Now my other puffer is dying! I don't understand.
Forum rules
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.
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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r1a2c3h4e5l6_s7
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:33 pm
- Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
- Contact:
Now my other puffer is dying! I don't understand.
I just don't get it. I know that maybe I should have done more studying b4 I got these puffers, but my fish guy helps me out a lot. My last remaining puffer is acting all sick and stuff. It's normally got a black belly and is fairly dark compared to my previous puffers. So I don't go by the color. But he isn't moving around and he is curled into a ball. His tail is tightly tucked on his side and he just kind of bounces around and goes with the current from the filter. Why are these sweet little fish so complicated???
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Myaj
- Tech Team
- Posts: 4587
- Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:27 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Bubba, turgidus
Paris, lined burrfish - Location: SE Wisconsin
- Contact:
They really are not that complicated. They need plenty of room, plenty of filtration, appropriate salinity and, probably most importantly, lots of clean water, puffers are very sensitive to nitrates. Compared to most fish that are considered "delicate", they are pretty easy to take care of if you meet those standards.
Have you checked your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels yet? Bad water quality and internal parasites seem to be the two biggest things that kill off puffers, but with internal parasites they seem to get thinner and thinner, you haven't mentioned he's skinny at all? So get your water checked out and get actual numbers, not "its fine" from the store, better yet, buy your own test kits so you can check and make sure everything is looking good on a regular basis. Then you can go from there.
In the mean time, what size tank, what is the salinity, what kind of salt are you using, how long has it been set up, can you get pictures of the sick puffer?
Have you checked your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels yet? Bad water quality and internal parasites seem to be the two biggest things that kill off puffers, but with internal parasites they seem to get thinner and thinner, you haven't mentioned he's skinny at all? So get your water checked out and get actual numbers, not "its fine" from the store, better yet, buy your own test kits so you can check and make sure everything is looking good on a regular basis. Then you can go from there.
In the mean time, what size tank, what is the salinity, what kind of salt are you using, how long has it been set up, can you get pictures of the sick puffer?
Oooh, the other thing is, keep all your posts in the Hospital section, as you're having a hard time with the fish, and most of your Q's are gonna be related to the probs.
It's harrd for us to keep track of what you're doing if your posts are scattered throughout the different sections...I looked in general discussion, and found you'd moved him!
Glad he's doing better, but you've got a way to go with him yet, and, for us to help you, we need to stick to the same thread.
Pami.
It's harrd for us to keep track of what you're doing if your posts are scattered throughout the different sections...I looked in general discussion, and found you'd moved him!
Glad he's doing better, but you've got a way to go with him yet, and, for us to help you, we need to stick to the same thread.
Pami.