The Puffer Forum

Every fish I fed silversides to yesterday is either dead or sick. Aw, crap. No puffers thankfully (no piscivores) My lionfish looks like he's going to be ok though a little stressed, but he's very large (14") and only had a couple silversides. The live fish seem to have vomited out the bad silversides - the cleanup crews in none of the tanks are touching them!!

One of my anglers (3.5") died, my other angler (4") is breathing heavy and still trying to retch. I witnessed him still vomiting up silverside bits half an hour ago. I performed a 50% water change shortly followed by a 75% on the surviving angler's tank - I don't know what might have been in the silversides but if nassarius snails won't touch it, it's bad.

The lion appears stable.

The angler's tank read and still reads

SG 1.024
NitrAte less than 1 ppm
Nitrite undetectable
ph 8.3
alk 10
phosphate undetectable
ammonia undetected
temp 78

Please, any advice on how to treat my fish will be of help.

Thank you!

Maybe the silversides were bad. Where did you get them from?

Other victims - feeder shrimp - all in the tank that partook are deceased except the smallest shrimp.

Note:
It's definately tainted fish, animals in separate systems affected, all ate silversides, no animal that ate them is unaffected, tankmates are fine.

Purchased at PetSmart in Grandville, MI.

Update:
Angler is breathing slightly less heavily but still noticeably "off" and breathing abnormally. He is walking around a bit. I added an airstone in addition to his powerheads and filter just to bring up his oxygen. Added carbon to filtration.

Lionfish is doing well though not begging for food when I pass his tank as is normal.

Anybody have any tips other than to change their water? I'm planning to do a bunch more changes in case whatever was in the silversides has leached into the tanks.

dang, im really sorry to hear that Meander! that must have sucked....
I hope the rest of your fish pull through ok. I dont really know what to tell you, I dont know that there is much you can execpt wait and hope. WCs sound like a good idea.


one question though, how did the angler walk around? I didnt know fish had legs....

I'd run fresh carbon on those tanks. Too bad!

Thanks for the suggestions and support, folks.

I drove to PetSmart and told them my story and insisted they throw out the rest of that batch of silversides so no one else has a tragedy. They did. It's a possibility the silversides actually got warm and then were refrozen!

Over $100 worth of fish (possibly another $65 if the other angler doesn't make it) including my favorite angler down the toilet - figuratively speaking in the angler's case. That's just my fish.....who knows who else got some? I hope I got the only bad pack.

The Fisherman wrote:one question though, how did the angler walk around? I didnt know fish had legs....

They sure do. The little guy that didn't make it used to run across the rocks at me to get his dinner. They're really cool fish. They have a fishing rod, legs, and they coast about using jet propulsion when they go into the water column.

Angler #2 has died.

Lionfish looks ok today, though. I think his sheer mass diluted whatever the toxin was so he only got sick. I hope.

Oh man, I'm so sorry.

That's a shame meander. Sorry for your loss. I think you are probably correct in thinking the silversides may have been frozen, then thawed (for who knows how long) then re-frozen before you got them.

There's a fish similar to silversides that you could try as food & its sold as "people food" in seafood dept., so "might" be less risky - the smelt Osmerus mordax. Its a little bigger than the silverside, but same body form and no spines. You might even ask about having seafood dept save you the smallest ones - as most people want the largest. And you can eat them yourself! Delicious!

hmmmm, what about frozen mussles? if i thaw it out in hot water, feed as much to my puff as he can eat, then pop it back into the freezer again, to thaw it out again for the next feeding. is that OK? thats what i've been doing lol. without problems.

Not a good idea.

Meat and seafood should never be refrozen once its been thawed. For anyone's consumption.