospital tank? Do I medicate with anything? Do I ever force feed him? Or just leave him alone and if he dies he dies...

Just wondering if anyone has had a perfectly healthy fish go lethargic and become uninterested in food and if there was anyway to bring them around. Maybe this should be cross posted to the hospital section??

You could always try him with an earthworm, that usually entices puffers to eat. Can't hurt either.

Test kits are not the most accurate and reliable things in the world and I just like to be safe and not sorry, I wasn't recommending to reduce your SG by 0.004 (see my above post about adjusting salinity).

You're water quality may be fine which is why I also mentioned that my puffers don't zip about constantly - they used to when I first put them in but they settled down within a couple of months. Try putting in some live brine shrimp and if he doesn't go mad for them then there's definately a problem and you may want to separate him from the others, at least for a while to get him eating again.
Has he been getting picked on by the others lately? If so he may be suffering from stress.
He may also just be keeping out of their way if he's the smallest?