1 dead dwarf puffer in a tank of 2-help please
Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2017 8:37 am
Hi there. I have been a lurker on the forum for several months, and have gotten most of my advice on dwarf puffer care from here, without having to post. However, I now have a specific question I was hoping one of you might be able to answer. I have an established tank with two malabar dwarf puffers. I got these two puffers in April of this year as juveniles. They are the only fish in the tank. I have a few drifting plants for cover, and a piece of drift wood. It is only 10 gallons, so using advice from here, I usually do a large water change every week (30-50%, depending on scuzziness). I slacked mid-summer (with water testing at first) and extended it to once every 2 weeks when I was running to and from vacations. The water started looking scuzzy so the last 3 weeks I went back to once per week, really trying to clean up the algae. The little puffers never seem to care too much about the water changes. I feed them live black worms that I keep in the fridge for several weeks (I get them from That Fish Place in PA when I need to refresh), and occasionally a few nuisance snails.
The two puffers I had were extremely different in appearance, and I assumed this was all simply due to male/female (I got lucky when I picked two random baby puffers from the tank). The male grew a lot after I got them, and he was at least twice the size of the female. Even though she was so much smaller, she was always very active and the most interactive. She was the first to come out to eat, and when i fed them, she always got some (although the bigger one definitely got first choice, she did also get plenty to eat). They both would get that pot belly appearance after eating.
Sorry for the long background, but the reason I'm writing is largely because they did so well for so long! I wanted to make sure you had the full history. This past weekend, I went to do my usual water change, and I hadn't seen the smaller puffer the day before which was unusual, but they hide sometimes. After the water change she looked really off and refused to eat. I think her behavior was off before the water change but it wasn't so off that I'd been too worried. I turned the light off to let her rest after the water change. The next day she was hanging about the top of the tank and again, really not eating. I tested the water (I have the API test kit) and the pH was 6.4 (normal for this tank and our water), ammonia zero, nitrite zero, nitrate about 5 ppm (I just changed the water). She did try to eat the next two mornings, but didn't get pot belly after eating. My husband fed her yesterday morning and said she looked a little better, but we didn't see her last night when i got home from work. This morning she was dead.
The big guy is a little freaked out and wouldn't eat this morning but his belly is still fat looking and he's pretty active. Any ideas? I inspected the outside of her body after I fished it from the water but didn't see anything externally. She is really tiny though.
One more thing to know about me: I'm a veterinarian but have ZERO training in fish. However, I'm very interested in what might have happened. Was she just a runt that finally couldn't compete in a two puffer tank? Or is there something more sinister going on that i need to figure out? I still have her little body in the fridge, in case there is something i can do to figure it out.
Thanks for all of your help!
The two puffers I had were extremely different in appearance, and I assumed this was all simply due to male/female (I got lucky when I picked two random baby puffers from the tank). The male grew a lot after I got them, and he was at least twice the size of the female. Even though she was so much smaller, she was always very active and the most interactive. She was the first to come out to eat, and when i fed them, she always got some (although the bigger one definitely got first choice, she did also get plenty to eat). They both would get that pot belly appearance after eating.
Sorry for the long background, but the reason I'm writing is largely because they did so well for so long! I wanted to make sure you had the full history. This past weekend, I went to do my usual water change, and I hadn't seen the smaller puffer the day before which was unusual, but they hide sometimes. After the water change she looked really off and refused to eat. I think her behavior was off before the water change but it wasn't so off that I'd been too worried. I turned the light off to let her rest after the water change. The next day she was hanging about the top of the tank and again, really not eating. I tested the water (I have the API test kit) and the pH was 6.4 (normal for this tank and our water), ammonia zero, nitrite zero, nitrate about 5 ppm (I just changed the water). She did try to eat the next two mornings, but didn't get pot belly after eating. My husband fed her yesterday morning and said she looked a little better, but we didn't see her last night when i got home from work. This morning she was dead.
The big guy is a little freaked out and wouldn't eat this morning but his belly is still fat looking and he's pretty active. Any ideas? I inspected the outside of her body after I fished it from the water but didn't see anything externally. She is really tiny though.
One more thing to know about me: I'm a veterinarian but have ZERO training in fish. However, I'm very interested in what might have happened. Was she just a runt that finally couldn't compete in a two puffer tank? Or is there something more sinister going on that i need to figure out? I still have her little body in the fridge, in case there is something i can do to figure it out.
Thanks for all of your help!
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