The Puffer Forum

hey guys I tried getting help from other forums, but not much help. I have a 110 FOWLR with a dog face puffer, lion fish, grouper, angelfish, and humu trigger. The last three fish were added friday. The puffer started acting up sunday night, jerking around, ramming himself into the tank, and skin is very black. None of the fish are eating, they are all hiding, but I'm rally worried about the puffer because of his behavior. Would u consider this due to insufficient bacteria to make up for the waste of the fish, or a parasite? I was treating for parasites for the past 2 days, but i had my skimmer off. I turned it on last night to see if i can get rid of all that waste, and it buildup quickly, and the puffer is now just swimming around, being flung randomly, but still dark; still spending much time hiding on the substrate

Stung by lionfish. No doubt about it. Seen it many times before. Really bad combo.

Also, please answer ALL the Qs above, in red.

Pufferpunk wrote:Stung by lionfish. No doubt about it. Seen it many times before. Really bad combo.

DAmn will it be fatal?

It can be

Oh man

Keep your water quality super high. Separate the lionfish right away to prevent farther stinging.

1- ph 8.2, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, salinity 1.022
2- 100 gallon with dogface puffer, lion fish, grouper, angelfish, and trigger
3- waters been changed every friday 15% weekly, and i feed them all formula one frozen food every morning.
4- added the angelfish, trigger, and grouper on friday.
5- tank has been running for 3 months.

I don't think it is because the lion fish stung him, why would that affect all the other fish, and why would that stop[ the lion fish from eating? i only had the lion fish and puffer by themselves for 2 months and they never had a problem

I don't think your tank is cycled because you should be showing some Nitrates. How did you cycle it? If possible can you

"get Dr Tim's or Bio-Spira, place it directly into the filter & do not do a WC for 2 days. " those two products will instant cycle your tank.

The puffer freaking out will make the other fish hide. S/w melafix may be a good idea also, you need to get that lionfish out!

Given that several new fish were added suddenly, the tank is too small, and all of the fish are acting weird the tank could also be highly polluted.

What are you using to test your water? Is it expired? Can you try retesting and follow the directions exactly?

my mistake nitrates are at 40, i actually used dr. time to cycle, i guess I'm going to have to take him out when i get home, but what is the reason as to why the lion fish isn't eating either?

I've retested the water numerous times because i was surprised at how the nitrites dropped to 0 (guess dr tim really works), I've been using herbtana but it instructed me to turn the skimmer off. do you think the skimmers affected water quality?

It's possible. With all that bioload, you really need to run the skimmer. How much LR is in there? Can you return all the new fish you bought? That tank is good for the puffer as a centerpiece & then smaller, dither fish in there.

I might have to call and ask tomorrow... I did a water change today, noticed the fish have cloudy eyes and most of them r laying on their side, i have them in a bucket with the old water but im dripping them now to get used to the new water