The Puffer Forum

One of my baby figure 8's has been hiding in the same spot under some bogwood for two days...only coming out briefly to feed!

I did a 25% change today and he swam around for 30 mins or so then straight back to his spot, i did notice that the water temp had crept up a degree to around 27-27.5 deg C (80 F).

Is this a sign he isn't happy, I've turned the stat down to its lowest possible position which usually leaves the water around 26 C (78 F) but obviously it will take time to fall.

I am tempted to do another 25% tomorrow and get a nitrite test kit aswell, checked the ammonia and its fine.

Any ideas?...is this a typical behavioral pattern for a sick puffer?

Just to add:

I've had teh tank setup with the puffers in for around 5 weeks now so with stable 0 ammonia levels so from what can see it seems to have cycled by now.

Were they in the tank while it was cycling?

"Fine" is meaningless to us. Please let us know the exact water parameters, including SG.

Ammonia,nitrites, nitrate, pH & SG is what we need.

Sorry i dont have the kit to test the water...

Bad news, the smaller of the two died today

The other doesnt quite seem himself, i did a 50% change today and gave the rock/wood a good clean. Hopefully he'll survive, i'm going to try and get hold of some more comprehensive testing stuff tomorrow.

You need to buy the liquid test kits, dip strips are no good

If you are going to keep fish, you're going to need good liquid test kits, such as the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals' Master Test Kit, which has all of the basics. In the meantime, you can take a sample of water to your local pet/fish store and have them test it, and tell them you need to know exact numerical values, not "good" or "fine." We can't do much else to help you without that information, its vital. BTW, if you don't have test kits, how do you know the ammonia is "fine?"

also worried about you saying you gave the rock/wood a good cleaning.... if you used fresh water you killed off the much needed bacteria it was holding.

Hope it wasn't cleaned w/soap!

Yikes, good point PP.... if anything is worse then tap water it would have been some sort of cleaner and tap water.

For tank decor, that is going to still be used in your tank, you only want to clean it with tank water, so when doing a water change pull out any decor that needs a cleaning and clean it off in the just removed water before disposing of it. Having a dedicated (NEW) cleaning brush just used for fish items is a great thing.

If you're cleaning empty tanks, or decor that isn't being used at the time plain distilled white vinegar (big jugs from grocery store are about a dollar) and water make a great solution and once rinsed away is completely safe.

I find Oxyclean to work the best for disinfecting.

I have an ammonia test liquid test kit, but no others.

To clean the wood i soaked it in bleach and then painted it with white spirits...

no seriously i just scrubbed it in a bucket of de-chlorinated tap water.

Also i noticed a very thin, white worm around half an inch long swimming around in the tank...think this might have had a part to play?

If it's those very thin white worms, it's probably one of those you can get if you overfeed your fish. I'm not sure of the English name of them (nor the Norwegian, to be exact )

really? I'll bare that in mind...

Funnily enough i did notice it just after i dropped some blood worms in to try and save poor Dave (who passed away this evening aswell ) and thought maybe it was in the frozen bloodworm block somehow?

Anyway i think I'm going to start again....I'm not convinced that the filter was properly cycled anyway, following the bad advice from the shop.

This time I'm firstly going to sterilize the tank, then get a nice hardy (and cheap) fish or two, give the plants a good clean to get rid of any slime etc...buy a more comprehensive test kit and then leave the one or two small fish in the tank for a couple of months.
Then when I'm absolutely happy that its ready I'll get another puffer(s).

Good idea?


What do you guys think is the best way to sterilize the tank....i was thinking to add loads of salt to the water and leave it overnight, then fill it with fresh water and leave it again, then empty and fill fill chlorinated water and some filter cycle booster and leave for a week or so before adding some tough little fish (suggestions on fish welcome)

thanks for all your replies btw!