The Puffer Forum

i added a bubble thing to my tank last night to help break the water surface as i was getting lots of floating algae.

anyway, i noticed today my fahaka puffer isnt moving much at all. he keeps clamping his fins. i put some bloodworm in for him and he wasnt interested. normally he would zoom around the tank trying to eat as much as possible.

could he be sulking because of the change? i tried turning it off for a while but it made no difference.

all water stats are fine:
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 10
ph: about 7.5
temp: 28 degrees

Hmm... normally when my are pouting, they don't clamp their fins, they just sulk behind shrubbery and darken up a little. Have you done anything else to the tank? When did he start acting funny?

IOt could be a reaction to the noise. What was your reason for adding it as they are not really essential

well hes darkened up for sure and not swimming about as much as usual.

i added it to get some surface agitation cos i seem to have lots of algae floating and as theres very little agitation from my spray bar that i positioned too low, i thought the bubbles might help. my plecs have also been coming up for air alot too, so thought it might help get some more oxygen in the water.


it is quite noisy, so i find it quite annoying, but the algae is a bit annoying

i havent changed anything else in the tank. well i added a huge piece of bogwood a few days ago but he didnt seem to mind that. it only literally happened after i added the bubbles

Can you angle the spray bar up at the surface to increase the agitiation? I would lower the temp to 26 as higher temps reduce the waters ability to hold O2. I found droping my temp helped this problem of darting catfish

Surface agitation isn't really going to do anything to help the algae problem, IMO. Algae is caused by a nutrient imbalance in the tank. If you don't have enough fast growing plants to suck up the excess nutrients, you'll have algae issues.

Did you prepare the bogwood in any way before you put it in?

Try taking the bubble wand out and see if he goes back to normal. If so, then that was the problem. If not, then its something else.

theres a few plants in there, but the tips are all turning yellow, so i dont expect much plant growth. whats the best way to get the plants growing without spending a fortune?

much to my suprise he just came racing to the front of the tank when i was cleaning some algae, so hopefully hes getting back to norm. the plecs have stolen his usual bogwood hideout.

i didnt soak the bogwood before hand, however the bigger piece i got came from a tank already.

Well, that's an easy one--take the bubbles out & see if he cheers up.

http://www.aquariaplants.com is a very good site on plants in aquaria and has a chart on various deficiencies, how to diagnose them and how to treat them.

Indie have you added any plant food? I can send you the recipe to make your own or if you know someone with a rabbit the pooh can work wonders

The problem with that manutius is not all plants have the same needs due to the varying water conditions. I no longer use ferts at all and have very healthy plants. When I did use them, I had nothing but algae issues. It depends on the TDS in the water and what the plants require.

I swear by Yamato Green! Fantastic food. I also put Jobe's Plant Spikes down by the plant roots, every 6 months. I have 4 bulbs over my 90g:

Jeni, you need to take a photo of that tank without the flash, its just breathtaking in person. The flash makes it look too harsh.

I use Yamato Green when i remember to order it but I don't keep any demanding plants. My anubias loves it though, there is a HUGE difference in the blooms and growth when I use YG verses not using it.