The Puffer Forum

I got home last night from being out
Of town for 2 days and my valentini is dark in color and laying on the sand. He is breathing very rapidly and is very distressed. All of the other fish in the tank are behaving normally. There are no lesions on him, he isn't red, no visual parasites. Ammonia 0 trites 0 trates 80+. I have no idea how they got that high. I am mixing up water for a water change right now but it will take a few hours as I have a slow RO unit. Does anyone have any ideas as to what
I can do in the meantime? I really don't think he is gonna make it but I would like to try. Thanks everyone

Poor guy... Make sure & move ALL your decor around, while doing that WC, looking for excess debris. ALWAY have emergency water made & ready for a WC! I always kept 15g of fresh RODI & 33g of mixed SW on hand.

I had my Rubbermaid trash can full of new saltwater but the landscaping people came yesterday and there was grass and dirt all in it, and they sprayed for bugs last week so I just don't trust it. I cleaned it out and am making new water which is almost done. There is no way he is going to survive this though. His entire body is completely
Swollen. It's not red, it looks like he is filled with water( edema like), it's very weird. None of the other fish are at all affected by this. I think he is septic, but I have no idea how he got to be that way.

I removed him from the tank and into a bucket, the qt is currently
Occupied and don't want to possibly infect them. He is upside down now and appears to have some sort of bruising on his abdomen? It is a dark grayish color. He seems to be getting larger by the
Minute. I added a tablespoon or aquarium sal( to try and reduce swelling) and maybe I should decrease the salinity? Any thoughts on this?

Epsom salt, 1 tbsp/5g, is for swelling reduction & constipation.

Yeah that's what I was trying. It's having no effect. He is so swollen he can't even move anymore. If I had some clove oil I would put him out of his misery. Can anyone come up with an explanation for this?

My only guess is he became toxic from the nitrate being so high & stressing his immune system. You can get clove oil at any drug store in the toothpaste aisle.