The Puffer Forum

Help sick puffer!

He was in a small 10 gallon because he got picked on by our other puffer and a brown scat.
There was some algae build up in the 10 gallon so I placed back with the others in their 60 gallon.
He has been struggling just to swim, after which he quickly falls back to the ground. I have been using melafix regularly but know luck. Any thoughts?
Also: ph is good and salinity is 1.014

Moved to the Hospital. Will you please answer the questions in red for us?

1) Water parameters -
pH: 7.8
NO2 (Nitrates or Nitrites?): 0
NO3 (Nitrates or Nitrites?): 200
GH?: 180
KH?: 180
Salinity: 1.014

2) Tank size: Originally in 60 Gal for 2 years. One month ago I moved him to my 10 Gal because he had white gashes which I assumed were from the other fish (1 puffer and 1 brown scat) were picking on him. The 10 Gal aquarium uses the same exact water supply (noted below) and has guppies.
Water Supply: I mix my water in a 50 gallon Rubbermaid container. I use Prime by Seachem along with Instant Ocean salt.

Inhabitants. 60 Gal: 2 GSP's and 1 Brown Scat
10 Gal: about 30 guppies (including babies). There are also some little snails

3) Feeding:
Defrosted shrimp about once a week
dried krill about three times a week
lettuce twice a week for the brown scat

Water change schedule: once every three to four weeks. I'm sure I should be doing this way more often.

Products I am using or have added to the tank: Melafix, Tetra Algae Control weekly, Tetra Nitraban about once a month

4) No changes have been made in the tank in the few month. I did pull out some fake plants which had the black hair-like algae growing on it.

5) Both aquariums have been running for 2 years. My water mixes in the 50 gallon container for 4 days minimum before using in the aquariums.


Hope all this info helps. I welcome and respect all information provided. thanks

I forgot to mention the following info:

Filter: eshops wet/dry filter

Lighting: (2) 22" Power glo 18k T5HO
(1) 48" Power glo 18k T5HO

Nitrates of 200.

I don't know anything about saltwater but that has to be too high, just like FW and BW.

Is that fungus on his skin? Stop the algae controlling chemicals immediately. Do daily water changes of 50%, until you get the nitrate <20.

understood. I'll do 50% changes everyday and get that nitrate level down asap. I'll keep you posted.

I went back & read your posts again. Scats are known to be the garbage cans of the BW world. They eat & poop huge amounts. That's probably where the nitrate is coming from. Test your ammonia & nitrite. Those are even more pertinent than the nitrate, although 200 is extremely bad.

60g is fine for the 2 puffers but if this puffer is to make it, I'd re-home the scat. My guess is this is the weaker of the 3 fish & it's survival of the fittest, in an overcrowded system.

The scat is the total dominate alpha male. I've been thinking of revoking him for the longest. I always have break out the net to separate him from either of the two puffers. as far as the nitrites go, is that the NO3 reading on my test?

Nitrite is NO2. Nitrate-NO3.

Just wanted to let you guys know that our little puffer didn't make it
He didn't eat for about 6-7 days. I tried to feed him by hand, but he just wouldn't feed.
I'll chalk this up as a lesson learned. change water, change water, change water!
I got my Nitrates from 200 down to 160. Still have a way to go.
Now I got to work hard to keep everytning clean for our larger puffer and the brown scat.

Thanks for all the info.

Wow, you still have a very long way to go. Keep up with those water changes though and let us know how your nitrates decrease Have you tested the nitrates of your tap water?

Flutter wrote:Wow, you still have a very long way to go. Keep up with those water changes though and let us know how your nitrates decrease Have you tested the nitrates of your tap water?

Haven't tested my tap, but my water reserviour/mixing tank (50 gallon) tested out fine, 0 NO3 ad 0 NO2. Therefore it's simply me not changing water enough.

Well, at least you know what the problem is and you're working on fixing it. Some people have very high nitrates in their tap water and that would have made your job more difficult. Thankfully you don't