Sick Green Spotted Puffer

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Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

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 want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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puffie110
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Sick Green Spotted Puffer

Post by puffie110 »

Hello, there has been something off about my green spotted puffer for about 5 days now and I am at a loss for what to do. Any help will be greatly appreciated! We love him very much :)
Water parameters: Ammonia tested by LFS and my own test kit= 0.25ppm ( i'm not sure why?)
Nitrites tested by LFS and my own test kit= 0ppm
Nitrates tested by LFS and my own kit: 10-20ppm
( I have api freshwater master kit but it is 5 years old so I wasn't sure how accurate it was)
pH: LFS just said it was fine I don't remember the number, my kit said either 8.4 or 8.8 it was hard to distinguish (this is making me nervous)
salinity: 1.012
Tank Size: 30 gallons with 75 gallon filter
Inhabitants: 1 Green Spotted Puffer (at least 5 yrs old but only about 2-3 inches), recently added a ghost shrimp 2 days ago to try to get him to eat, ever since he got sick we saw a huge amount of small, white, long spiral shaped snails come out of nowhere.
Normal schedule:
Feed a quarter frozen blood worms daily, small pest snails from LFS occasionally, Water changes not often enough, usually monthly we do a 60% water change
No recent changes to tank
Aquarium set up 5 years ago, started with fish less cycle then added 2 mollies first before getting the puffer, no problems in the past (mollies no longer in tank)

5 days ago the puffer seemed dull in color and was sleeping in odd places, just not acting himself. There was a large amount of dark green algae that we had never seen before. He ate ok so we decided to wait until morning to do water change. Did 60% water change and removed all algae from decor and tank. ( we get our salt and fresh water from LFS and mix to desired salinity). That night he sucked a worm in but kept spitting it back out. He has not eaten anything since. He seems to be bumping into things and is lethargic laying out in the open. He almost seems blind at times like he cant see the food or decor around him. We put a ghost shrimp in the tank to entice him to eat. The shrimp actually touched him and he didn't even flinch. The guy at the store wasnt to concerned with water levels but gave us some established media to add to our filter.

Today we noticed his teeth possibly looked overgrown and he seemed like he was dying so we decided to give trimming his teeth with clove oil a shot. If he was too weak to recover at least he was no longer suffering and we didn't have time to find finquel. He survived the trim which he definetly needed and seems a little better but still wont eat and is not himself. We are definetly keeping up with 50% weekly water changes in the future if he pulls through. Any ideas as to what to do next? Also should he be bigger after 5+ years. He hasnt really grown since we got him? This all came on so suddenly and we dont want him suffering!! :( thank you and sorry for the long message
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Sick Green Spotted Puffer

Post by Pufferpunk »

By now, his salinity should be near marine levels. Does he perk up after a WC?
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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puffie110
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Re: Sick Green Spotted Puffer

Post by puffie110 »

He didnt seem any better after we changed 60% water and added amquel. The only slight improvement was after I clipped his teeth he was more active but he still wont eat and is acting almost blind. could the pH be a problem or should I add more amquel since it didnt lower levels yet. I changed water and put amquel in saturday morning. If he recovers I can definetly start increasing his salinity to marine. Is 30 gallons too small, is that why he is stunted? LFS said wait two weeks and do 25% water change??
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Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32987
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Greenville, SC
Contact:
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Re: Sick Green Spotted Puffer

Post by Pufferpunk »

At 5 years old, he should be full grown (6") in a SW tank with live rock & a protein skimmer. For all that, I'd recommend a 55g.
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... d-puffers/
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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puffie110
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Re: Sick Green Spotted Puffer

Post by puffie110 »

I will slowly increase his ph in his current tank while I setup and cycle a larger marine tank for him. Is there anything I should be doing now for him to get him to eat. Could this odd behavior all be due to not being in marine conditions? I'm worried about the ph and ammonia level, when and how much of a water change should I do next to get things back to normal
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puffie110
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Re: Sick Green Spotted Puffer

Post by puffie110 »

Also, I forgot to mention that since this all started he has a stress line that comes and goes that varies in thickness and darkness. Currently it is not too noticeable. His stomach is not black but not bright and the best way I can describe it is lumpy. Almost like he has lost weight and the lumpiness is his organs? It usually was bright white, smooth, and slightly round. Is this from 5-6 days without food or could he have parasites or be constipated/blocked?

He has never been an aggressive eater except when it came to his snails but he isn't even showing interest in them. Years ago there were mollies in his tank and when they died he ate them so I know he has eaten larger food. I'm heading out to the store later to get live bloodworms to try? Any other things to try for 2-3" puffer
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puffie110
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Re: Sick Green Spotted Puffer

Post by puffie110 »

ok sorry for the constant posts but i just checked him again and he was chasing after the shrimp!!! I gave him frozen bloodworms and he swam right over and started grabbing them. He definitely got a few but a lot of the time they shoot back out of his mouth. I'm starting to think it was his teeth and he was just too stressed to eat yesterday after I trimmed them. To be honest I was terrified clipping them because he is so small and I had to use clove oil so I felt like every second I was killing him or causing brain damage. I did it as fast as I could but I think I could have taken more off the bottom. He can open his mouth all the way And I can see back into his mouth so should snails and other foods be enough to grind down the teeth further so I don't have to retrim so soon. I do not want to use clove oil ever again especially not so soon. Why is he spitting some of the worms back out?
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