Porcupine puffer spinning and lopsided
Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 11:19 pm
He's in a 20g long (before you say "you need at least a 125g, i know this. i definitely plan on moving up- i did this because hes only 3 inches atm) that has been set up since the beginning of the year.
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate <5
pH - 8.2
temp ~79-80F
sg - 1.022
i should also mention I've only had him for 6 days and he does not have any tank mates because i wanted him to be the only one in there.
starting this morning, he wouldn't inflate, but he would make spikes on his head stand up and he seemed to be hiccuping. He would sort of convulse and move forward, and then immediately shoot backwards. He was still swimming fine, just in spasms though. Did a 1/4 water change. Started reading about puffers ingesting air, and so held him and tried to get any bubbles to come out. Didn't feel any there, but tried anyways. He steadily got worse. Half of his body turned pale, the other half still looked ok. He began to tilt to the side w/the paler color. He's only about to scoot around in circles now on the bottom of the tank. Color is dark throughout the body, stomach still white. He's struggling to move quite a bit. It seems like he's trying really hard to swim normally but just manages to do the little circles and occasionally get himself sticking upright. His fins are both working fine, he just seems to be unable to get his right side off the ground.
Just wondering if anyone has experienced this before. If so, were you able to help, and how. Thanks.
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate <5
pH - 8.2
temp ~79-80F
sg - 1.022
i should also mention I've only had him for 6 days and he does not have any tank mates because i wanted him to be the only one in there.
starting this morning, he wouldn't inflate, but he would make spikes on his head stand up and he seemed to be hiccuping. He would sort of convulse and move forward, and then immediately shoot backwards. He was still swimming fine, just in spasms though. Did a 1/4 water change. Started reading about puffers ingesting air, and so held him and tried to get any bubbles to come out. Didn't feel any there, but tried anyways. He steadily got worse. Half of his body turned pale, the other half still looked ok. He began to tilt to the side w/the paler color. He's only about to scoot around in circles now on the bottom of the tank. Color is dark throughout the body, stomach still white. He's struggling to move quite a bit. It seems like he's trying really hard to swim normally but just manages to do the little circles and occasionally get himself sticking upright. His fins are both working fine, he just seems to be unable to get his right side off the ground.
Just wondering if anyone has experienced this before. If so, were you able to help, and how. Thanks.