F8 puffer spitting sand and heavy winded
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.
F8 puffer spitting sand and heavy winded
since i got home hes been breathing heavy and laying low... every now and then he'll bolt around then start to spit sand out... he's also very pale colored...very weird... Ive had him for a few weeks now, and have him in a brackish tank that's at about 1.008 any help would be awesome
oh yeah, this morning it got really cold outside and the water temp dropped from about 74 to 68... i fixed that though when i got home...
if this helps... 20 gal tank... containing a 7-8" dragon goby, 7 bumble bee gobies, and 2 freshwater flounders... then a handfull of feeder gupies that were never eaten
if this helps... 20 gal tank... containing a 7-8" dragon goby, 7 bumble bee gobies, and 2 freshwater flounders... then a handfull of feeder gupies that were never eaten
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Pufferpunk
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- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
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T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
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burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
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Boxermom
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 2182
- Joined: Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:34 pm
- Location: Wisconsin
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First, your tank is way overstocked IMO. We need to see what the water parameters are. Also did you slowly acclimate him from freshwater to brackish or did you just immediately raise it? Was the tank cycled at all?
Tina
Puffers: Auriglobus silus x1, Tetraodon travancoricus x1, Tetraodon turgidus x1, Tetraodon miurus x1, Tetraodon nigroviridis x2, Tetraodon baileyi x2, Tetraodon lineatus x1, Tetraodon palembangensis x1
Puffers: Auriglobus silus x1, Tetraodon travancoricus x1, Tetraodon turgidus x1, Tetraodon miurus x1, Tetraodon nigroviridis x2, Tetraodon baileyi x2, Tetraodon lineatus x1, Tetraodon palembangensis x1
its a 20 long... he was raised brackish... i bought him at a store who had him in the same kind of water(1.008), bad thing is they told me id be ok adding him in there... i also put the archer in there at the same time... as far as the cycle, it was my first tank when i set it maybe 3-4 months ago, so i had no idea about the cycle process until recently. good thing is i just bought a 55 yesterday, so ill be setting it up very soon and switching them over in the weeks to come... i know i went about things the wrong way... i bought a fish, through him in the tank, and learned along the way about brackish fish, but the past few months i think I've had a decent grasp on things... oh and that was only the first fish ive killed(except my 1st dragon, which jumped out one night)
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- 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:
How deep is the sand? Do you stir it weekly? Please post your ammonia, nitrites, nitrates & pH. You don't mention any archer in your stocking list.
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Another Texan- nice!!
I've been in the fish business for a couple years now- and one thing I have learned is NOT to trust the guys at the lfs when they tell you something. Either cause they don't know or they wanna make the sale...bummer really- So what I do is go look, find the fish I like and come home and research the truth. Then go buy the fish if it still matches my needs. You'll still find a lot of contradictory information- but you'll get the basics that way.
It's a lot of work- but when you're talkin about puffers- that's the expected workload to own such a pet.
Chemicals- you need to go buy a test kit ($20-25) and make that an important part of owning fish tanks- at first check the water daily- once it's balanced, move to weekly. In time you'll start to recognize behaviors that will help you know when it's time to do sometihng fast. But if you are having problems in your tank and you ask for help- you must, must, must know what those numbers are. You can also take a water sample (in a brand new, never used ziptop bag) to the fish shop and have them test it- but again- they may not know what they're doing so be careful!
Oh yea, and there is nothing wrong with having multiple tanks in the house- go crazy!
Good luck!
I've been in the fish business for a couple years now- and one thing I have learned is NOT to trust the guys at the lfs when they tell you something. Either cause they don't know or they wanna make the sale...bummer really- So what I do is go look, find the fish I like and come home and research the truth. Then go buy the fish if it still matches my needs. You'll still find a lot of contradictory information- but you'll get the basics that way.
It's a lot of work- but when you're talkin about puffers- that's the expected workload to own such a pet.
Chemicals- you need to go buy a test kit ($20-25) and make that an important part of owning fish tanks- at first check the water daily- once it's balanced, move to weekly. In time you'll start to recognize behaviors that will help you know when it's time to do sometihng fast. But if you are having problems in your tank and you ask for help- you must, must, must know what those numbers are. You can also take a water sample (in a brand new, never used ziptop bag) to the fish shop and have them test it- but again- they may not know what they're doing so be careful!
Oh yea, and there is nothing wrong with having multiple tanks in the house- go crazy!
Good luck!