The Puffer Forum

I lost my favorite puffer a couple of days ago. He didn't have an appetite for a day before he passed. I changed the water and cleaned the tank, and even took my surviving one to my fish store where they treated him with meds and tested my water. They said that since my tank is newer (two months) that it is still cycling and my puffer died of shock. He said my other should survive if he can make it through the final Nitrate cycle which should end in about a week.

My concern is that my puffer is surviving so far, but he is hiding behind the filter in a "sleep state" most of the time for the past four days. I'm worried about him, is there anything else I should be doing aside from watching overfeeding him and keeping the light off?

What were the actual test results?

When you say cleaned the tank, do you mean everything out and washed under tapwater? How do you clean the filter, and do you use dechlorinator after water changes?

Sorry for all the questions and for the loss of your puff

I have to admit I'm new to this, but I am trying to learn as quickly as I can- I don't want to lose another one.

I changed the water, and scrubbed the tank- but did not use any chemicals (I didn't know which ones are safe?)

The nitrate was extremely high, but all of the others looked within normal range, also I the saline level was a little low.

Ok, when you change the water, you should be using a dechlorinator, which removes chlorines and chloramines from your tapwater.

With the filter, the media can be washed in old tank water to prevent killing your good nitrifying bacteria which convert fish waste (ammonia) to nitrite and then nitrate. Your water changes should then remove this nitrate.

Thank you very much, this helps a lot- I appreciate it.

I don't use dechlorinator. I think its an unnecessary expense. instead I will let my water sit out in buckets for at-least a day before I do my water changes. with This Wait the chlorine is supposed to evaporate.

To eliminate excessive nitrates do frequent water changes.

It is recommended to change 50% once a week.

more and more water companies now are adding chloramine instead of chlorine to tapwater which doesn't gass off like chlorine, therefore dechlorinator is needed.

Yeah. My water company sent out a note saying that the're switching water sources and using chloramines. I use a python most of the time anyways, so I use Prime.

Any idea what kind of puffer it is? And what size tank is he in, and does he have any tankmates?

He is a figure 8 in a 15 gallon tank with no other fish. He seems to be doing much better today, swimming around the tank. I'm wondering if I need more places for him to hide, and that's why he goes behind the filter and "sleeps" all the time.

Also, I do use decholorinator- that much I knew!

Also, he had a little bit of a cloudy sheen to him when I took him in, but that seems to have cleared up now with the meds. They (fish place) said that it wasn't Ich, but whatever it was is gone now.

Does the tank have a lot of decor? Does it have a background? These things tend to help make them feel more secure and they get more outgoing when they have plenty of places to explore.

I would definitely encourage you to get good liquid test kits yourself so you can monitor the water parameters and know what's going on. I recommend Aquarium Pharmaceuticals' Master Freshwater Test Kit, it has all of the basics you'll need. You'll also need marine salt, as they are low end brackish fish, and a hydrometer or refractometer to measure the salinity. You mentioned that the saline tested low, not sure what you meant by that exactly.

Definately keep doing water changes. Puffers don't handle high nitrates well at all and the only way to remove nitrates is with water changes.

Ok, thank you. I will get a water kit for myself (it will certainly save on gas taking a sample in every week!). Also, I do use marine salt but I was told to put a little more in (about a 3/4 cup for a 15 gallon tank.)

This forum is great. Thank you for all the help.