The Puffer Forum

I'm pretty sure it's not too serious, but my red congo puffers pectoral fins went from clear to bright red. I know that it's a RED Congo puffer, but since I bought him his find were transparent. The pH was pretty high, but nothing else was wrong, so I added some acid buffer. Here's the list:
1. pH 9.0
Nitrate 0.3
Nitrite and Ammonia 0
2. 28 gallon custom hex, only tank mates are horned Nerite snails and some red cherry shrimp(food)
3. I feed him 1 earthworm and human shrimp per week, and I add 2 red cherry shrimp to the tank every few days. I change the tank water 50% every other week. I use basically every type of conditioner from API and Tetra.
4. No recent changes in the tank, but I added an African lily pad around a month ago.
5. The aquarium has been set up for around 6 months, and I cycled it by using an old filter, adding Tetra QuickStart, and letting it run for a week with snails and shrimp before I added the puffer.

pufferjw wrote:I'm pretty sure it's not too serious, but my red congo puffers pectoral fins went from clear to bright red. I know that it's a RED Congo puffer, but since I bought him his find were transparent. The pH was pretty high, but nothing else was wrong, so I added some acid buffer. Here's the list:
1. pH 9.0
Nitrate 0.3
Nitrite and Ammonia 0
2. 28 gallon custom hex, only tank mates are horned Nerite snails and some red cherry shrimp(food)
3. I feed him 1 earthworm and human shrimp per week, and I add 2 red cherry shrimp to the tank every few days. I change the tank water 50% every other week. I use basically every type of conditioner from API and Tetra.
4. No recent changes in the tank, but I added an African lily pad around a month ago.
5. The aquarium has been set up for around 6 months, and I cycled it by using an old filter, adding Tetra QuickStart, and letting it run for a week with snails and shrimp before I added the puffer.

pH of 9.0 is quite high, but bear in mind that any sudden change in pH can be harmful, possible more harmful than the high pH itself
are you using liquid test kits or strips?
no water conditioners are necessary in a well maintained, properly cycled tank
toss them!!!!
red fins may be the signs of irritation from chemicals
my recommendation is to do a 50% water change now with NO CONDITIONERS (other than "Prime" for de-chlorinating the new water)
then do a 50% change every day for several days
in the long term, a 50% water change should be done on a weekly basis

Ok, thanks for the input. Yeah I only add the Slimecoat, pH balancer, etc. when I change the water. I will perform the recommended water changes.

Forget the pH stuff. It will only cause up & down swings. What's the pH of your tap water?

My tap water is 7.7.

To eieio
I forgot to tell you I use electronic testers.

What substrate are you using?

pufferjw wrote:To eieio
I forgot to tell you I use electronic testers.

do you have a liquid test kit that you can compare your electronic readings to?

Thank you both, I forgot to tell you that I lowered the pH and after a few days his fins went back to normal.

I don't see how that would make a difference. Maybe just a coincidence?

a pH of 9.0 is 100 times more alkaline than a pH of 7.0 (7.0 is considered to be neutral for a freshwater aquarium)
http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=61
that could, indeed, be the cause of irritated fins, blood vessels, and gills

eieio wrote:a pH of 9.0 is 100 times more alkaline than a pH of 7.0 (7.0 is considered to be neutral for a freshwater aquarium)
http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=61
that could, indeed, be the cause of irritated fins, blood vessels, and gills

It seems as though that was it. Thanks again for your help.