The Puffer Forum

I am a new aquarium owner and I've been doing pretty well until very recently.
I treat my 10gallon tank with Aqua Plus tap water conditioner and Cycle. I've also added a small amount of aquarium salt.
I have a Green Spotted, 3 Mollies & 2 Mono Sabaes'. The Sabaes' seem to be doing fine, but the Mollies have been acting a bit strange today --- hovering near the top of the tank. Ammonia levels were a bit high yesterday and I have treated it with Ammo-Lock since then.
My poor Puffer was on the bottom of the tank with white stuff covering his eyes & area around his eyes. He has not eaten in two days.
I just transferred him to a sterile bucket of water treated with Aqua Plus & do not want to put him back into the tank or add anything else until I know more or less what the problem is.
PLEASE HELP! I DON'T WANT MY PUFFER TO LEAVE US SO QUICKLY!

What are you params?

How was it cycled?

Your tank is WAY TOO SMALL for the amount of fish you have. I guess that it is cycling and water is probably not optimal.

Post your parameters and cycling method.

Js

Way too many fish. It doesn't matter what you put in that tank to make it "right" the tank can't handle it.
Keeping fish in buckets is also not recommended.
IMHO the only thing you can do to fix this problem is get rid of fish, or upgrade to a very large tank, at least 75 gallons. I don't think anything else will work.

First, stop using Ammo Lock and Cycle. They are a waste of money and will only cause more harm to your tank.

Second, do a big water change, at least 50%. Water changes can help a lot of things and can't hurt.

Third, put your puffer back into the tank. Having him in an uncycled, unheated, unfiltered container is going to kill him real fast.

As has been stated, you have not only too many fish in your tank, but that size of tank isn't good for any of them, not even if they were alone. If at all possible, you should take them all back to the store and get your money back, then buy something more appropriate for a 10g tank.